Externalization of Work by Corporate Law Firms: Implications for Careers and the Profession
The Structuring of Work in Organizations
ISBN: 978-1-78635-436-5, eISBN: 978-1-78635-435-8
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
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, Leeds, pp. 333-361. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20160000047023
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited