The Law Firms Working Group

Our Projects

• Law Firms and Pro Bono

  Steven Boutcher, Samuel Estreicher, Michael Heise, Jonathan Nash

  While the reasons behind the rise of pro bono work in the large law firm are frequently discussed, the lack of empirical data about it limits the usefulness of these explanations. Steven Boutcher, Samuel Estreicher, Michael Heise, and Jonathan Nash will use empirical data from the Law Firms Working Group to gain a more accurate picture of this change. Boutcher will study trends in the institutionalization of pro bono in large firms, and Estreicher, Heise, and Nash will focus on the relationship between commitment to pro bono activities and measures of firm performance.

• The Professionalization of Large Firm Management

  Elizabeth Chambliss

  Professor Chambliss will track the emergence of full-time ("professional") managers in law firms, focusing on the managing partner and law firm general counsel positions. Her research will examine the relationship between professional management and the economic success of the firm, and the sources of managerial authority for full-time versus part-time/practicing managers.

• Lawyer Mobility

  Leonard Bierman, Marc Galanter, William Henderson, Andrew Morriss, Christopher Tuggle

  The investigators will study the volume of lawyer lateral mobility, and the and factors influencing it. They will explore the importance of a strong firm culture in the quality of client service, firm profits, firm stability, employee satisfaction, and associate attrition. After this analysis has been completed, Marc Galanter and William Henderson will utilize this dataset to study the relation of mandatory retirement policies to lawyer mobility.

• The Changing Geography of Global Law Firms

  James Faulconbridge, Daniel Muzio, Jonathan Beaverstock, Peter Taylor, Michael Hoyler

  James Faulconbridge, Daniel Muzio, Jonathan Beaverstock, Peter Taylor, and Michael Hoyler are analyzing the spatial behaviors of US law firms within and outside the United States. They will chart the development of important office networks over time to gain insight on the spatial strategies employed in relation to firms entering different geographic markets. They will then analyze this data to study a variety of factors, including the influences on the career trajectories of individual lawyers, the effects of changing financial pressures on different firms, and the challenges of professionalism and internationalization in legal work. After their analysis they will use these results to compare the strategies of US and UK firms.

• Interaction Between Law Firm Structure, Hiring, and Partner Promotion

  John Gordanier

  John Gordanier will study the empirical relationship between the structure of law firms and the characteristics of associates and partners. His focus will be on whether a multi-tiered partnership structure changes the composition of a firm's associates and whether it affects the quality of the partners.

• Race and Gender in Large Law Firms

  Laura Beny, Elizabeth Gorman, William Henderson

  Drawing on empirical data available through the Law Firms Working Group, Laura Beny, Elizabeth Gorman, and William Henderson will create an account of the recruitment, hiring, and retention of women and minority lawyers in large U.S. law firms.

• Globalization Strategies of U.S. Law Firms

  Carole Silver, Nicole DeBruin

  Carole Silver and Nicole DeBruin will combine Law Firms Working Group data with their own prior research into non-U.S. offices of U.S. law firms to analyze the consequences of different approaches to global expansion. They will examine a variety of factors, including the ways that offshore offices reflect or differ from their domestic counterparts, and the relationship between offshore office growth and financial success.

• The Career Trajectories of Young Laywers

  Ronit Dinovitzer

  Ronit Dinovitzer will put Law Firm Working Group data into dialogue with data collected in the After the JD Study. By using firm-level measures, Dinovitzer will investigate how the workplace context impacts legal careers.

• In House Counsel

  Tanina Rostain

  In recent years, American corporate regulation has focused on the proliferation of compliance mechanisms within companies. Tanina Rostain's study will consider how this regulatory emphasis on instituting internal compliance regimes has shaped the work of general counsel inside corporations.

• How Do Corporate Lawyers Add Value: Reducing Transaction Costs or Avoiding Regulation?

  Victor Fleischer

  Victor Fleischer will perform an empirical analysis of the effects of regulatory cost engineering on transactional lawyers. He will focus on regional differences in the way transactional lawyers spend their working hours, the commodification of the field, and the ethical implications of this trend for the profession.

• How Do Markets for Lawyers Influence the Production of Law?

  Gillian Hadfield, Kevin Quinn

  Gillian Hadfield and Kevin Quinn will explore how the production of law has been impacted by social and economic factors. Their ultimate goal is to produce policy-relevant analyses about the regulation of the market for lawyers, access to legal services, civil procedure, the conduct of litigation and courts, and the use of precedent.

• Stanford Legal Professions Workshop

  Deborah Hensler, students enrolled in the Stanford Legal Professions Workshop

  The Legal Professions Workshop at Stanford Law School consists of a group of law students, supervised by Deborah Hensler, completing a variety of empirical research projects. They will complete a study on the employment choices of graduating students and an empirical analysis of the Stanford alumni survey, as well as a series of individual projects on law firm organization and profitability, associate satisfaction, work-life balance issues, and race and gender issues in the workplace.

• Patent Lawyers: Exploring a Community of Practice

  Lynn Mather

  Lynn Mather's research will focus on the demographics of patent lawyers. She seeks to answer research questions about patent law firm size and organization, clientele, law firm culture, attorney demographics, job mobility and satisfaction, and collegial control.