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Externalization of Work by Corporate Law Firms: Implications for Careers and the Profession

Christine Riordan
Paul Osterman

The Structuring of Work in Organizations

ISBN: 978-1-78635-436-5, eISBN: 978-1-78635-435-8

ISSN: 0733-558X

Publication date: 17 August 2016

Abstract

This paper explores organizational restructuring in corporate law firms. We review recent changes in law firms’ business models and structures, specifically as they relate to the externalization of work – or the unbundling of work and its placement with outside entities, which redefines the division of labor and the nature of the employment relationship. We draw from the extensive scholarship on the legal profession to raise empirical and theoretical implications of market-driven change to the careers of lawyers as well as the shifting patterns of stratification within corporate firms and the profession at large.

Keywords

  • Externalization
  • Legal profession
  • Careers
  • Stratification

Citation

Riordan, C. and Osterman, P. (2016), "Externalization of Work by Corporate Law Firms: Implications for Careers and the Profession", The Structuring of Work in Organizations (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 47), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. 333-361. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20160000047023

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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