Relational Embeddedness and Socially Motivated Case Screening in the Practice of Law in Rural China

• Published date: 01 December 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12235
• Date: 01 December 2016

Relational Embeddedness and Socially Motivated

Case Screening in the Practice of Law in Rural

China

Ke Li

Based on an ethnographic study conducted in rural China, this article demon-

strates that relational embeddedness—that is, concrete and durable relationships

among law practitioners, clients, adversaries, and the surrounding communi-

ties—holds the key to our understandings of the legal profession’s case screen-

ing. Over the past decade, legal services in rural China have been

commodified significantly. Despite that, relationships with extended families,

community members, and local political elites have continued to shape law

practitioners’ professional decision-making. By carefully scrutinizing multi-

plex relationships involved in legal services, law practitioners seek to meet the

practical needs of their personal life, and more importantly, to uphold moral

obligations derived from communal life. Seen in this light, the practice of law

is an integral part of a moral economy in the countryside. Rather than giving

rise to a more progressive form of services, the legal profession’s participation

in this moral economy often reinforces existing power structures in Chinese

society. By introducingthe concept of relational embeddedness into sociolegal

research, this study unpacks the complex consequences of the recent legal

reforms in China; it also enriches our theoretical understandings of related

concepts, such as social capital, networking, and guanxi in the practice of law.

For nearly three decades, there have been heated discussions

in the United States about economic incentives in legal practice.

Researchers generally agree that economic interests play a critical

role in shaping lawyers’ behavior. A telling example in this regard

is lawyers’ practice of case screening. Motivated by self-interest,

lawyers tend to conduct case screening on a rational, cost-

effective basis and seek out cases with high fee potential. This

intentional pursuit of potentially lucrative business is particularly

prevalent among lawyers in private practice (Helland and Tab-

arrok 2003; Johnson Jr. 1980-81; Kritzer 1984, 1987, 1997,

1998, 2001; Kritzer and Krishnan 1999; Kritzer et al. 1985; Van

The research reported in this article was funded through the National Science Founda-

tion (Grant No. 0960759), The Social Science Research Council, Chiang Ching-kuo Foun-

dation for International Scholarly Exchange, and China Times Cultural Foundation. This

article benefited enormously from the comments and suggestions of Ethan Michelson, Bri-

an Steensland, Sara Friedman, Brian Powell, and Philip Parnell.

Please direct all correspondence to Ke Li, Department of Sociology, Framingham State

University, 100 State Street, Framingham,MA 01701; e-mail: kli@framingham.edu.

Law & Society Review, Volume 50, Number 4 (2016)

V

C2016 Law and Society Association. All rights reserved.

920

Hoy 1995, 1997, 1999). Economic incentives, however, are rarely

unbounded in legal practice. Rather, they are often mediated by

sociocultural factors, such as lawyers’ sense of responsibility, repu-

tational concerns, desire for professional challenges, political ide-

ologies, and so on (Daniels and Martin 1999; Kim 2009a; Kritzer

and Krishnan 1999; Menkel-Meadow and Meadow 1983; Van

Hoy 1995, 1997; Trautner 2011).

Building on scholarly insights into sociocultural restrictions

on economic incentives in legal services, this study brings to the

fore the effects of relational embeddedness on the legal profession’s

practice of case screening. By “relational embeddedness,” I refer

to concrete and durable relationships among law practitioners,

clients, adversaries, and the communities these individuals inhab-

it. Using data retrieved from more than 17 months of ethno-

graphic research in rural China, I demonstrate that relational

embeddedness holds the key to our understandings of the legal

profession’s decision-making in the case screening process. Over

the past decade, legal services in rural China have been commod-

ified to the extent that law practitioners usually select cases on

the basis of perceived payoff. The commodification of legal serv-

ices, however, has not yet shaken up the primacy of relational

embeddedness in the practice of law. Rather, law practitioners’

relationships with extended families, community members, and

political elites have crucial bearing on their decision-making at

the workplace. Within this context, decisions as to whether one

extends or withholds legal services from disputants hinge on not

only perceived payoff, but also current and future ties with cli-

ents, adversaries, and the nearby communities. By meticulously

scrutinizing multiplex relationships involved in legal services, law

practitioners seek to meet the practical needs of their personal

life. They also do so in hopes of upholding important moral obli-

gations toward family, community, and the local state. In that

sense, the legal profession’s case screening is not only economical-

ly but also socially motivated.

On two distinct fronts, the findings described above add new

depth to our knowledge of legal services in rural China and

beyond. One, by introducing the concept of relational embeddedness

into sociolegal research, this study invites careful reflections on

conventional wisdom about the ramifications of social connected-

ness in the practice of law. The past decades have witnessed the

rise of a burgeoning scholarship highlighting the paramount

importance of social connectedness in legal practice in the United

States, China, and elsewhere. Conceptions such as social capital,

networking, and guanxi (i.e., the Chinese term for direct and

indirect connections between social actors) have made deep

inroads into the research on legal professions, and, in turn,

Li 921

greatly enriched our understandings of the embedded nature of

legal practice vis-

a-vis the state, the market, local communities,

and international society.

1

Rich and sophisticated as this scholar-

ship is, it often features a lopsided focus on the bright side of

social relationships, and particularly, the positive impacts on the

development of legal careers. The dark side of social connected-

ness—that is, the negative consequences resulting from law prac-

titioners’ embeddedness in multiplex social relationships—has

remained understudied (Dinovitzer 2006). In light of this prob-

lem, this study closely examines the case of legal services in rural

China with the intention to illuminate not only the positive but

also the negative effects of law practitioners’ efforts to cultivate

ties with various social actors. In so doing, I call for greater schol-

arly attention to the divergent outcomes of the embedded nature

of legal practice.

Second, by foregrounding the primacy of relational embedd-

edness in case screening, this study underscores the importance

of context-specific norms and ethics in shaping legal services at

the grassroots level. As rural China underwent dramatic social

changes over the past decades, local norms and practice, such as

mianzi (face), renqing (human emotions), lishang wanglai (reciproci-

ty), and huzhu (mutual assistance), have continued to mold rural

residents’ interactions with one another (Kipnis 1997; Yan 1996).

Indeed, law practitioners often acutely feel the weightiness of

mianzi, renqing, and other cultural rules in their professional

decision-making, despite the central government’s decadelong

reforms intended to marketize legal services in the countryside.

By illustrating how Chinese law practitioners strive to dovetail

their professional services with the moral fabric of rural commu-

nities, this study contends that the practice of law is an integral

part of a localized moral economy. Only with adequate local

knowledge of this moral economy can we fully comprehend how

and why the practice of law is, and will remain, a craft of place

(Geertz 1983).

Economic Incentives and Relational Embeddedness

in Legal Practice

Much research has been conducted to examine economic

incentives in legal practice over the past three decades. Studies of

lawyers’ case screening prove to be quite revealing in this regard.

1

This large to be cited in its entirety.Among the most influential studies are Blumberg

(1967), Eisenstein, Flemming and Nardulli (1988), Dezalay and Garth (1998), Heumann

(1981), Mather,McEwen, and Maiman (2001), McGuire (1993), Michelson (2007), and Lan-

don (1990).

922 Relational Embeddedness in the Practice of Law