Organizational Professionalism in Global Law Firms

1. Organizational Professionalism in Global Law Firms James Faulconbridge Lancaster University Daniel Muzio University of Leeds

2. Global and Local in the Sociology of the Professions • Early dominance of anglo-centric approaches • Professionalism from below: the self-organizing club of gentlemen • Recognition of divergent paths of professionalism (Burrage and Torestendhal, 1990) • Professionalism from above: a state sponsored project? • Towards corporate professionalization? • The implications of globalization

3. The professional project and spatial contingency • The professional project (Larson, 1977) • Based on negotiations between distinct actors with distinct agendas/capabilities • Located in a broader historical and spatial context (nationalsystem of the professions) • Leading to rather different and continuously shifting professional settlements • Varieties of Professionalism • Anglo-Saxon and continental models • Differences with as well as between models (i.e. Uk v US law)

4. National systems of the professions Broader National Context The state Universities Consumers Professionals

5. Varieties of professionalism

6. Globalization and the professions • The creation of global frameworks to facilitate global exchanges • Global Professional Projects? - The internationalization of professional associations • Global Professional Services Firms (PSFs)

7. Understanding the Global PSF • The pull of client demand • The eclectic paradigm and the pursuit of new forms of competitive advantages • The analogy with manufacturing • Archetypal migration towards a more efficient organizational models

8. Global PSFs and their implications for the sociology of the professions • Organizational professionalism • Financialization • Conflict between local and global in organizations.

9. Empirical analysis: managing the varieties of professionalism “it happens all the time, you comment ‘that’s very German’ or ‘that’s very American’ or ‘that’s very British’. You do tend to recognize and see and comment upon it, but also understand and accept, the cultural differences…And you can come to decisions and create consensus, recognising that people are coming from different cultures and creating something that works across the cultures” (2, managing partner, English global law firm, London).

10. Solutions: • The (original) US global law firm model

11. Solutions: • The English model “It’s very difficult to do it and there are blatant examples of failure, but our clear view is that to really be an effective multi-jurisdictional organization…you’ve got to be a deeply rooted local Dutch firm, Belgium firm, Luxembourg firm or wherever it is. But you’ve also got to have a set of values, a set of priorities, set of objectives, set of shared values and strategy for the firm that binds you together…You have to have a strong homogonous culture for the firm itself, and that’s very often in quite subtle ways, its more about values, how you do things and that doesn’t happen by accident you have to work at that”(Managing partner, New York office of English global law firm”

12. The emerging solution? Transnational professionalism - Selective recruitment “And the lawyers that I’ve dealt with a lot in Europe, it’s very easy to get on with them and they’re probably more like minded that I’m used to when working with overseas lawyers, I guess it’s because the culture is the same…I suppose we’re particularly careful in whom we pick and a lot of them are more international that those I’ve come across before, they’ve come to [US firm x] because they’ve worked in America” (Partner, London office, US law firm).

13. National Transnational The state Global Firms Consumers Universities Professionals - Corporate models of ‘professional’ performance: training “it allows us to bring them up as an [firm x] Germany lawyer”

14. Conclusions • The complex sociologies of (global) professions and PSFs • Corporate responses to the challenges • A new transnational sociology?