Law Commons^™

The Business Of Law: Evolution Of The Legal Services Market, Tyler J. Replogle

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

The legal services market is changing. This change has been driven by various factors through the years: expansion of in-house legal departments, globalization (through mergers and outsourcing), technological advances, and the rise of alternative legal service providers. This paper explores these factors in isolation—i.e., discussing each factor separately and distinctly from other factors. Then, this paper seeks to understand these factors together, as products of a legal services market that is evolving from the growth stage into the mature stage.

Part I summarizes the early history of law firms, including the rise of the Cravath System through the Golden Era …

Retaining Color, Veronica Root

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

It is no secret that large law firms are struggling in their efforts to retain attorneys of color. This is despite two decades of aggressive tracking of demographic rates, mandates from clients to improve demographic diversity, and the implementation of a variety of diversity efforts within large law firms. In part, law firm retention efforts are stymied by the reality that elite, large law firms require some level of attrition to function properly under the predominant business model. This reality, however, does not explain why firms have so much difficulty retaining attorneys of color — in particular black and Hispanic …

Letting Go Of Old Ideas, William D. Henderson

Michigan Law Review

Two recently published books make the claim that the legal profession has changed (Steven Harper’s The Lawyer Bubble: A Profession in Crisis) or is changing (Richard Susskind’s Tomorrow’s Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future). The books are interesting because they discuss the types of changes that are broad, sweeping, and dramatic. In suitable lawyer fashion, both books are unfailingly analytical. They both also argue that the old order is collapsing. The Lawyer Bubble is backward looking and laments the legacy we have squandered, while Tomorrow’s Lawyers is future oriented and offers fairly specific prescriptive advice, particularly to those lawyers entering …

The Crisis In Legal Education: Dabbling In Disaster Planning, Kyle P. Mcentee, Patrick J. Lynch, Derek M. Tokaz

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The legal education crisis has already struck for many recent law school graduates, signaling potential disaster for law schools already struggling with their own economic challenges. Law schools have high fixed costs caused by competition between schools, the unchecked expansion of federal loan programs, a widely exploited information asymmetry about graduate employment outcomes, and a lack of financial discipline masquerading as innovation. As a result, tuition is up, jobs are down, and skepticism of the value of a J.D. has never been higher. If these trends do not reverse course, droves of students will continue to graduate with debt that …

The Crisis Of The American Law School, Paul Campos

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The economist Herbert Stein once remarked that if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. Over the past four decades, the cost of legal education in America has seemed to belie this aphorism: it has gone up relentlessly. Private law school tuition increased by a factor of four in real, inflation-adjusted terms between 1971 and 2011, while resident tuition at public law schools has nearly quadrupled in real terms over just the past two decades. Meanwhile, for more than thirty years, the percentage of the American economy devoted to legal services has been shrinking. In 1978 the legal sector …

Providing Capital For Law Firms In A Credit Crisis: Non-Lawyer Equity Ownership, Brett Novick

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

Last year, a New York federal district court dismissed a lawsuit by Jacoby & Meyers LLP attacking a New York law that prevents non-lawyers from owning an equity interest in law firms. On November 21, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit resuscitated the lawsuit, remanding the case to the district court and granting Jacoby & Meyers LLP leave to amend its complaint. Non-lawyers owning an equity interest in law firms is not a new idea, as countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom already allow it, and the United States should follow their example to …

Efficiency-Wage Theory And Law Firm Pay, Dongyu "Eddie" Wang

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

Every first-year law student knows that Big Law pays $160,000 a year. In fact, this number is likely the biggest incentive for applying in the minds of most law-school hopefuls. Taking New York City as an example, a quick look at Vault’s salary data reveals that, indeed, the large majority of New York firms with available salary data pay first-year associates exactly $160,000.

Men And Women Of The Bar: The Impact Of Gender On Legal Careers, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Marc S. Galanter, Kaushik Mukhopadhaya, Kathleen E. Hull

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

In the last three and a half decades, the legal profession has undergone a dramatic transformation in the gender composition of its members. During that time, the number of women applying to law school and entering the profession has gone from a few gallant pioneers to roughly equal representation with that of men. Between 1970 and 2000, the proportion of first-year law students who were female climbed from 8% to 49%. Because the existing bar consisted primarily of male lawyers, the percent of women in the legal profession changed more slowly, but still rose dramatically. Women, as a percent of …

Young Associates In Trouble, William D. Henderson, David Zaring

Michigan Law Review

Large law firms have reputations as being tough places to work, and the larger the firm, the tougher the firm. Yet, notwithstanding the grueling hours and the shrinking prospects of partnership, these firms perennially attract a large proportion of the nation's top law school graduates. These young lawyers could go anywhere but choose to work at large firms. Why do they do so if law firms are as inhospitable as their reputations suggest? Two recent novels about the lives of young associates in large, prestigious law firms suggest that such a rational calculation misapprehends the costs. Law professor Kermit Roosevelt's …

Tribute To John Pickering, Raymond C. Clevenger

Michigan Law Review

This is my homage to John. I ask you to summon up in your imagination today a grand circus, a sort of Cirque du Soleil of lawyers: full of shining talents performing legal feats of wonder, but presided over by a grand ringmaster. This ringmaster knows his performers very well. He knows how to train and stroke them to high achievement. He knows how to groom the younger workers. He can keep his stars in check. He knows when to sit back with a smile, letting his charges perform and claim the applause, even when the applause rightfully belongs to …

Tribute To John Pickering, William J. Perlstein

Michigan Law Review

One of my colleagues asked me soon after John died, "How could someone live to be eighty-nine years old and yet there is no one who had a bad word to say about him?" This is an intriguing question. It is not because John Pickering did not have strongly held views about things. Anyone who ever tangled with John in crafting a brief knew how tenacious he was. John was direct and candid and you knew where he stood on any matter. It is not because John was easygoing. When he saw something that he wanted changed, he did not …

Tribute To John Pickering, Timothy B. Dyk

Michigan Law Review

It is very appropriate that we are here today to honor John Pickering, who, for more than five decades, was a leading member of our bar. I first met John when I joined the small firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in 1964, two years after it was founded. The three founding fathers of the firm were formidable figures, particularly to a young lawyer, and John Pickering was no exception. I do not mean that John was unkind. He was the kindest of people. But there was something particularly serious about him, and I always wondered whether that had to …

No Black Names On The Letterhead? Efficient Discrimination And The South African Legal Profession, Lisa R. Pruitt

Michigan Journal of International Law

Although there have long been black lawyers in South Africa, during apartheid only a handful joined the ranks of the country's large commercial firms. Now, in the post-apartheid period, these firms are keenly aware of a range of economic and political incentives to hire black attorneys, and most are doing so at a record pace. Very few black attorneys, however, are enduring the path to partnership in these firms. Based on more than seventy-five interviews conducted in South Africa in 1999 and 2000, this Article both documents and critically examines the reasons for black attrition. While firms' incentives to integrate …

Moving Ground, Breaking Traditions: Tasha's Chronicle, Angela I. Onwuachi-Willig

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Note uses a fictional dialogue to analyze and engage issues concerning stereotypes, stigmas, and affirmative action. It also highlights the importance of role models for students of color and the disparate hiring practices of law firms and legal employers through the conversations and thoughts of its main character, Tasha Crenshaw.

The Growth Of Interdisciplinary Research And The Industrial Structure Of The Production Of Legal Ideas: A Reply To Judge Edwards, George L. Priest

Michigan Law Review

This brief response will attempt to repair these various deficiencies, though only in part because of the difficulty of the subject. It will try to explain more fully the rise of interdisciplinary legal research and will sketch the broader structure of the production and dissemination of new ideas about law and the legal system. The relationship between legal education and legal practice implicates an understanding of the "market" for legal ideas. To describe ideas as the subject of a "market," of course, has become conventional. In my view, however, the market metaphor most typically distorts our understanding of the issue, …

An Academic Visit To The Modern Law Firm: Considering A Theory Of Promotion-Driven Growth, Frederick W. Lambert

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Tournament of Lawyers: The Transformation of the Big Law Firm by Marc Galanter and Thomas Palay

In Defense Of A Double Standard In The Rules Of Ethics: A Critical Reevaluation Of The Chinese Wall And Vicarious Disqualification, Frances Witty Hamermesh

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note suggests that no change is warranted at the present time; courts should not adopt the Chinese wall defense to vicarious disqualification of private firms. The Chinese wall should, however, continue to operate as an internal device for protection of confidentiality. As such, it encourages firms to avoid disqualification by obtaining client consent to successive representation. Neither the historical record of the work of the Commission on the Evaluation of Professional Standards (the Kutak Commission), the empirical evidence currently available, nor the pragmatic arguments offered by many commentators justify an exception to, or modification of, the standard of imputed …

Doing Business With The People's Republic Of China: The Role Of Foreign Lawyers, Jamie P. Horsley

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article describes the nature of a legal practice involving business transactions with entities in the P.R.C. and the role of the foreign, or non-national, lawyer in such transactions. Part I focuses on the increasing volume of Chinese legislation and international agreements affecting foreign trade and investment in the P.R.C., and the difficulties of keeping abreast of and interpreting this recent legislation. Part II examines the role of foreign lawyers in Chinese business transactions. It also discusses the need for competence in the Chinese language, practical problems encountered in practicing in the P.R.C., and the use of local Chinese counsel. …

A Statutory Analysis Of The Right Of U.S. Lawyers To Practice In Japan, Cecelia Norman

Michigan Journal of International Law

This note argues that the JFBA's position is legally untenable. There is no legal bar to the establishment of firms by U.S. attorneys unlicensed to practice in Japan, provided they restrict their activities to advising non-Japanese companies on foreign and international law. Two central issues shape this debate: (1) the extent of the bengoshi monopoly conferred by the Lawyer Law; and (2) the scope of Japan's obligation to the United States under the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation (FCN Treaty) concluded in 1953.

A Federal Bar For Foreign Lawyers, Christopher J. Caywood

Michigan Journal of International Law

Part I of this note presents the case for a national bar to regulate foreign lawyers. National regulation would likely enable the United States to conclude reciprocity agreements with foreign nations that would enhance the treatment of U.S. attorneys abroad. It would also benefit the American public by increasing the availability of legal expertise on foreign and international law, and encouraging international trade in services. Part II addresses potential objections to a federal bar regulating foreign lawyers. Part A examines state and local bar associations' concerns regarding the maintenance of adequate levels of legal and ethical competence. It argues that …

The Role Of The Western Lawyer In East-West Transactions, Jeffrey M. Hertzfeld

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article identifies and analyzes the special areas which the Western lawyer must consider when advising a client regarding an East-West transaction. These areas, although interrelated, have been categorized for clarity and ease of analysis. Part I outlines approaches for dealing with the legal and economic environment in which business negotiations are conducted. It describes the practical knowledge that lawyers must possess in order to help clients gain access to non-market countries. It also explains the process of identifying and understanding the roles and duties of various parties in Eastern countries. Part II discusses the structuring of contract negotiations in …

The Role Of Law And Lawyers In Japan And The United States, Isaac Shapiro, Michael K. Young

Michigan Journal of International Law

The issues raised in connection with delivery of legal services in Japan are complex and best understood against the backdrop of the development of the legal profession in Japan. Part I of this article discusses the history of the Japanese legal profession, especially its recent history. Part II shows how this development has shaped the issues in the current dispute. It recounts the development of the dispute, the arguments that have been made on the Japanese and American sides, and the course of the negotiations over legal services as part of the Japan-U.S. trade agenda. This article concludes with a …

Annex: Provisional Regulations On Lawyers Of The People's Republic Of China, Michigan Journal Of International Law

Michigan Journal of International Law

To some Western readers, the function of Chinese lawyers as described in translations of the Provisional Regulations will appear comparable to the function of lawyers in the United States and many Western European countries. In at least one news release following enactment of the law, however, the government of the People's Republic of China denied any apparent similarity. A reprint of the Regulations and the Chinese Government's position as published in the Renmin Ribao, the official government newspaper, follows.-eds.

The Practice Of Law By Foreign Lawyers In The Sultanate Of Oman, J. H. A. Mchugo

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article discusses the practice of foreign commercial lawyers operating through branch offices of foreign firms in the Sultanate of Oman. In order to see how the present situation has developed, it is necessary to consider the particular circumstances of modern Oman. Part I outlines some important aspects of Oman's history. Part II focuses on the development of the Omani legal and judicial system since 1970 with regard to commercial law. Finally, part III examines the practice of the foreign lawyer operating in Oman, and illustrates the kind of legal work which he may carry out.

Legal Practice Shaped By Loyalty To Tradition: The Case Of Saudi Arabia, Carolyn R. Ruis

Michigan Journal of International Law

This note employs Saudi Arabia as an example of an Islamic country that has retained its religious traditions while being forced by economic necessity to adopt some Western commercial practices. Part I reviews the legal system of Saudi Arabia, highlighting the major differences and similarities between it and Western commercial law. Part II considers the legal requirements and cultural norms which Western attorneys should be prepared to observe while practicing in a traditional Islamic society. It suggests that strict adherence to custom and the Saudi Government's recent attempts to strengthen restrictions on both the professional and personal lives of expatriates …

Obstacles To The Implementation Of The Treaty Of Rome Provisions For Transnational Legal Practice, Gerald L. Greengard

Michigan Journal of International Law

This note argues that the Treaty of Rome has had, and will continue to have, little impact on legal practitioners within the European Community. Part I examines Community barriers to transnational legal practice among the EC nations. It looks first at the history and shortcomings of the 1977 Directive on Freedom of Lawyers to Provide Services. It then describes the effect of the failure of the Council of the European Community to enact a directive mandating mutual recognition of legal degrees. It concludes that neither the Council nor the European Court of Justice is likely to eliminate existing Community-wide barriers …

Legal Services And The Trade And Tariff Act Of 1984, Michael K. Grace

Michigan Journal of International Law

Part I of this note outlines the major nontariff barriers (NTBs) to trade in services. Part II discusses the provisions of the Trade and Tariff Act that are aimed at the reduction of those barriers. Part III examines the applicability of the TTA to legal services and the potential limitations on the provisions of an international agreement for that particular service industry. It concludes that concerns over state sovereignty, while no longer posing a constitutional obstacle to an international agreement on trade in services, will remain an important political force in the shaping of such an agreement.

The Law Business, David W. Belin

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Law Business: A Tired Monopoly by Joseph W. Bartlett and The Partners by James B. Stewart

Prospective Waiver Of The Right To Disqualify Counsel For Conflicts Of Interest, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Part I of the Note discusses canon 4, first explaining the presumptions and policies that underlie it, then arguing that courts should enforce prospective waivers of the presumption of shared confidences when conditioned on the law firm's effective screening of client confidences - keeping them from the attorneys within the firm who will take part in the adverse representation. Part II turns to canon 5, and argues that prospective waivers of the presumption of diluted loyalties should be enforced against clients moving to disqualify law firms for a canon 5 violation.

Applicability Of Federal Antidiscrimination Legislation To The Selection Of A Law Partner, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The decision by the members of a law partnership to invite an associate of the firm to become a partner involves careful consideration of the associate's qualifications. Recently some associates who have been denied advancement to partnership have alleged improper consideration of religion, national origin, or sex in the partner selection process. There are, of course, practical difficulties in proving discrimination in the subjective context of partnership selection. Assuming clear evidence of such discrimination, this Note addresses the question whether an associate may invoke the protection of federal antidiscrimination legislation.