#sure it was draco malfoy and carewyn doesn't hate him but at the same time don't f*** with a hippogriff kid!!

[carewyncromwell]

As a magical lawyer, how would Carewyn handle the situation with Hagrid and Buckbeak in Prisoner of Azkaban, were she present when they came in for their hearing? What kind of advice and moral support could she lend, assuming she wasn't allowed to actually attend the hearing, as per canon? How would she react to the committee's decision afterwards?

Sadly Carewyn wasn't present for Buckbeak's hearing. At the time, she was a much lower-level Ministry lawyer that she was post-Second-Wizarding War (hell, she was only three years into her career at the Ministry at that point, and only 21 to boot!), and she had far less say in which cases she could take on, particularly ones involving the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, when her line of work was and is sadly much more aligned with cases involving witches and wizards.

Carewyn did give Hagrid some legal advice, before Buckbeak's hearing -- mainly, to emphasize that animals lack moral agency and so cannot be held legally responsible for actions that humans would label as wrong or violent, especially when the magical creature in question was provoked into attacking and the species in general is known to be proud and easy to offend. Unfortunately Carewyn was ill-equipped to be of much help overall, since the Committee for the Disposal of Magical Creatures operates under very different rules than the Wizengamot. Appointed legal representation for magical creatures (namely, lawyers like Carewyn) is almost non-existent in such cases, because animals aren't people and one can't get into their heads and explore their motivations the same way we can for people. This was why Lucius Malfoy -- a more authoritative and articulate personality than Hagrid -- was so able to bully the Committee into getting his way.

At the time of Buckbeak's hearing and appeal, Carewyn was preoccupied with another case set to be held before the Wizengamot involving the legality of a bill drafted and proposed by Dolores Umbridge that would restrict employment opportunities for known werewolves. Carewyn fought very, very hard to try to prove that the proposed law violated the Wizard's Code of Civil Rights, since the vast majority of werewolves are magic users who need and deserve stable employment opportunities in the Wizarding World. Tragically, due to the inbred prejudices in the Wizengamot, the person defending the bill's legality was able to win the case with the argument that werewolves were not really witches and wizards under the law, since their affairs were solely dealt with by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, as part of their Being Division -- not the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, which deals with "normal," "fully human" witches and wizards. This loss, combined with Buckbeak's conviction and set execution date, was a double blow for Carewyn that left her feeling very, very disheartened. Her letters to Chiara and Hagrid after the two trials were incredibly sparse and short, to the point that anyone who knew Carewyn well -- not just Chiara, but also Jacob, Lane, Bill, Charlie, or Talbott -- would know that Carewyn was having trouble keeping her composure, while writing them.