The Laboratory for the Study of Institutions (LEI) at CPDOC held today a debate and the launch of the book ?Os cruzados da ordem jurídica. A atuação da Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil (OAB), 1945-1964? (The crusaders of the legal order. The role of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), 1945-1964), by FGV?s School of Social Sciences professor, Marco Aurélio Vannucchi. The historian, Angela de Castro Gomes, and the sociologist, Sergio Adorno, were invited to participate in the debate. In the book, OAB's trajectory is now presented in terms of positions and eminently political campaigns (like a party of the Association), sometimes in terms of a corporate entity that would come with the professional changes, at the level of a trade union, despite the opposition of the founding elite. The author states the choice of Gramscian concepts of hegemony, civil society and expanded State, which arise naturally, perfectly matching the issues in focus, ignoring the strict separation between theory and historical analysis. The goal is to unveil and discuss the role of a sui generis entity, since, acting in the civil society, it has privileged space in the State, to which it claims autonomy as it represents and controls the access to lawyers' careers and its affiliation is compulsory. In the period in focus (1945 - 1964) we can see how OAB assumes the hegemony in society as a recognized political, social and cultural elite often aligned with other forces of tradition and property, such as conservative parties, the Catholic Church, the military and the well known mainstream media. Since the opposition to the New State until the explicit support of the coup against João Goulart, the Brazilian Bar Association seals its explicit alliance with UDN (the party of eternal vigilance) and its Rio de Janeiro wing.An innovative aspect of this analysis refers to institutional culture, to clarify the criteria of the Federal Council for its composition. The role of OAB is presented as a mission, guided by moral bonds of an elitist and exclusionary liberalism, because it defends legality, strongly opposes the expansion of citizenship, popular participation and socioeconomic rights. And even regarding the defense of the professional category, the Association clearly operates in terms of a hierarchy of nobility and low clergy. The Federal Council, of the politician-lawyers and their peers, makes up the nobility, and the new wage earning unionized lawyers, with small offices, are viewed pejoratively as the blue collars of the Courthouse, who bring the risk of career proletarianization.