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On the Consequences of Defensive Professionalism: Recent Changes in the Legal Labour Process
Author(s) -
Muzio Daniel,
Ackroyd Stephen
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of law and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.263
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1467-6478
pISSN - 0263-323X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2005.00340.x
Subject(s) - safeguarding , recession , consolidation (business) , legal profession , public relations , business , labour law , political science , law , economics , accounting , medicine , nursing , keynesian economics
This study of change in the legal profession argues that governmental policies, combined with economic recession and supply‐side considerations, have led to decline in the legal profession's historical performance, and a defensive strategy which preserves the status and earning power of equity partners. Related responses include a drive towards organizational consolidation, a long‐term increase in the numbers of salaried solicitors, and fewer non‐fee‐earning support staff. This involves a shift from external (or occupational) closure regimes, which sanction entry to the profession, to internal (or organizational) mechanisms, which regulate progression through the professional hierarchy. The paper challenges hypotheses of deprofessionalization and managerialization, and lends empirical support to Freidson's continuity thesis whereby reorganization is safeguarding traditional privileges and rewards for certain sections of the profession at the cost of a progressive process of intra‐occupational stratification.