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Comparing Legal Professions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Susan Sterett
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Type
Review Essay
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , Spring 1990 , pp. 363 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 1990 

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References

1 Richard Abel objects for good reasons to calling the approach a monopoly control rather than a market control framework, since the profession would constitute a cartel rather than a monopoly. However, monopoly control is the commonly used term, and for that reason I will use it. Howard Erlanger was an ideal editor, generous and helpful with his suggestions.Google Scholar

2 See also Peltzman, Sam, “Toward a More General Theory of Regulation,” 19 J. L & Econ. 211 (1976); and George Stigler, “The Theory of Economic Regulation,” 2 Bell J. Econ & Mgmt. Sci. 3 (1971).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Magali Sarfatti Larson, The Rise of Professionalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977) (“Larson, Rise of Professionalism”).Google Scholar

4 Id at xviii.Google Scholar

5 This sketchy history has been told in more detail. See Andrew Abbott, The System of Professions ch. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988) (“Abbott, System of Professions”); Gerald Geison, “Introduction,” in Gerald L. Geison, ed., Professions and Professional Ideologies in America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983) (“Geison, Professions”).Google Scholar

6 Geison, Professions; Terence Halliday, Beyond Monopoly (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987) (“Halliday, Beyond Monopoly”); Thomas Haskell, The Authority of Experts (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984). At the same time, the critical approach to professions by no means always excludes studies of expertise. Larson explores the “ideological hegemony” of the professions.Google Scholar

7 Richard L. Abel & Philip S. C. Lewis, Lawyers in society: Vol. 3, Comparative Theories (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989) (“Abel & Lewis, Comparative Theories”).Google Scholar

8 Halliday, Beyond Monopoly. For a critique, see Abel & Lewis, “Putting Law Back Into the Sociology of Lawyers,” m Abel & Lewis, Comparative Theories 503.Google Scholar

9 See also Erlanger, Howard S., Chambliss, Elizabeth, & Melli, Marygold S., “Participation and Flexibility in Informal Processes: Cautions from the Divorce Context,” 21 Law & Soc'y Rev. 585 (1988). For a discussion of negotiation in Britain in personal injury cases, see Genn, Hazel, Hard Bargaining (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 Halliday, Beyond Monopoly 38–43.Google Scholar

11 See Terence C. Halliday, “Legal Professions and Politics: Neocorporatist Variations on the Pluralist Theme of Liberal Democracies,” and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, “Comparing Legal Professions: A State-centered Approach,” in Abel & Lewis, Comparative Theories.Google Scholar

12 Abbott, System of Professions 59–68.Google Scholar

13 Id. at 8.Google Scholar

14 Id. at 35–58.Google Scholar

15 M. Miles, “Eminent Practitioners: The New Visage of Country Attorneys c. 1750–1800,” in G. R. Rubin & David Sugarman, eds., Law, Economy and Society, 1750–1914: Essays in the History of English Law (Abingdon, Oxon.: Professional Books Ltd., 1984) (“Rubin & Sugarman, English Law”); Daniel Duman, The English and Colonial Bars in the Nineteenth Century (London: Croom Helm, 1983) (“Duman, English and Colonial Bars”); C. W. Brooks, Pettyfoggers and Vipers of the Commonwealth (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986) (“Brooks, Pettyfoggers”).Google Scholar

16 Daniel Duman, English and Colonial Bars; W. R. Prest, “Why the History of the Professions Is Not Written,”in Rubin & Sugarman, English Law.Google Scholar

17 Brooks, , Pettyfoggers 144, 266–67.Google Scholar

18 Id. at 264–66. On the early profession, see John H. Baker, The Legal Profession and the Common Law (London: Hambledon Press, 1986).Google Scholar

19 Study of the early English profession is rich. For a synthesis, see D. J. Ibbetson, “Common Lawyers and the Law Before the Civil War,” 8 Oxford J. Legal Stud. 142 (1988). For a recent study, see W. R. Prest, The Rise of the Barristers: A Social History of the English Bar, 1590–1640 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986).Google Scholar

20 Abbott, System of Professions 248–49.Google Scholar

21 See also Abel, Richard L., “Comparative Sociology of Legal Professions,” in Abel & Lewis, Comparative Theories 97.Google Scholar

22 Abbott, System of Professions ch. 3.Google Scholar

23 Larson, Rise of professionalism 5–10, 136–58, 166–77 (cited in note 3).Google Scholar

24 In a synthetic article of breathtaking scope in volume 3, Abel discusses national differences while analyzing them as different strategies of attaining control over a market. Richard L. Abel, “Comparative Sociology of Legal Professions”in Abel & Lewis, Comparative Theories.Google Scholar

25 Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Women in Law (New York: Basic Books, 1981). See also K. Morello, The Invisible Bar (New York: Random House, 1986).Google Scholar

26 Abbott has done an extensive survey of occupations generally called professions in the United States and England and argues that they have not routinely developed many of the traits considered characteristic. Abbott, System of Professions 16–18.Google Scholar

27 Powell, Michael, “Developments in the Regulation of Lawyers: Competing Segments and Market, Client, and Government Controls.” 64 Soc. Forces 281 (Dec. 1985).Google Scholar

28 Abbott, System of Professions 143–76, 315–19.Google Scholar

29 Halliday, Beyond Monopoly 341–47 (cited in note 6).Google Scholar

30 Id.; Michael Powell, From Patrician to Professional Elite (New York: Russell Sage, 1989) (“Powell, Patrician”).Google Scholar

31 For a discussion of the slippage between membership and leadership in organizations, see Terry Moe, The organization of Interests (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).Google Scholar

32 Halliday, Beyond Monopoly 326–34.Google Scholar

33 Powell, Patrician ch. 4.Google Scholar

34 On the variety of ways professions can work with state policy, see Eliot Freidson, professional Powers ch. 10 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986) (“Freidson, Professional Powers”).Google Scholar

35 Moe, Terry, “Interests, Institutions and Positive Theory: The Politics of the NLRB,” 2 Stud. Am. Pol. Dev. 236 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 Dingwall, Robert & Fenn, Paul, “‘A Respectable Profession’: Sociological and Economic Perspectives on the Regulation of Professional Services,” 7 Int'l Rev. L. & Econ. 51 (1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37 On recent proposed changes in England and Wales, see Martha Derthick & Paul J. Quirk, The Politics of Deregulation (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1985); Steve Lohr, “British Law Profession Jolted by Plan for Drastic Overhaul,”N.Y. Times, Jan. 30, 1989, at 1.Google Scholar

38 Powell, , 64 Soc. Forces at 281 (cited in note 27).Google Scholar

39 For a superb study of relations between the state, a legal profession, and changing technology in France, see Ezra Suleiman, Private Power and Centralization in France: The Notaires and the State (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1987).Google Scholar

40 John Hagan, Marie Huxter, & Patricia Parker, “Class Structure and Legal Practice,” 22 Law & Soc'y Rev. 9 (1988). On employment in the United States, see Eve Spangler, Lawyers at Work (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. 1986).Google Scholar

41 Larson, Rise of professionalism xvii-xviii (cited in note 3).Google Scholar

42 Suzanne Weaver, Decision to Prosecute (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1979).Google Scholar

43 R. Shep Melnick, Regulation and the Courts (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1983).Google Scholar

44 Robert Kagan, Regulatory Justice (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1980) (“Kagan, Regulatory Justice”).Google Scholar

45 Robert Nelson, following a disagreement approach to independence, has a thoughtful discussion of the difficulties of evaluating independence in Partners with Power 257–59 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989) (“Nelson, Partners with Power”).Google Scholar

46 Topsy Murray, Robert Dingwall, & John Eekelaar, “Professionals in Bureaucracies: Solicitors in Private Practice and Local Government,” in Robert Dingwall & Philip Lewis, The Sociology of the professions (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983) (“Dingwall & Lewis, Sociology”).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47 James Eisenstein, Roy B. Flemming, & Peter F. Nardulli, The Contours of Justice: Communities and Their Courts (Boston: Little, Brown, 1988).Google Scholar

48 Abel, 229–32. See Burton Lehman, “When the Law Becomes Big Business,”N.Y. Times, Feb. 5, 1989, at 2. For a discussion of recent changes in the United States, see Gilson, Ronald J. & Mnookin, Robert H., “Coming of Age in a Corporate Law Firm: The Economics of Associates' Career Patterns,” 41 Stan. L. Rev. 567 (1989); “The Law Firm as a Social Institution: A Symposium,” 37 Stan. L. Rev. 271 (1985). Other work that analyzes aspects of corporate law practice includes John Hagan, Marie Huxter, & Patricia Parker, “Class Structure and Legal Practice: Inequality and Mobility Among Toronto Lawyers,” 22 Law & Soc'y Rev. 9 (1988); Nelson, Partners with Power. For the early 20th century, see Gawalt, G., ed., The New High priests: Lawyers in Post-Civil War America (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984), and Robert Gordon, “Legal Thought and Legal Practice in the Age of American Enterprise, 1870–1920,”in Geison, Professions (cited in note 5).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49 John P. Heinz & Edward O. Laumann, Chicago Lawyers (New York: Russell Sage Foundation; American Bar Foundation, 1982); Donald D. Landon, “LaSalle Street and Main Street: The Role of Context in Structuring Law Practice,” 22 Law & Soc'y Rev. 213 (1988).Google Scholar

50 Keith Hawkins, Environment and Enforcement (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983). For a discussion of bureaucracies and deprofessionalization, see Terence Halliday, “Professions, Class and Capitalism,” 24 Archives Eur. Soc. 321 (1983).Google Scholar

51 Nelson, Robert and Heinz, John P. argue for the importance of the setting of employment in Washington practice. “Lawyers and the Structure of Influence in Washington,” 22 Law & Soc'y. Rev. 237, 254 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

52 See, e.g., Larson, Rise of Professionalism ch. 11 (cited in note 3).Google Scholar

53 Celia Davies, “Professionals in Bureaucracies: The Conflict Thesis Revisited.” in Dingwall & Philip Lewis, Sociology. Abel mentions the revisionist approach, pp. 26–28.Google Scholar

54 Cohen, Michael D., March, James G., & Olsen, Johan P., “A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice,” 17 Admin Sci Q. 1 (1972).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55 Kagan found no difference in how lawyers approached cases in the wage and price freeze and how nonlawyers did. Kagan, Regulatory Justice ch. 7 (cited in note 44).Google Scholar

56 Freidson, Professional Powers 158–66 (cited in note 34).Google Scholar

57 Terry Moe, “The Politics of Bureaucratic Structure,” in John E. Chubb & Paul E. Peterson, eds., Can the Government Govern? 273 (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1989).Google Scholar

58 Freidson, Professional Powers ch. 7.Google Scholar

59 Jack Ladinsky noted this early in the study of the legal profession. Careers of Lawyers, Law Practice, and Legal Institutions,” Am. Soc. Rev. 47 (1963). On Daniel Webster's dependence on fees, see Botein, S., “Love of Gold and Other Ruling Passions: The Legal Papers of Daniel Webster,” 1985 Am. B. Found. Res. J. 217.Google Scholar

60 Abbott, , System of Professions 132 (cited in note 5).Google Scholar

61 Duman, English and Colonial Bars 206–7 (cited in note 15).Google Scholar

62 David Vogel, National Styles of Regulation (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1986), addresses the structure of the administrative process.Google Scholar

63 Lewis outlines these issues in Abel & Lewis, The Common Law World ch. 1.Google Scholar