“Have we lost a part of our soul … [to] the result on the bottom line”? Reconfiguring professional spaces and the development of lawyers’ pro bono work as a professional project in Denmark

Abstract

ABSTRACT Danish lawyers have long positioned themselves as fundamental pillars of the Rechtsstaat, portraying their independence and adherence to professional ideals as central to serving the public good. However, this traditional image has been increasingly challenged by the rise of large law firms taking advantage of deregulation and globalization. This has placed lawyers under a cross-pressure forcing them to compromise on their traditional defining characteristics. Large law firms, serving as advisors to clients such as major corporations and organizations, have distinguished themselves from the rest of the legal field with new professional projects. To regain some of the lost credibility, the largest law firms reformulated voluntary work as a professional project from being legal aid to individuals to US models of pro bono directed at NGOs and charity leading to further differentiation between lawyers. This article examines this dilemmatic cross-pressure between the differentiation of professional spaces in Denmark and the development of voluntary work as professional projects to regain the lost credibility as a profession working for the common good. It is based on a qualitative document analysis of 632 issues of the Danish Bar and Law Society's trade magazine for the period between 1976 and 2018 and qualitative interviews.