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

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.

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, Bingley, pp. 333-361. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20160000047023