Representing victims of police violence and those victims' families requires attorneys to tap into skills they never learned in law school and to serve roles beyond that of legal counsel, according to attorneys for George Floyd's 6-year-old daughter and her mother.

"You have to really believe in it in order to do this kind of work," said L. Chris Stewart, founder of personal injury and civil rights law firm Stewart Trial Attorneys. Stewart is representing George Floyd's daughter Gianna Floyd and her mother Roxie Washington alongside his law partner Justin Miller following the killing of Floyd while four Minneapolis police officers were placing him under arrest in May.

Derek Chauvin, who held his knee on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes during the arrest, has been charged with second-degree murder, and three other officers at the scene have been charged with aiding and abetting murder.

The work is not easy, Stewart explained. The family's emotions are "beyond raw," the community is angry and upset, and the legal situation is one where the case law often was created to stop you, not help you, he said.

"It's extremely complicated, stressful, and filled with rare victories from the civil side," he said.

And yet, Stewart continues to take on civil rights cases. He and Miller are also part of the legal team serving the family of Ahmaud Arbery, a black jogger who was pursued by three white men and shot in Georgia, and they represent college student Taniyah Pilgrim, whose violent arrest by police was caught on live television at the end of May.

Stewart has also served as counsel to the family of Walter Scott, who was shot in the back by a police officer in South Carolina, the family of Alton Sterling, who was killed on video by police in Louisiana, and a number of others who have been impacted by police violence.

He also takes on other personal injury cases and specializes in representing sexual assault victims, winning the first billion dollar jury verdict for a rape victim in 2018.

Miller joined Stewart Trial Attorneys, which is based in Atlanta, in January from nationwide personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan and has begun building up his civil rights resume, alongside his personal injury work.

He says he's learned that he has to tap into skills he never imagined he'd need as a lawyer when he was in law school.

He says he and Stewart have to be counselors because their clients are often grieving. They have to be champions and advocates for clients who sometimes lack that power. They have to be security guards, since their clients have people coming at them from all sides. And they have to be storytellers so that their clients' voices and stories can be heard.

"You have to be able to give their voice to the world at a time when they can't really do it. To do that you need a lot of empathy," Miller said. "To do what we do, you have to like people and empathize with people."

Neither of the men thought they'd be getting into civil rights work when they went to law school. Miller completed an internship at a Wall Street law firm before going to work for the Georgia Department of Labor in 2004 and then going into personal injury law.

Stewart went straight from law school into personal injury law in 2005 but eventually began seeing cases that overlapped with civil rights, starting in 2014 when he represented the family of Gregory Towns, a young black man who was killed by police officers in Atlanta. One of the officers in the case was later sentenced to life in prison, and Stewart obtained a $1 million settlement for Towns' mother.

The work began to find its own way to his firm after that.

"Civil rights stuff comes to you," Miller said. "Most people don't chase those cases down. You need to become a fighter for people, agreeing to help people in cases that might not make you any money."

Both men say they believe the responses they've seen from across the U.S. and the world following Floyd's death are hopeful, with individuals, corporations and law firms expressing their support for racial justice.

"I'm hoping the momentum doesn't stop where companies and key decision makers are wanting to assist with change. We have to get the policymakers, CEOs, police chiefs, stakeholders involved. And for once, everybody seems to want to do something," Stewart said. "I'm praying that it does change and we won't have to have these cases anymore."

--Editing by Kat Laskowski.