Overview

The world’s legal professions have undergone dramatic changes in the 30 years since publication of the landmark three-volume Lawyers in Society, which launched comparative sociological studies of lawyers. This is the first of two volumes in which scholars from a wide range of disciplines, countries and cultures document and analyse those changes. The present volume presents reports on 46 countries, with broad coverage of North America, Western Europe, Latin America, Asia, Australia, North Africa and the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, and former communist countries. These national reports address: the impact of globalisation and neoliberalism on national legal professions (the relationship of lawyers and their professional associations to the state and tensions between state and citizenship); changes in lawyer demography (rapidly growing numbers and the profession’s efforts to retain control, the entry of women and obstacles to full gender equality, ethnic diversity); legal education (the proliferation of institutions and pedagogic innovation); the regulation of lawyers; structures of production (especially the growth of large firms and the impact of technology and paraprofessionals); the distribution of lawyers across roles; and access to justice (state-funded legal aid and pro-bono services). The juxtaposition of the reports reveals the dramatic transformations of professional rationales, labour markets, and working practices and the multiple contingencies of the role of lawyers in societies experiencing increasing juridification within a new geopolitical order.

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9781509915149

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Reviews

An amazing resource for those interested in a comparative understanding of how many legal professions across the world are being affected by a number of common factors canvassed in the book ... This book is a very good first stop for the details on the legal professions in particular jurisdictions and an incomparable resource for anyone with a keen interest in the legal profession. Reading it should more than whet the appetite for the next volume. -- Donald J Nicolson * SCOLAG Legal Journal * This first volume ... constitutes a useful resource for those interested in the legal profession in the countries studied. -- Florent Frasque, Sciences Po Grenoble * Droit et societe (Bloomsbury translation) * The book gives an extremely illuminating insight into the inner workings of the legal profession, the bar associations and the political actors, the judiciary and the respective state apparatus ... ideal as a reference work. -- Rechtsanwalt Riad Khalil Hassanain * Mitteilungen der Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer (Bloomsbury translation) * It is clear that the book has a valuable scope as it reminds us of the need for data and research-based social scientific analyses, especially for Turkey, where the legal profession is increasingly discussed. -- Elyesa Koytak * Insan & Toplum (Bloomsbury translation) * It has been no mean achievement to have brought a global project of this scale to the point where these outstanding volumes amass so much original thought and material on modern legal professions ... There is plenty here to inform and motivate future research on legal professions, and, within the parameters set by the editors, both volumes successfully meet their objectives. -- Kim Economides, University of Southern Queensland * Journal of Law and Society *

An amazing resource for those interested in a comparative understanding of how many legal professions across the world are being affected by a number of common factors canvassed in the book ... This book is a very good first stop for the details on the legal professions in particular jurisdictions and an incomparable resource for anyone with a keen interest in the legal profession. Reading it should more than whet the appetite for the next volume. -- Donald J Nicolson * SCOLAG Legal Journal * This first volume ... constitutes a useful resource for those interested in the legal profession in the countries studied. -- Florent Frasque, Sciences Po Grenoble * Droit et societe (Bloomsbury translation) *

An amazing resource for those interested in a comparative understanding of how many legal professions across the world are being affected by a number of common factors canvassed in the book ... This book is a very good first stop for the details on the legal professions in particular jurisdictions and an incomparable resource for anyone with a keen interest in the legal profession. Reading it should more than whet the appetite for the next volume. -- Donald J Nicolson * SCOLAG Legal Journal *

An amazing resource for those interested in a comparative understanding of how many legal professions across the world are being affected by a number of common factors canvassed in the book ... This book is a very good first stop for the details on the legal professions in particular jurisdictions and an incomparable resource for anyone with a keen interest in the legal profession. Reading it should more than whet the appetite for the next volume. -- Donald J Nicolson * SCOLAG Legal Journal * This first volume ... constitutes a useful resource for those interested in the legal profession in the countries studied. -- Florent Frasque, Sciences Po Grenoble * Droit et societe (Bloomsbury translation) * The book gives an extremely illuminating insight into the inner workings of the legal profession, the bar associations and the political actors, the judiciary and the respective state apparatus ... ideal as a reference work. -- Rechtsanwalt Riad Khalil Hassanain * Mitteilungen der Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer (Bloomsbury translation) *

Author Information

Richard L Abel is Michael J Connell Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA. Ole Hammerslev is Professor of Sociology of Law at the Lund University, Sweden. Hilary Sommerlad is Professor of Law and Social Justice at the University of Leeds. Ulrike Schultz is a Senior Academic at the FernUniversität Hagen, Germany.

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