Measuring law firm culture

• Pages: 1-31
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-4337(2010)0000052004
• Date: 24 September 2010
• Published date: 24 September 2010
• Author: Elizabeth Chambliss

MEASURING LAW FIRM CULTURE

Elizabeth Chambliss

ABSTRACT

This chapter proposes a research agenda for the study of large law firm

culture and explains how the research would contribute to both legal

ethics and organizational theory. It focuses on two sets of questions that

are uniquely suited to investigation in large law firms. First: what is the

significance of organizational culture, relative to that of professional

networks and subgroups? To what extent does organizational membership

shape lawyers’ understandings about ‘‘how things are done’’? Second: how

is organizational culture sustained? What are the mechanisms of cultural

integration in volatile, multioffice firms? The chapter draws on a pilot

study of law firm culture in one 500-lawyer firm.

1. INTRODUCTION

What do we mean by law firm culture? Can law firm culture be measured in

any systematic way? And how is firm culture sustained in today’s volatile,

multioffice law firms?

Legal scholars have only recently begun taking law firms seriously as an

important arena – and agent – of professional conduct (Nelson & Trubek,

1992;Regan, 2002). Drawing on management theory (Kirkland, 2005),

sociology (Chambliss, 2006, 2009), and cognitive psychology (Levin, 2004;

Special Issue: Law Firms, Legal Culture, and Legal Practice

Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Volume 52, 1–31

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ISSN: 1059-4337/doi:10.1108/S1059-4337(2010)0000052004

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Regan, 2007), legal scholars are increasingly interested in empirical research

on law firms, and the effects of firm-level variables on individual values,

conduct, and careers. Legal ethics scholars, in particular, are turning to

organizational theory and research for insights into the dynamics of ethical

decision making within firms and strategies for promoting ethical awareness

and compliance (Chambliss & Wilkins, 2002b;Fortney, 1996, 2000;

Kirkland, 2005;Lerman, 1999;Levin, 2004;Parker, 2004;Regan, 2004,

2007;Schneyer, 1991).

Legal scholars’ increasing attention to the firm as a unit of analysis has

coincided with a period of exponential growth, geographic expansion, and

volatility among law firms – especially the large, corporate law firms that

dominate the legal services market (Baker & Parkin, 2006;Galanter &

Henderson, 2008). Gone are the days of one-office-per-firm and stable law

firm identities. These days, most large law firms have multiple offices and

law firms merge, split, and dissolve with increasing frequency (Aronson,

2007). Gone, too, are traditional patterns of internal advancement and

attachment to the firm (Galanter & Henderson, 2008). Individual lawyers

have become much more mobile, increasingly building their careers outside

the boundaries of any one firm (Jones, 2007).

What is the significance of organizational culture in this context? How

might this construct be measured? And how might the literature on

organizational culture be enriched by the study of large law firms?

Most previous research on law firm culture focuses on large-firm ethical

culture and the effects of firm-level variables on lawyers’ values and conduct.

Such research treats law firm culture as a homogenous, independent variable

and tends to rely on limited data about individual firms.

This chapter aims to redirect legal ethics research to the study of law firm

culture as a research object, that is, to comparative organizational research.

Understanding law firm culture, and its effect on individual lawyers,

requires comparative research on firms, based on robust ethnographic and

mixed method designs. Such research would contribute to both legal ethics

and organizational theory.

Section 2 reviews the existing empirical literature on law firm culture and

criticizes some of its working assumptions. Section 3 suggests new directions

for research, basedon a pilot study of law firm culture in one 500-lawyer firm.

It focuses on two sets of questions that are uniquely suited to investigation in

large law firms. First: what is the significance of firm culture, relative to that

of professional networks and subgroups? To what extent does organizational

membership shape lawyers’ understandings about ‘‘how things are done’’?

Second: how is firm culture sustained? What are the mechanisms of cultural

ELIZABETH CHAMBLISS2