Outside of China, trial lawyers measure their success by the number of cases they win. Mo Shaoping prefers to argue cases he knows he will lose. Over the years, the Beijing defense attorney and founder of one of the country's first and most successful law firms has become China's leading legal advocate for political dissidents. In China's highly politicized judicial system, he defends, pro bono, the likes of democracy party organizer Xu Wenli and labor activists Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang, whose protests earn them charges as threats to state security.

Guilty sentences for clients such as these are usually foregone conclusions. And the lawyers who defend them can become targets for arrest themselves. Judges, who see the closed trials as little more than preludes to issuing jail terms, ask Mo, 45, why he bothers with such stressful, futile work. The lawyer's answer is simple: "I believe that no matter what crime you've been charged with, you deserve a lawyer and you deserve to have your side of the story written into the record."

The top student in his law class at Beijing's prestigious Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Mo is proud of his ability to track down detainees in the labyrinth of China's public-security apparatus. He spends long hours interviewing his clients. And their relatives, for whom he relays messages, often count him as their sole source of comfort and kindness. Adorning the corner of his business card is the universal symbol of justice—a blindfolded woman holding a sword. Until now, many of Mo's clients have found justice anything but blind. Mo hopes to change that. One case at a time.

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