Large Law Firms Research Articles

“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 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.

Elite lawyers in Türkiye: Educational capital, status hierarchies, and feminization

Abstract Sociological studies on elite lawyers working in large law firms have recently extended to non-Western countries. Based on a quantitative dataset comprising 1,303 lawyers from 106 Turkish law firms, this article aims to be the first empirical investigation of the social profile of lawyers in the rising large law firms in Türkiye. The analysis focuses on how characteristics of Turkish elite lawyers, in terms of educational capital, gender, and status are distributed. The objective of the analysis is to discover to what extent the expansion of legal education and rise of the private universities are reflected in the structure of elite law firms. To discover the relationships between university type, gender, and position at job, chi-square, and logistic regression analyses are conducted. Main findings are that the Turkish elite lawyers constitute a stratum where the most advantageous educational capital is concentrated compared to the profession in general, the lawyers working in the employee position are relatively young and have mostly private university degrees, and the increased feminization of the profession is closely intertwined with the status hierarchies.

KnowAll Matrix: Designed by a UK Legal Librarian to Future-Proof Your Legal Library

AbstractIn an era where efficient information management is crucial, KnowAll Matrix stands out as a transformative tool for legal informational professionals. It was developed by an experienced UK legal library consultant, Penny Bailey, and here Bailey Solutions explains how this innovative platform goes beyond standard library management systems to offer a future-proof solution, revolutionising access to legal knowledge. Utilised by large law firms, barristers' chambers, government libraries, European agencies, a European parliament, and other organisations, KnowAll Matrix supports information staff to proficiently manage all traditional library functions, including cataloguing, subject indexing, classification, circulation, loans, acquisitions, and serials management. Furthermore, it offers essential features for modern electronic resources management. Its user-friendly interface ensures seamless discovery of both print and digital resources in a single search, prioritising user convenience. Over two decades, as the legal and technological landscapes have evolved, so too has the product, with innovative features like multi-hierarchical taxonomies, practice group resources, single sign-on, and contract renewals. This article delves into these new features and their utilisation by clients to make the library and information centre a primary resource for legal professionals seeking information.

Between continuity and change in the Italian legal profession – boutique law firms as the last bastion of professionalism

ABSTRACT This paper provides an empirical study of Italian ‘boutique law firms’. By building on seventeen semi-structured interviews with lawyers, the paper explores institutional, professional, and societal features of such firms and their lawyers. The article shows that, while the rise of large law firms triggered a partitioning of the Italian legal field in the past decades, more recently this small, but economically important, sector of the profession revived the classic model of delivering legal services characterised by a strong sense of autonomy and independence, a client-centered but ethically robust approach to legal practice, a close relationship with academic and political environments, and a focus on projecting a professional image of themselves and their firms in society. These are, in other words, the last bastion of professionalism and are increasingly gaining an important role in the Italian field.

Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Panes of Equity Partnership

This Article, prepared for a “micro-symposium” on Professor Kerri Stone’s monograph Panes of the Glass Ceiling (2022), explores the partnership pay gap in large law firms and the role of high-profile litigation in facilitating pay equity. There is a rich literature and extensive data on the gender attainment gap in elite law firms, particularly with regard to women’s attrition from practice and poor representation within the partnership ranks. Less attention has been paid to the way in which the exceptional women who achieve equity partner status continue to lag behind their male peers. This Article explores “Women v. BigLaw,” a cluster of equal pay cases brought by women partners in the late 2010s against elite firms. Using Stone’s work as a lens, it reveals how the same unspoken beliefs that underlie the law firm glass ceiling operate above it, placing women partners at the bottom of a new compensation hierarchy centered on origination credit. Due to historical allocations, a culture of deference toward male rainmakers, and implicitly biased attorney development and evaluation practices, origination operates as a form of “legacy credit” that locks in preexisting entitlements favoring male partners. Despite this, gender equity in law practice has been framed principally as a professional value, not a legal imperative. Women v. BigLaw and the unprecedented use of the court system by women lawyers reveals, however, that partnership pay practices pose a liability risk to firms. This new reality may incentivize structural change in ways that attention to gender equity as a managerial and professional goal could not.

Roles of managing partners in mid-size and large law firms – evidence from the DACH-region

ABSTRACT While there has been ample research on the roles of managers, no similar studies have been conducted regarding the roles of Managing Partners in law firms – a subgroup of professional service firms (PSF). However, the many differences between PSFs and industrial or other service providers suggest that the existing research on the role of managers cannot be applied to law firm Managing Partners. In order to fill that gap and analyze the roles of law firm managers, evidence was collected in 34 interviews with 36 Managing Partners from large and mid-size law firms in the DACH-Region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) regarding their function as their firms’ top managers. Analysis shows that while the Managing Partner function varies considerably between law firms, the activities of Managing Partners can be clustered into 15 distinct roles. This study adds empirical evidence to the existing practice literature and supports our understanding of the Managing Partner function in law firms and other PSF.

Employee mobility networks and status transfer in U.S big law

Firms in organizational fields frequently hire and lose employees to competing firms. What is the impact of employee mobility on the status of organizations within a field? Unfortunately, empirical evidence is lacking about how hiring professionals from high or low-status actors, especially status that is obtained through third-party evaluation, impact the focal firm’s status. This research examines employee mobility across the largest law firms in the United States from 2010 to 2016 and employs fixed effects modeling to estimate associations among the status of firms from which partners were hired, network centrality, and the organizational status of hiring firms. Results showed that firms’ status increased when they hired, on average, from high-status firms, and that this association was stronger amongst more centrally located firms. Namely, we found that although the impact of sending firms’ status has a significant impact on the focal firms’ status, such an effect depends on network centrality of the sending firm. These results support the notion of status portability as well as the importance of the firm’s network position for status enhancement.

Experience of European Countries in the Formation Priority Tasks and Development Strategies Training of Highly Qualified Lawyers

The question of having competent lawyers and judges is becoming increasingly important in the twenty-first century and is also attracting the attention of specialists from large law firms; students of educational institutions (lawyers, administrative staff); politicians and economic experts. Consequently, through the documentary method, this research work analyzes the problem of training highly qualified legal personnel, elaborating priority tasks and various development strategies. The authors examine the current situation in this area in European countries, emphasizing their experience. The article is addressed to experts in the field, such as specialists working in law firms (lawyers and staff), students of higher education institutions (lawyers, administrative staff), political scientists, economists, civil servants. It is concluded that competency-based education using cutting-edge technologies improves the educational system of Ukraine and, at the same time, adapts it to the standards of Western Europe with a gradual result of production of highly qualified lawyers.

Negotiating Status: Pro Bono Partners and Counsels in Large Law Firms

Law firm pro bono work provides access to justice to low-income people and other vulnerable populations. The professionals that manage pro bono programs are at the forefront of that process. The limited available research on these professionals do not often distinguish lawyers from other managers or theorize about their statusvis-à-visother law firm lawyers. Yet the status of lawyers who are also managers of pro bono programs influences both their identities and the management and provision of legal services and advocacy. Drawing on original demographic and interview data, this article shows how law firm pro bono partners and counsels navigate their ambiguous roles and negotiate their status as lawyers and managers. I find that pro bono partners and counsels navigate their ambiguous roles by striving to be perceived as “real” lawyers, reframe their roles as business generators, conform to the billing culture, and establish a common identity. They also negotiate their titles and office spaces to raise their profiles. Gender inequality influences the negotiation of office spaces and the approval of pro bono matters. These findings have implications for lawyers who manage pro bono programs and the legitimacy of pro bono work.

The role of employer/educator collaboration in improving the wellbeing of lawyers

ABSTRACT Well before Covid struck, wellbeing was already being taken seriously by organisations involved in both the education and employment of lawyers. Both groups were looking for ways to help lawyers keep themselves well, build their personal resilience and help them thrive in the profession. The crisis has added further impetus to those endeavours, and made wellbeing an even higher priority. This paper considers whether the chances of achieving those objectives would be increased if the two stakeholder groups collaborated more effectively, and what that collaboration might look like. Its focus is on the UK profession. It is written from the employer perspective, in particular that of large law firms based in the City of London. And it is primarily based on the first-hand experience of the author. It also considers the approach of other employers and the broader stakeholder community (including in the third sector), based on personal communications and published literature. It explains why those employers are taking lawyer wellbeing more seriously, what steps they have taken and which they believe are having a positive impact, and how the training of their future employees might be changed in order to help maintain their health. Its objective is to promote debate between educators and employees about what better collaboration might look like.

Discrimination as Anti-ethical: Achieving Systemic Change in Large Law Firms

As protests calling for racial justice erupted across the country in 2020, many large law firms issued statements acknowledging systemic inequities and bias. They had previously expressed their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Some had launched well-publicized diversity initiatives. Still, break-through progress has been elusive. Women, and women of color, continue to be severely underrepresented in partnership ranks. The gender pay gap at law firms persists. An unrelenting pattern of heavy burden in the lived experiences of women and women of color at law firms continues. Large law firms, on their own, have not been sufficiently incentivized to dismantle systemic discrimination and bias. And yet, they are allowed and trusted to proceed with barely any ethical oversight on issues of discrimination and bias in pay and promotion in a self-regulated profession. Sustained, pervasive change is needed. This Article takes leaders of large law firms at their word. It extends an invitation to advocate for state supreme courts, state bars, the American Bar Association, and state legislatures to move quickly to implement a new framework and bring about an ethical reset to eliminate systemic bias and discrimination in large law firms. With the gender pay gap in law firm partnership compensation as a vehicle, this Article explains precisely how the design of the rules of professional conduct renders them largely symbolic on discrimination and ineffective against longstanding systemic barriers. It proposes a framework requiring (1) transparency of process and pay; (2) regular self-assessment addressing milestones; and (3) a financial incentive for compliance. The framework can be used as a springboard to address other consequences of systemic discrimination in law firms, like the abysmal underrepresentation of women of color in law firm partnership ranks.

Comunicación y abogacía. Análisis de las relaciones con los públicos en los despachos de abogados

In this article, we will initially review the current scenario regarding the use of new technologies by law firms, to later analyze what is the subjective view that large law firms in Spain have about the adoption of the new technological tools in their professional activity, especially in terms of communication with clients, and if they respect the existing ethical standards regarding advertising. To do this, we have developed a survey model covering the key aspects in the matter, sent to the 70 most important law firms in Spain, obtaining as a result that the use of the new tools is already a reality in issues such as document management, use of web pages or that of social networks, but not yet in other sections such as the use of Artificial Intelligence or Big Data. As far as respecting ethical standards is concerned, the opinion of the offices is that these are respected, although it can be inferred from some answers that this is not entirely the case. The development of this research is not without complications, since lawyers have traditionally been a very closed and hermetic union, reluctant to show their working methods and, even more, to vary it through the use of new tools. On the other hand, determining the sample has not been easy either, since large law firms normally operate through multiple companies, which makes it extremely difficult to discern the total turnover of each of them, beyond of the official figures that appear in the commercial registers. This is due, among other factors, to the anachronistic idea that a lawyer does not need anything more than codes and a text editor to carry out his work, since, on the other hand, communication with clients is considered as a residual aspect. That said, it should be noted that, despite all this, we have found a very high predisposition to participate in the present study, and that the responses obtained have generally been very direct and concise, without trying to avoid questions such as that of respect for professional deontology. On the negative side, perhaps we have noticed that there is a worrying degree of ignorance regarding the technological tools available for practicing the legal profession, which contrasts strongly with the existing panorama in the Anglo-Saxon market, in which the use of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence are not only an available option, but they have become essential tools and the most valuable allies when it comes to undertaking judicial strategies or communicating with their audiences. This ignorance is not about isolated cases, but, on occasions, its Communication Directors or similar figures, who consider that tools as old as SMS or telephone calls are “new communication tools”. Another surprising aspect is the treatment and importance that these macro-companies make of an aspect as important as communication, surprising that on many occasions, they do not have a specific person responsible for these tasks, being frequent that these are carried out by lawyers, partners or heads of other departments.

Comunicación y abogacía. Análisis de las relaciones con los públicos en los despachos de abogados / Communication and advocacy. Analysis of relationships with the public in law firms

Resumen En este artículo, inicialmente daremos un repaso al panorama actual en lo referente al uso de las nuevas tecnologías por parte de los despachos de abogados, para posteriormente analizar cuál es la visión subjetiva que los grandes despachos de abogados en España tienen acerca de la adopción de las nuevas herramientas tecnológicas en su actividad profesional, especialmente en cuanto a la comunicación con los clientes, y en qué medida lo hacen respetando la normativa deontológica existente al respecto en materia de comunicación. Para ello, hemos elaborado un modelo de encuesta abarcando los aspectos claves en la materia, enviada a los 70 despachos más importantes en España, obteniendo como resultado que el uso de las nuevas herramientas es ya una realidad en cuestiones como la gestión documental, el uso de páginas webs o el de las redes sociales, pero aún no en otros apartados como la utilización de Inteligencia Artificial o Big Data. En lo que se refiere al respeto de las normas deontológicas, la visión de los despachos es que se respetan, aunque se puede desprender de algunas respuestas que esto no es del todo así.Palabras clave: Despachos de abogados, relaciones con los públicos, nuevas tecnologías, comunicación.AbstractIn this article, we will initially review the current scenario regarding the use of new technologies by law firms, to later analyze what is the subjective view that large law firms in Spain have about the adoption of the new technological tools in their professional activity, especially in terms of communication with clients, and if they respect the existing ethical standards regarding advertising. To do this, we have developed a survey model covering the key aspects in the matter, sent to the 70 most important law firms in Spain, obtaining as a result that the use of the new tools is already a reality in issues such as document management, use of web pages or that of social networks, but not yet in other sections such as the use of Artificial Intelligence or Big Data. As far as respecting ethical standards is concerned, the opinion of the offices is that these are respected, although it can be inferred from some answers that this is not entirely the case. The development of this research is not without complications, since lawyers have traditionally been a very closed and hermetic union, reluctant to show their working methods and, even more, to vary it through the use of new tools. On the other hand, determining the sample has not been easy either, since large law firms normally operate through multiple companies, which makes it extremely difficult to discern the total turnover of each of them, beyond of the official figures that appear in the commercial registers. This is due, among other factors, to the anachronistic idea that a lawyer does not need anything more than codes and a text editor to carry out his work, since, on the other hand, communication with clients is considered as a residual aspect. That said, it should be noted that, despite all this, we have found a very high predisposition to participate in the present study, and that the responses obtained have generally been very direct and concise, without trying to avoid questions such as that of respect for professional deontology. On the negative side, perhaps we have noticed that there is a worrying degree of ignorance regarding the technological tools available for practicing the legal profession, which contrasts strongly with the existing panorama in the Anglo-Saxon market, in which the use of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence are not only an available option, but they have become essential tools and the most valuable allies when it comes to undertaking judicial strategies or communicating with their audiences. This ignorance is not about isolated cases, but, on occasions, its Communication Directors or similar figures, who consider that tools as old as SMS or telephone calls are “new communication tools”. Another surprising aspect is the treatment and importance that these macro-companies make of an aspect as important as communication, surprising that on many occasions, they do not have a specific person responsible for these tasks, being frequent that these are carried out by lawyers, partners or heads of other departments. Keywords: Law firms, public relations, new technologies, communication.

Digitalization of the Legal Field and the Future of Large Law Firms

This paper discusses how large law firms should re-organize themselves to maintain a competitive edge in the increasingly digitalized legal field. While providing a brief historical introduction to the rise of large law firms and the challenges posed by the rise of digital capitalism and the gig economy, the paper proposes an original and radical approach to reforming large law firms in the light of the digitalization. Among other things, the paper discusses (I) the partnership as organizational tool for large law firms in an increasingly digital and agile legal field; (II) the importance of multidisciplinary practices and of the relationship between lawyers and non-lawyers within firms; and (III) the centrality of outsourcing strategies to legal tech companies and other actors in order to deliver legal services more effectively and in a more client-oriented manner.

Revising Boilerplate: A Comparison of Private and Public Company Transactions

The phenomenon of “sticky boilerplate” causing inefficient contract terms to persist exists across a variety of commercial contract types. One explanation for this failure to revise suboptimal terms is that the key agents on these transactions, including attorneys and investment bankers, are short sighted; their incentives are to get the deal done rather than ensure that they are using the best terms possible for their clients. Moreover, these agents face a first mover disadvantage that deters unilateral revisions to inefficient terms. If agency costs are indeed driving the stickiness phenomenon, we expect that the pace of revision will vary across settings where the agency costs are likely to be significantly different. Using a hand-collected dataset of “No Recourse” terms used in commercial contracts, we test whether agency costs explain contract stickiness by comparing two different contexts: public versus private company deals. Our study is preliminary, but we find evidence that market-wide revisions to the No Recourse clause are greater in the private company setting where agency costs are likely smaller. Further, we find that industry-wide coordination events that signal that other lawyers are likely to revise their clauses are key to inducing widespread change. This change appears to be accelerated by the presence of large law firms that may be better able to coordinate the shift to a new market standard.

Determinants of Financial Success of Large Law Firms

Prior research has established that leadership characteristics, job equity perception, and client satisfaction are all associated with firm financial performance. This research, under the theoretical frameworks of Upper Echelons Theory, Adams Equity Theory, and Stakeholder Theory, provides empirical support to such associations, as well as the insights about the interaction of the two components of job equity perception and demographic composition of top management team with client satisfaction in the context of large law firms, as well as associated impacts on firm financial performance. The analysis revealed that (1) racial heterogeneity of management committee is positively associated with firm financial performance; (2) average employee salary has a positive and U-shaped relationship with firm financial performance; (3) employee salary distance is positively associated with firm financial performance; (4) average employee salary is positively associated with client satisfaction; (5) employee salary distance has a positive and inverse U-shaped relationship with client satisfaction; (6) client satisfaction is positively associated with the firm’s financial performance; and (7) client satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between average employee salary and firm financial performance, and partially mediates the relationship between employee salary distance and firm financial performance. These results yield insights for both research and practice.

The Interaction of Perceived Subjectivity and Pay Transparency on Professional Judgment in a Profit Pool Setting: The Case of Large Law Firms

ABSTRACTThis paper examines how the interaction of perceived subjectivity and pay transparency in profit allocation is associated with an important aspect of law partners' professional judgment, namely their tendency to accede to the wishes of their client and fellow partner (labeled hereafter as partner accedence). Based on interviews with 56 corporate law partners working in large Canadian law firms, we find higher partner accedence in a less subjective system than in a more subjective system, but only under no pay transparency. We find that pay transparency (versus no transparency) is associated with increased accedence in a more subjective system, but it is marginally associated with decreased accedence in a less subjective system. In an experiment where we randomly assign MTurk participants to conditions, we replicate the finding that pay transparency (versus no transparency) has a more positive effect on partner accedence as subjectivity level increases.Data Availability: Lawyers participated in the study upon which this paper is based only after signing agreements that strict confidentiality of all data would be maintained by the researchers. As such, we are bound by these confidentiality agreements with individual lawyers interviewed for the study. Experiment data from Amazon Mechanical Turk are available from the authors.JEL Classifications: M12; M40; M52.

Are we there yet? Best practices for diversity and inclusion in Australia

ABSTRACTThis article reports on the findings of a pilot research project investigating current best practices, operating within national law firms in Australia, that support women lawyers in their advancement to partnership and other leadership positions. Academic research and professional body reports suggest that current diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives across the private sector are not resulting in significant change to advancement, retention and attrition of women in the legal profession. However, work done by the Women Lawyers’ Association of New South Wales in Australia, through the Data Comparison Project (DCP), indicates that some firms have made better progress than others. Building on the DCP, this article presents the findings of a pilot project involving in-depth interviews with four of the top-achieving national law firms in Australia on gender equity criteria. It finds that these firms are collectively engaging with many of the best practice initiatives for D&I recommended by the current national and international research and scholarship, and in some instances go beyond international best practice. What is apparent, however, is that the current best practices have yet to achieve significant advancement of women, or to break through the glass ceilings that continue to operate for women in large Australian law firms.

Innovation in Search of a Context: The Early History of Lexis

Lexis, the first commercial online full-text legal information service, illustrates how the purpose of and the audience for a system were configured by distinct relevant social groups with different goals and perspectives. This article traces the early history of Lexis in light of the social construction of the system and the mutual shaping that resulted from the reciprocal interactions of users and the technology. It analyzes how system users’ identities changed from anyone needing free-text search capability to legal professionals in large law firms and government agencies and how users influenced the design and development of the system.

Taking the 'Alternative' out of Alternative Legal Service Providers: Remapping the Corporate Legal Ecosystem in the Age of Integrated Solutions

The word “alternative” is definitely trending in the legal zeitgeist. Beginning with the U.K. Legal Services Act and accelerating through the legal tech startup boom, discussion about the growing importance of Alternative Business Structures (ABS) and Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSP) has become a cottage industry in the legal press, and increasingly in the legal academy as well. And yet, for all of the talk about the growing importance of these “alternatives,” the very discourse used to cast these new providers as the harbingers of impending dramatic changes in the market for legal services continues to marginalize and mask their true significance. In this Chapter, we argue that this characterization of the range of new providers competing for a share of the global corporate legal services market is fundamentally flawed. We do so by first reminding today’s lawyers and commentators that the large law firms and sophisticated in-house legal departments that we now consider to be the “traditional” standard against which all other legal service providers should be measured, were once considered radical “alternatives” posing a significant threat to the “core” values of lawyer professionalism. As market conditions changed, however, these marginalized forms of practice not only moved to the mainstream, but have become the very embodiment of professional excellence. Similarly, we argue, as corporate clients increasingly demand professional services that are “integrated,” “customized,” and “agile,” the parts of the market that are now considered “alternative” – e.g., technology, managed services, flexible staffing, and multidisciplinary practice – are also moving from the periphery to the core. At the same time, “traditional” law firms and in-house legal departments are under mounting pressure to demonstrate how the “core” services that they provide contribute to producing the kind of “integrated solutions” their clients need. We conclude by highlighting some of the challenges that this evolving “integrated solutions” model poses for other parts of the legal “ecosystem” such as legal education, legal regulation, and the rule of law, that either have not – or should not – change.