Between Continuity and Change in the Italian Legal Profession – Boutique Law Firms as the Last Bastion of Professionalism

ABSTRACT

This paper provides an empirical study of Italian ‘boutique law firms’. By building on seventeen semi-structured interviews with lawyers, the paper explores institutional, professional, and societal features of such firms and their lawyers. The article shows that, while the rise of large law firms triggered a partitioning of the Italian legal field in the past decades, more recently this small, but economically important, sector of the profession revived the classic model of delivering legal services characterised by a strong sense of autonomy and independence, a client-centered but ethically robust approach to legal practice, a close relationship with academic and political environments, and a focus on projecting a professional image of themselves and their firms in society. These are, in other words, the last bastion of professionalism and are increasingly gaining an important role in the Italian field.

KEYWORDS:

• The legal profession
• professionalism
• field partitioning
• Italian lawyers
• boutique law firms

1. Introduction

Although often considered resilient to change, in the past decades the Italian legal profession underwent important professional, economic, and relational developments.¹ While maintaining strong fiduciary, personalistic, public-oriented, almost familial logics,² since the 1980s the Italian legal field has seen the rise of large, associated business law firms and their distinct approach to legal practice.³ Fostered by the rise of a globalised, networked, and transnational society⁴ and by a set of privatisations triggered by the Europeanisation of law and politics,⁵ Italian large business law firms have gained a dominant position in the market of legal services providers, developing structures that allow them to offer increasingly complex and differentiated services.⁶

While contributing to a broader managerial turn in the profession,⁷ the rise of large business law firms has led to what James Faulconbridge and Daniel Muzio have called the ‘partitioning’ of the Italian legal field;⁸ that is, the emergence, development, and consolidation of a space (or sub-field) with its own internal logic, structures, and practices within the geographical and/or symbolic boundaries of the broader Italian legal field.⁹ Concretely, this entailed that a relatively small, but increasingly successful group of large business law firms developed a sense of elite positioning, raising themselves above the rest of the profession thanks to their superior status, elite qualifications, economic success, and prestigious clients.¹⁰

Since the consolidation of these changes, the few studies on the Italian legal profession have explored the dynamics of these elite firms, often contraposing them to the growing proletarisation of large numbers of Italian lawyers.¹¹ Yet, no study has tackled how those Italian law firms that once were at the apex of the Italian legal field (i.e. Carnelutti, Bisconti, Grippo. and others) reacted to the field partitioning triggered by the rise of large business law firms.¹² Did they disappear in the shadow of such changes or did they maintain some grip on the Italian legal field? Have they changed or did they remain faithful to their original approach to the profession? Inspired by the concepts of ‘sub-field’ and ‘field partitioning’,¹³ but seeking to explore the developments of the old, parent field after the partitioning operated by large business firms, this paper provides a sociological, empirical study of contemporary small/medium size boutique law firms, which have recently come to occupy an important position within the broader Italian legal field. As the paper will show, these firms are rooted in traditional institutional and cultural forms of practicing law, and remain anchored to the classical way of practicing law at the top of the field.¹⁴ They, thus, constitute a strong element of continuity with the parent Italian legal field from which large business firms have departed. Yet, due to the recent (partial) loss of large business firms’ aura of professional superiority that followed the 2007/2008 financial crisis¹⁵ and the changes in work mentality and client needs prompted by the Covid-19 global pandemic,¹⁶ these smaller firms have made an important come back as a professional, modern, effective, and viable mode of delivering legal services in Italy. While it remains to be seen whether these boutique firms will succeed to position themselves at the top of the Italian legal field with stability, this paper provides the first sociological study of the main features of these firms and their lawyers, seeking to shed light on their institutional, ethical, and professional logics. Methodologically, the article relies on the existing literature on continuity and change in the legal profession¹⁷ and on the few existing sociological studies on the Italian legal profession.¹⁸ To supplement this (limited) literature, I conducted seventeen semi-structured interviews¹⁹ with lawyers in small-medium size law firms in Rome, Milan, Florence, and Bologna between 2021 and 2023.²⁰ The interviewees were selected through a desktop survey of law firms that appeared as the most successful during the years 2021 and 2022²¹ and that qualified as small-medium size firms.²² Snowball techniques were then used to broaden the inquiry to other relevant players.²³ With two exceptions,²⁴ all interviewees were senior partners of different firms.²⁵ All interviews were conducted as semi-structured qualitative interviews. The focus was to provide a comprehensive overview of the interviewees’ personal and professional background, their firms’ institutional structure, and their legal practice. As to personal and professional information, particular emphasis was given to educational qualifications and work experience, as these two factors are generally acknowledged to impact how lawyers practice law and reveal their social networks and work ethics. Enquiry into political views as well as music and cultural tastes were included to better contextualise the interviewees’ profiles and find ways into exploring how they envisioned being a lawyer in contemporary society.²⁶ Questions on the firms’ structure and the nature of the interviewees’ practice were aimed at deepening how they relate with clients, what logics they deploy in their work, their views on the ethical aspects of the profession, and other related factors. Finally, I supplemented the interview material with other primary and secondary sources, such as media coverage and scholarly analysis to better situate the date collected through the interviews with broader socio-political developments of Italy.²⁷

The remainder of the paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 provides a concise overview of the Italian legal field. Section 3 presents the empirical findings of my study on Italian boutique law firms. Section 4 conclude by discussing and summarising the main arguments of the paper.

2. The Italian legal field and its partitioning

In 1988, Vittorio Olgiati and Valerio Pocar described the Italian legal profession as an ‘institutional dilemma’²⁸ due to the fact that state institutions have been, and still are, deeply involved in regulating the profession.²⁹ Despite Italian lawyers’ insistence on independence, their social positioning has never been entirely clear due to the profession's dependence on the state’s bureaucratic-administrative apparatus of the state to secure its monopoly and legitimacy.³⁰ This ambivalent position was best encapsulated by one of the most prominent Italian jurists of the last century, Piero Calamandrei, for whom lawyers occupied an intermediate position between the judge and private parties and had the explicit social role of merging the private interest to have a favourable sentence with the one of the public to have a just sentence.³¹

While performing such a public function,³² the Italian legal profession successfully lobbied the government to secure a professional monopoly over a set of activities, which granted it prestige and social status. Yet, the state directly controls lawyers’ activities through state-controlled professional associations, such as the Professional Orders (Ordini Professionali) and the National Forensic Council (Consiglio Nazionale Forense).³³ This embeddedness in the bureaucratic organisation of the state has been said to have largely prevented change in the profession.³⁴

Change was also hindered as the Italian legal profession was – and to a certain extent still is – characterised by a strong fiduciary, almost familial, professional logic, which emphasises trust in relation to clients,³⁵ a generalist approach to legal practice, and law offices organised as solo and/or small family-based firms.³⁶ Indeed, surveys conducted in the 1980s,³⁷ 1990s,³⁸ and 2016³⁹ have confirmed that more than half of the Italian legal profession is constituted by solo practitioners, and that associated firms tend to be rather small.⁴⁰

The embeddedness of these social structures and professional logics within the Italian legal field became the more evident during the late 1990s and early 2000s, when attempts at liberalising the legal market were made. In 1994, the Authority for Competition and the Market produced a report on ‘Activities Aimed at Liberalising Professional Services in 2004–2005’, urging broad reforms of professional services. In 2005, a joint directive by the European Council and the European Parliament required all Member States to review domestic legislation for compatibility with European Union law.⁴¹ In 2006, the Italian Government issued the Bersani Decree (n. 248/06), which required all professions to comply with the European Union law and modify their codes of conduct to promote competition in professional markets. The law specifically targeted institutionalised practices: it abolished the fixed fee structure as the basis of the compensation system of professionals, promoted advertising of professional services, and enabled the creation of multidisciplinary professional organisations.⁴²

The proposed reforms triggered a fierce reaction from two professional associations, the National Forensic Council and the Committee United for Professions. Members of the legal profession marched in the streets, threatening to block the country. Despite the government efforts to mediate, the legislation was rejected and replaced by an autonomous reform elaborated under the scrutiny of the National Forensic Council. This culminated in the final Decree 247/2013 presently regulating the Italian legal profession.⁴³

Since the 1980s, however, new rationalities and logics entered the Italian legal field, largely due to the rise of large business law firms.⁴⁴ Driven by Clifford Chance, and then by firms such as Allen & Overy, Simmons and Simmons, Freshfields, and Linklaters, foreign firms attempted an initial ‘invasion’ of the Italian market by associating with the largest Italian firms at the time, such as Grimaldi & Associati, Grippo & Associati, Negri Clementi, and others.⁴⁵ This strategy, however, did not succeed, mostly because of tensions between the common law and civil law approaches to legal practice and the different work cultures between Anglo-Saxon and Italian firms.

The failed attempt on the part of foreign firms to enter the Italian market, however, reshaped the field, as it persuaded a historically individualist and fractured profession to reorganise and consolidate.⁴⁶ This took place through mergers among Italian firms, which increased size in order to fill the void left by the departure/closure of the foreign firms. Presently, there are several large corporate firms, mostly in the metropolitan areas of Milan and Rome, with firms such as BonelliErede, Gianni & Origoni, and Chiomenti occupying the top of country's rankings. More recently, several foreign corporate firms have managed to secure a foothold on the territory, such as PwC Tls, Deloitte, Legance, Cleary Gottlieb, and Clifford Chance.⁴⁷

According to Faulconbridge and Muzio, these developments led to the creation and establishment of a sub-field within the broader Italian field. While classic Italian firms were characterised by personalistic, often professorial, firms, which adopted a rather generalist approach to legal practice, the business law sub-field was – and still is – characterised by relatively large firms,⁴⁸ highly specialised in corporate and financial issues, institutionally organised following the managerial model, deeply embedded in global networks of firms and clients, and communicating an aura of superiority vis-à-vis the rest of the field.⁴⁹

As I discuss in the next section, however, the data collected during my fieldwork show that in the wake of the financial crisis and the global Covid-19 pandemic the contemporary embodiment of the Italian parent sector, presently constituted of small/medium size boutique law firms, have started to strike back, seeking to challenge the dominant position of large business law firms at the high-end of the Italian legal field. While further research is needed to fully unpack the ultimate consequences of these developments, it could be argued that the rise of small-medium size law firms may strengthen the existing partitioning of the Italian legal field, exacerbating professional and ideological differences among the large business law firms and the more classic way of delivering legal services of the smaller firms, characterised instead by a non-managerial, autonomous, client-centered, yet innovative approach, which emphasises a collegial form of professionalism and a trust-based, personal relationship with clients.⁵⁰ In the next section, I discuss the main features of these small/medium size boutique law firms and their lawyers in order to substantiate this viewpoint.

3. Toward a sociology of Italian boutique law firms

Italian boutique law firms are relatively small firms⁵¹ that provide specialised legal services tailored to their clients. These firms are also generally more embedded in the national legal arena than large business law firms,⁵² but have broader perspectives and capacities than solo or family firms.⁵³ This section presents the main features and particularities of the Italian boutique law firms, which are chiefly related to three areas: (1) organisation, size, and career prospects; (2) nature of work, type of clients, and visions of professionalism; and (3) personal traits of lawyers and the inside of law firms.

3.1. Organisation, size, and career prospects

Italian boutique law firms are small organisations that typically have fewer than 20 lawyers. They can reach up to 50 lawyers in Rome and Milan, but that is an exception. The size of these firms allows for a greater degree of flexibility. Moreover, lawyers have more autonomy and are often involved in all aspects of a case. Career prospects are based more on merit than seniority, and the promotion process is generally more transparent and faster than in larger firms. Legally, these firms are associated firms (Associazioni Professionali), where partners share the dividends through fix quotas.⁵⁴ This financial structure aims at fostering trust and solidarity among lawyers:

I believe in the association for ethical reasons. When someone works here for ten years, I want to associate him/her. We do not only care about the profit of the partner. We want to create a structure that allows everybody to raise the bar. That’s why when faced with decision to associate someone, even if I lose 100.000 euros, we do it nevertheless.⁵⁵

Occasionally, more established firms introduce variable quotas to incentivise younger lawyers to bring new clients. However, this can create tensions and jealousies:

We always had fixed quotas. Some time ago, however, we decided that the younger lawyers needed incentives to bring new clients. You know, with us getting older, we were concerned that the firm would not survive if we could only rely on us to bring clients. Therefore, we introduced mobile quotes related to individual performances. This created some tensions, as it was against our historical approach and because not everybody was growing at the same pace. We have solved the problem this way: those that are autonomous and have enough clients work on their clients. Those that are not, well, they help the senior partners with their clients and then we split. In this way, we are all happy. It is vital that we maintain trust.⁵⁶

Recruitment in these firms is unique. A striking majority of lawyers does not come from large corporate firms,⁵⁷ but are typically recruited early in their careers. Many start working at these firms right after graduation, during the mandatory internship (praticantato) necessary to take the national bar exam.⁵⁸ Furthermore, many lawyers stay at the firm for most or all their careers. In fact, lateral hiring from larger firms is not common, as the lawyers who work for these firms have a clear vision of how they want to practice law and prioritise autonomy and work ethics.

Like many of us, I joined the firm right after my internship, as I was told by my dominus (who was a close friend of the partners at this firm), that they were looking for someone to replace a senior lawyer that had retired. It was in 1985, and since then I have been sitting in this office at this precise desk. I have never moved from here. This is quite common. Besides a few that went on to become judges or changed career, nobody ever left this firm.⁵⁹

These words were echoed by a young(er) lawyer, who explained that working in such firms is a life choice:

Working for this firm is a privilege. Sometimes my colleagues from Milan, who work in bigger firms, invite me to join them. I will never do that move. This is a life-choice and one that has to do with the way we practice law here. I am free, happy, and independent. I work my butt off, don’t get me wrong, but I would never go to a bigger firm and lose my autonomy. That would kill me.⁶⁰

This image appears to contrast the broader trend of managerial and bureaucratic approaches that characterise large business law firms.⁶¹ Importantly, these smaller, independent firms are not considered second or third choice options, but rather the first (and only) choice for those lawyers that are uncomfortable with how law is practiced in large business law firms. These lawyers do practice business law, but they approach the profession differently, and are unlikely to switch to larger firms out of fear of losing autonomy and work ethics. This is not mere rhetoric. During the interviews, many lawyers shared stories of being repeatedly, and at times even aggressively, approached by larger firms to join or merge with them. All of them proudly re-counted the reasons why they refused such offers.

Prior to starting my own firm, I was hired by a large international firm in Milan, but after some thoughts, I declined their offer and started my own firm. It was risky! Some of my colleagues thought I was crazy, but it turned out well. I did this because I value my independence, and I knew I wouldn’t have that in Milan.⁶²

This trust-based, autonomous ideal of legal practice that these lawyers uphold can be better understood when viewed from a historical perspective. Through the interviews, I discovered that many of these firms were once Professorial Law Firms; that is, firms owned by major academic figures, whom my interviewees referred to as the Maestri. These Maestri were charismatic and intellectual legal figures, who were involved in both academia and politics, and who led their law firm, taking upon them the role of educating younger lawyers.⁶³ Many of the lawyers interviewed were former pupils of a Maestro, and the firms they now lead are direct continuations of those practices. Some firms even maintain the name of the Maestro, even though he/she may have retired or passed away. They are, in other words, in direct continuity with the old model of delivering legal services in the Italian field; yet, adapting it to the needs of contemporary times.

When I asked about how recruitment worked back then, the interviewees confirmed that it would take place at the university, where the Maestro had a chair, and where young and talented graduates were coopted to join the firm or the firm of a close friend. Today, this almost symbiotic relationship between the profession and academia has partly faded due to administrative developments and changes in both the profession and the academic environment.⁶⁴ Yet, many senior lawyers, especially in the province, still hold chairs in local universities; some of them even consider themselves professors first, and then lawyers,⁶⁵ although they acknowledge, not without a sense of irony, that the profession is more lucrative than academia.

Another factor showcasing the trust-based world of these firms is that the lawyers working there often share family ties.⁶⁶ Today, many firms are led by the sons/daughters of the Maestri, while often spouses and other family members work at the firm. Even when family ties are no longer present, personal relationships remain the norm:

For long time, this was a family firm. However, when I was about thirty years old, the son of the grand Maestro, a great lawyer himself, decided to leave the practice. He changed life completely. At that point, our other senior partner and I were the oldest lawyers. Instead of letting the firm die, we joined forces. So we inherited it. We were only thirty years old at the time! It was crazy, but we thought it was the right thing to do. Even today, we have an excellent relationship with the descendants of the Maestro. They own the building where the firm is located, and a nephew of the family still works with us. Eventually, they even give us some discounts on the rent, but that doesn’t happen that often unfortunately.⁶⁷

All of the above projects an image of a profession largely anchored to an almost pre-modern vision of legal work as a valued based vocation.⁶⁸ This view emphasises autonomy, independence, personal and family ties, and ethics more than economic rewards. This perspective is confirmed when examining the nature of the work these firms perform and the type of clients they have.

3.2. Work, clients, and visions of professionalism

Like the firms of the Maestri, Italian boutique law firms focus on specialised areas of the law, such as civil and commercial, administrative law, and employment law. Some of them also deal with criminal and tax law, although this is less common.⁶⁹ Yet, they do not disdain more generalist practices, particularly when requested by their historical and important clients. These firms typically focus on domestic matters, but increasingly venture into international transactions, European Union law, and European human rights.⁷⁰ This strong domestic focus is due to their clients, who are often small to medium-sized companies, start-ups, and individuals (for civil and commercial law firms) and public entities such as municipalities and regions (for administrative law firms). More recently, mainly in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, these firms have secured some international clients, for whom they manage Italian investments and more.⁷¹

This nationally oriented, personalised approach to legal services allows the lawyers to work closely with their clients and to understand their specific needs and goals. The type of cases they handle are typically high-end, complex issues that require tailored solutions and high-quality outputs.⁷² As one interviewee put it:

We do not take all the cases or all the clients that come to us. I mean, once we have a steady client, we have to take care of all his/her business, but, for the most part, we only deal with issues where our clients are in deep shit (sic!) and need a real quality solution. That’s where we can make a difference.⁷³

The same lawyer continued specifying that:

A crucial aspect of our work is controlling the quality of the service provided. This is where we, as a small(er) firm, can compete with large, corporate competitors. At these firms, the client is just a number, you know, one of many. I have had clients leaving us for larger firms and then coming back with their tails between their legs complaining that they were not treated well enough. Our commitment is to follow the clients anywhere and to give them the best technical service on the market. Our limit is that we may not be able to take on many clients, but for the ones we have, we go to war on their behalf.⁷⁴

Echoing these words, a lawyer described the nature of the work performed as:

… artisanal legal work! We make tailor-made suits. We do not believe in, nor like, the one-size-fits-all. That doesn’t work, especially for important clients. We are legal artisans, and we are proud of that.⁷⁵

Such an approach bodes well with classic ways of understanding professionalism, which favours tailor-made solutions to the problems of the clients and non-standardised work. This, however, should not lead us to conclude that these lawyers are not innovative. All the opposite, in fact. Many of them present themselves as innovative ‘legal consultants’;⁷⁶ that is, lawyers offering an array of consulting services not usually associated with classic legal work. ⁷⁷

There is a fine balance in our work. As lawyers, we have to say ‘no’ to the client, because he/she is asking something illegal, or simply wrong. Yet, many lawyers would stop at that. Instead, we are proactive and, when we say ‘no’ because we have to, we also come up with alternative solutions for the client. This means that we assist them in their business.⁷⁸

One firm has even developed a model for which their clients pay a fixed yearly fee in exchange of continuous legal services relating business administration, strategy, and so on.⁷⁹ This is a modern and forward-looking approach to legal work.⁸⁰

In addition to classic legal services, we create connections and synergies among our clients. We put them in contact, we provide them with business opportunities […] and they perceive us as a service to them and to the city as well. This is where the profession is heading in our view. We are increasingly called to be consultants to the business world and to have a constructive relationship with our clients. Even today, many lawyers do not contribute to the business. They just say: ‘yes to this’ or ‘no to this’. They do not bring opportunities. We do! Or, at least, we try to!⁸¹

It is further interesting to note that for many of these lawyers the relationship with clients is an ethical one. While my interviewees were fully aware of the economic entanglements of the profession, they have often shown social commitment and a strong sense of professional ethics. In one firm, while waiting to meet my interviewee, I crossed path with two clients, who were neither corporate clients nor public personalities, but common, ordinary citizens. One of them held, a bit nervously, a folder in her hand entitled: ‘car accident’. When asking about these two clients, my interviewee responded with a sly smile:

Well, we don’t have to forget the ethical aspect of our profession. We all know that many business lawyers out there don’t care. Fine! But even poor people need a lawyer. After all, it is in our Constitution. In our firm, we defend everybody, and what I tell the young lawyers is that no matter how much a client can pay, our commitment should be the same. Otherwise, we’re not fit for the job! That’s why you saw those clients, and we are not ashamed of having them. I actually encourage it.⁸²

Another lawyer displayed a strong sense of ethics in a different way by showing efforts on her part to embed the firm in the (challenging) social context of the city.

A part of our mission is to provide a service to the area and the town. We are based in the province, and the area is not very developed. So, we try to shake things up a bit. Some time ago, we brought one of our biggest clients (a world-famous car producer) to town and organized a large event. That brought fresh air and business opportunities. Many people realized that our town is beautiful and wanted to invest here. And they did […]! We are also part of an organization that curates the local museums and other initiatives. In other words, we try to contribute for what we can.⁸³

All of the above shows that these firms mostly provide high end, tailor made legal services, while keeping in mind their ethical and professional responsibilities. Some see this as almost pro-bono work; others envision it as contributing to the business and economic development of their clients. Regardless, these firms represent a classic, yet cutting-edge, professional approach to legal work.

This is further reflected in the views on professionalism of their lawyers. From the interviews, it clearly emerged that these lawyers prioritise professionalism (i.e. commitment to delivering high-quality legal services, adhering to ethical standards, and fostering long-term relationships with clients) as a key element of their success. This view is best encapsulated by the statement of a senior partner of a firm while recounting her first days at the firm, after she switched from a more family-oriented firm.

It was a bit of a shock for me when I arrived here. The work was different from what I was used to; it was of a much higher level. We were asked to draft complex legal opinions, briefs for cases before the constitutional court. We also did a lot of arbitration and represented the largest companies in the country.⁸⁴

Meanwhile, many lawyers lamented the current state of the legal profession in the country:

The truth is that we as a profession have become specialized factory workers. When my father led the firm until a couple of decades ago, clients were almost perceived as a nuisance and never dared to contradict the lawyer. They trusted us. But now, clients go to multiple lawyers to get offers and we have to compete in beauty contests, even offering less than what we would earn to just secure the client. This undermines the profession.⁸⁵

Another lawyer added that:

We have become specialized salespersons. There is wild competition in terms of prices and offers. It is often the case now that if one is dealing with a 50 million euros contract, what you try to do is to make ends meet and not lose money on it. The cause of this is the change in the management of companies. In the past, we dealt directly with CEOs, who knew little about the law. Now, there are many positions involved: general counsels, legal offices, CEOs, CFOs, CTOs … This creates a different approach to legal service in the business world […].

The CEO of a company once contacted me because she wanted to change lawyer. The main reason for wanting to change was that her lawyer would at times reply to emails after two days. So, I thought: ‘this is not a very good start!’ That’s the reality we face now – the client is in charge, both in terms of what they expect and the prices they are willing to pay. I have to say, it’s impossible to get rich as a lawyer nowadays.⁸⁶

Another lawyer had an interesting perspective on the changed client-lawyer relationship:

That thing over there [pointing to the computer behind her] has flattened the profession. Once we were the custodian of legal knowledge. Now, with the help of the internet everybody can improvise on being a lawyer. Clients sometimes argue with me based on information they found online […]. Even among us, we all push the same buttons on the keyboard and we find the same things. I mean, a good lawyer still makes a difference, but I perceive a general flattening of the profession.

It is also a matter of tariffs. Many colleagues compete to underbid one another – some even work at 20 euros per hour. Maybe you can play that trick once in a while, especially if you are young, to make your name circulate, but if you work like this all the time, I have doubts that you can make it financially, but also in terms of your reputation. This creates toxic dynamics […]

There is an additional aspect to this. Not so long ago, word of mouth and prestige were the primary ways lawyers were known, but now a recent research has shown that over 60% of people find a lawyer on Facebook. But, if one looks there, it seems that everybody is a specialist in everything. Such a representation is not true. So, what else could I do? I put myself on Facebook as well … Let’s see what happens.⁸⁷

Despite irony and disillusionment, these statements reveal a shared understanding of professionalism, harkening back to a classic version of the ‘gentleman lawyer’, who valued autonomy, intellect, and honesty above all. This fits well with what Julia Evetts has labelled ‘occupational professionalism’: a form of professionalism based on collegial authority, relations of trust between the professional and its clients, autonomy, discretionary judgement, assessment by practitioners in complex cases, and the development of strong occupational identities and work cultures.⁸⁸ While this ideal is largely a projection,⁸⁹ many of the lawyers I have interviewed strive to inhabit this role and vision in their everyday practice. This is further confirmed by their personal and ideological traits.

3.3. Personal traits and the inside of law firms

The lawyers working for Italian boutique firms have a distinct way of inhabiting the world and the profession.⁹⁰ Unlike the stereotypical business lawyer described by Robert Swaine in 1946,⁹¹ these lawyers are charismatic, charming, entrepreneurial, adaptable, and innovative, while still embedded in tradition and personal relationships. In other words, they display a certain habitus,⁹² which substantially differ from the one of large firm corporate lawyers. They are passionate about their areas of specialisation and committed to providing excellent legal services to their clients. They also tend to have a strong sense of collegiality and work collaboratively to achieve their clients’ goals. They are generally well-read, with refined musical taste, strong interest in culture, and a polite – but sharp if required – sense of irony. Many read at least three newspapers a day; some even a couple of books a month. They listen to classical and baroque music, while at the same time do not disdain classic Italian pop. The younger ones listen to reggae, classic rock, and quality house music.

While based on a small sampling of people, the picture one can draw from these data is of a relatively uniform and refined group, that, while not scorning national popular culture (yet, some expressed criticism on the Sanremo Festival⁹³ that was ongoing while conducting some interviews), dig into musical and literary niches.⁹⁴

Many are uneasy with social media and the speedy modern communication, preferring direct and personalised means of interacting with clients and colleagues. A few of them even refused to set up an appointment by email. This is largely due to the advanced age of some of my interviewees. Yet, while the younger ones are of course more tech-savvy and agile, their approach to technology is also quite conservative, especially when technology is used for professional purposes. For many, technology in the profession means using LinkedIn to connect with colleagues, being fast in communicating with clients, and managing properly the developments related to the mandatory aspects of the new digital civil process;⁹⁵ nothing more than that. This shows an attachment to a direct and personalised way of conducting the profession; an aspect that they all emphasised several times during interviews.

This culture-oriented, charming, and personalist way of inhabiting the profession is reflected in the planning, style, and interior decoration of the firms. Mostly based in the old city-centers, close to the (old) centers of public power, these firms communicate culture, style, and tradition. One firm had ancient paintings on the ceiling of the conference rooms. The classicism of the frescoes was stylishly countered by the modern, red-leather conference tables and chairs that furnished the room. While commenting on the style, the senior partner of the firm smirked at me:

It's a pity that you didn't have the chance to see the meeting room of the firm when my dad was in charge, before we moved here. That room was a completely different level. But this one too is not that bad.⁹⁶

Another firm had offices with frescoed walls and ceilings from the Renaissance era. One partner ironically commented that he had just discovered that in the ‘palazzo’ where she lives (sic!) there were frescoes by the same artist. That made her feel awkwardly ‘surrounded by that guy’.⁹⁷ The same firm also displayed an old portrait of the founder, in which he was depicted giving a speech at an important, historical trial. A partner commented the painting with these words:

And here it is our founding father, all dressed up in red, with an arm raised pointing at something with passion; most likely at the judge. Now we have moved the portrait here, and he points at the bathroom. If he only knew about this!⁹⁸

These firms boast extensive private libraries that have educated generations of lawyers for the bar exam (a sort of informal master program). Although these libraries primarily contain legal sources, such as manuals and commentaries to Italian and international jurisprudence, they include sections dedicated to legal philosophy, political science, and sociology. The classics of Western legal thought, such as Hans Kelsen, Friedrich Carl von Savigny, HLA Hart, Ronald Dworin were omnipresent; some libraries even contained more contemporary socio-legal authors. One law firm had an entire room filled with texts on American constitutionalism, Antonio Gramsci, Jürgen Habermas, and other major authors from the past few decades.

This shows that these law firms are not just workplaces, but institutions that shape schools of thought and practice. Many of the old Maestri who were once behind such firms are still cited in textbooks as representatives of views of law and legal practice. A senior partner at a law firm recalled how the Maestro encouraged all employees to study, emphasising that the firm was not only a place for a career, but also for personal growth:

I remember how the Professor [the Maestro] encouraged all of us to study and take advantage of the library. One day, in the middle of a workday, I was studying and writing my first monograph. At some point, the Professor swung by my office. I was a bit worried, because after all I was working on my stuff at 2 pm. He asked: ‘Are you writing?’ I nodded in response. He smiled: ‘Very, very, very well! You all need to study!! Excellent! Excellent!’ And he left. From that moment, I understood that this firm was a school, not only for my career, but form my life.⁹⁹

This view of law as part of a broader social and political phenomenon is not common in Italy, where formalism and doctrinal approaches to law are still dominant. However, these firms and their lawyers understand that culture and acculturation are central to becoming a professional in contemporary society, and that they value the resource and time invested in these aspects.

Even in less traditional law firms, the physical workspace is often designed to represent the ideas of lawyering described above in the paper, balancing formality and tradition with progressiveness. In a firm led by and constituted of younger lawyers, only the managing partner had a separate office for phone and video calls, but otherwise the space was open to encourage collaboration. The firm also had a communal space for shared meals and socialising, emphasising the importance of work-life balance:

We personally decorated the firm. It took a long time, and it was a bit stressful, but we wanted to design the firm so to represent our ideas of lawyering: formal, but not rigid; progressive, but embedded in tradition and form. After all, our motto is: ‘the form is substance!’ We furnished the firm with classic furniture, but structure it as one large modern workspace. Only our senior partner has a separate office, but that door is always open anyway, as it is her computer. We also have a space to sit together. Sometimes we have sushi lunches and aperitifs when we are done with work. We leave here after all.¹⁰⁰

All of the above shows that these law firms are more than just workplaces; they are institutions that shape the practice and culture of law, and provide a holistic approach to legal practice (and education) that goes beyond the traditional doctrinal and formalistic approaches as well as that challenge the growing bureaucratisation and commercialisation of legal practice operated by large law firms. Overall, these law firms demonstrate embeddedness in the classical way of providing legal services and commitment to developing well-rounded professionals who understand law as part of a broader social and political phenomenon.

4. Discussion and conclusion

This paper has empirically described a particular social grouping of Italian lawyers – the one practicing law in small/medium size boutique law firms – which has recently re-gained an important role within the Italian legal field, reviving the tradition of the old, classical professorial firms that had characterised long decades of the Italian profession until the field partitioning operated by large corporate firms. As shown, these lawyers practice law following a classic form of professionalism, inspired by a strong sense of professional autonomy, a client-centric approach, high ethical standards, and a professional image to project in society. They are, in other words, the last bastion of professionalism of the Italian legal field.

While still constituting a market niche,¹⁰¹ these lawyers and law firms are gradually consolidating their institutional position within the broader Italian field, bringing the traditional way of delivering legal services at the high end of the Italian legal market. By taking advantage of the new opportunities provided by the changes in work mentality and client needs fostered by the financial crisis and global COVID-19 pandemic, these firms are reviving the old elite way of practicing law in Italy and transforming it into a competitive model for the contemporary market of legal service providers. While the categories of work that characterise these firms are basically the same as the one of large business firms, they interpret their role of professionals in very different ways, choosing to focus predominantly on quality tasks, client needs, and on projecting an image of socially committed lawyers. While more research must be conducted on such firms, it is not perhaps too much to argue that their recent growth may entail a further strengthening of the partitioning of the Italian legal field among two distinct way of delivering legal services: the managerial, large business firms and the personalistic, small/medium size firms described in this paper. Networking plays a central role in this process. Many senior lawyers still have active roles in local universities and political contexts, managing to recruit new cohort through these informal networks and to embed their firm in the social fabric. Moreover, tight family and friendship networks contribute to maintaining and furthering such networks, while at the same time projecting an image of trust and reliability to the clients that are often invited to join such personal/familial networks.

It remains to be seen whether such process will lead to the emergence of a new elite within the Italian law field or whether larger firms will be able to fight back and maintain their dominant position. For now, ‘the battle’ is still ongoing as claims of moral and ethical superiority are made by both sides. It is, however, important to underline that, while the firms analyzed in this paper have had a powerful comeback in recent times, there are concerns about their survival as a model in the long run. Firstly, the Maestri, once at the core of such a professional model, do not exist any longer, and the existing senior lawyers struggle to perform such a rounded role of educational professional due to intensified working hours and the changed nature of legal education. Secondly, newly educated jurists are less prone to follow this – largely paternalistic in truth – approach to the profession. Becoming a lawyer in the law firms analyzed in this paper requires lengthy training periods in the shadow of senior lawyers, often low starting salaries, long work hours, and uncertain career prospects. Thirdly, as clients become increasingly smart and competition increases, these relatively small firms struggle to impose high fees and to retain large clients, who can often play the card of threatening them by switching to bigger competitors. Finally, while many of the lawyers I have met are progressive and open-minded, they all rely on an elitist mentality to legitimise their practice and societal role. This, however, comes with the risk of losing touch with reality, especially considering the criticisms moved to the legal profession by the public, which repeatedly consider lawyers as a caste.¹⁰²

Despite all of this, this paper shows that it is now possible for small, ethical, and quality-based law firms to gain important roles at the high end of professional legal markets and to reshape their structure from within.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Dreyers Foundation.

Notes

1 Luca Testoni, et al., La Legge degli Affari (Sperling & Kufer 2013).

2 Patricia Thornton, et al., The Institutional Logics Perspective: A New Approach to Culture, Structure and Process (Oxford University Press 2012). See also. Samathe Fairclough and Evelyn R. Micelotta, ‘Beyond the Family Firm: Reasserting the Influence og the Family Institutional Logic Across Organizations’ (2013) 39B Research in the Sociology of Organizations 63.

3 Daniel Muzio and James Faulconbridge, ‘The Global Professional Service Firm: “One Firm” Models versus (Italian) Distant Institutionalized Practices’ (2013) 34 OS 897.

4 Saskia Sassen, ‘Making the Global Economy Run: The Role of National States and Private Agents’ (1999) 51 ISSJ 409; Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (Jonh Wiley & Sons 2011); Klaus Schwab, The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Penguin 2017).

5 Andrea Goldstein, ‘Privatization in Italy 1993–2002: Goals, Institutions, Outcomes, and Outstanding Issues’ (2003), available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=396324.

6 Testoni (n 1).

7 Muzio and Faulconbridge (n 3).

8 James Faulconbridge and Daniel Muzio ‘Field Partitioning: The Emergence, Development and Consolidation of Subfields’ (2021) 42 OS 1053.

9 Robert R. Friedland and Roger R. Alford, ‘Bringing Society Back in: Symbols, Practices and Institutional Contradictions’ in Powell W. W. and Di Maggio P. (eds) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. (University of Chicago Press 1991), 232–65. For a more recent study of specific institutional logics withing field, see Fairclough and Micelotta (n. 2).

10 Faulconbridge and Muzio (n. 8). In this paper, the two authors go into details about the mechanisms leading to field partitioning, which for them are: focusing on new opportunities, intra- and inter-subfield networking, and distinction.

11 This ‘proletarized’ sector is constituted of often salaried than self-employed lawyers, who occupy marginal positions in the field and experiences difficulties in gaining a professional foothold. Such a development was already on its way during the 1960s, but exacerbated in recent times due to the stunning increase in the numbers of lawyers. See, Gian Paolo Prandstraller, Gli Avvocati Italiani: Inchiesta Sociologica § 35 (Edizioni di Comunità 1967). While significant, this paper is not concerned with the dynamics of the proletarization of the profession. For this, I refer to F. Alacevich, A. Bellini and A. Tonarelli, Una Professione Plurale: Il Caso dell’Avvocatura Fiorentina (Firenze University Press 2017); Censis, Rapporto Annuale Sull'Avvocatura Italiana (2016), available at: https://www.cassaforense.it/media/4240/rapporto_censis_marzo2016.pdf.

12 Testoni (n 1)

13 Faulconbridge and Muzio (n 8).

14 See Testoni (n 1), chapter 1 for an accurate historical overview of the Italian legal field and how it links to the current model of the small ‘boutique’ firm.

15 Ibid.

16 Susan Lund, et al. ‘The Future of Work After COVID-19’ (2021) McKinsey Global Institute 18.

17 See, among others, Richard Abel and others (eds), Lawyers in the 21st-Century Societies, Vol. 1: National Reports (Hart Publishing 2021).

18 See, among others, Gian Paolo Prandstraller (n 12); Vittorio Olgiati and Valerio Pocar, ‘The Italian Legal Profession: An Institutional Dilemma’ in R. L. Abel and P. S. C. Lewis (eds) Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World (Beard Books 1988), 336–68; Ottavio Campanella, ‘The Italian Legal Profession’ (1994) 19 JoLP 59; Testoni (n 1); Faulconbridge and Muzio (n 3 and n 8); Evelyn Micelotta and Gabrielle Dorian, ‘Italy - A Delicate Balance between Maintenance and Change’ in R. L. Abel et al. (eds) Lawyers in the 21st Century, Vol. 1: National Reports (Bloomsbury Publishing 2020). Although seeking to establish a link between judicial (dis)function and the legal profession, a relevant work is Luca Verzelloni, ‘Inside Italian Law Firms’ 9 OJESLS 25.

19 The interviews varied in length and lasted between one to three hours and were recorded and later transcribed. To maintain anonymity, all interviewees were granted confidentiality and are not individually identifiable in this article or any other related publications. A word on the ethical guidelines followed during the field-work is in place. At the beginning of each interview, the interviewees were provided with a brief, but comprehensive explanation of the project as a sociological study of small-medium sized firms in Italy and their role in shaping the dynamics of the Italian legal field. The interviewees were given an informal statement that the interviews would be recorded, but that they would remain anonymous when and if some of the statements released in the interviews were to be cited. All the interviewees accepted these ethical guidelines. All material from the interviews are on file with the author and stored in secure location in compliance with EU data protection standards. The research has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Copenhagen, file number 504-0086/22-4000.

20 These four cities are representative in many ways. Milan and Rome are by far the largest, more metropolitan venues with high numbers of lawyers and firms. Florence and Bologna are smaller realities, but with still important schools of lawyering and large universities. Although much less than in the past, Florence and Bologna are rather industrialized and economically significant centers.

21 An important source of information in this regard has been the yearly ranking of law firms published every year by the Italian economic and business newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore. The complete list for 2022 can be found here: https://lab24.ilsole24ore.com/studi-legali-2022/. The complete list for 2021 can be found here: https://lab24.ilsole24ore.com/studi-legali/2021.

22 Defining law firms by their size is not an easy task, as it largely depends on their location. The largest firm I have visited counted about 50 lawyers and were based both in Rome and Milan. While firms like this would be considered large in smaller cities, as for the reality of Rome and Milan they fit within the category of medium-sized firms. The firms in Firenze and Bologna were significantly smaller, but when compared to the overall structure of the bar in these two cities, a firm with 10 lawyers is medium size.

23 Snowball techniques were particularly important to identify those players and firms that, while not mentioned in the most economic successful and innovative firms of the year from the Sole 24 Ore ranking, where generally acknowledged by the players in the field as relevant and influential firms. The response rate of the people invited for an interview quite high, as only two lawyers declined my invitation.

24 In these two cases, the lawyer initially selected for the interview invited to the interview younger members of the firm.

25 The rationale for preferring senior members of the profession to younger lawyers was to find actors that would be able to account for the evolution of the field and of their firm over time.

26 For instance, knowing which newspaper one reads gives insights on that person’s political views as Italian newspapers often have clear political orientations.

27 This article is part of a broader project on the continuity and change in law firms across Europe inspired by the seminal work of sociologists such as Luc Boltanski and Richard Sennett on the new culture of capitalism. See, Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello, Le Nouvel Esprit du Capitalisme (Gallimard 1999); Richard Sennett, The Culture of the New Capitalism (Yale University Press 2006). The project is financed by the Danish foundation Dreyers Fond and is focused on understanding how changes in the capitalist forms of production have cultural, organisational, and ultimately societal implications, not only for the practice of the law, but also the work environment and the legal professionals’ daily life. An overview of the project can be found at: https://jura.ku.dk/icourts/research/digiprof-a-digitalized-legal-profession/.

28 Vittorio Olgiati and Valerio Pocar (n 16).

29 This unusual connection between the profession and the state is partly due to the unfolding of historical events during the Wars of Independence (the Risorgimento), the resistance to Fascism, the establishment of the Republic, and the drafting of the post-World War II Constitution; all events in which the Italian legal profession played a central role. See, Francesca Tacchi, Gli Avvocati Italiani dall'Unità alla Repubblica (Il Mulino 2002).

30 Olgiati and Pocar (n 16), 343.

31 Pietro Calamandrei, ‘Troppi Avvocati! Firenze’ (1921) La Voce.

32 The Article 24 of the Italian Constitution states that judicial defense is an inviolable right.

33 Evelyn R Micelotta and Gabrielle Dorian, ‘Italy - A Delicate Balance between Maintenance and Change’ in Richard Abel and others (eds), Lawyers in the 21st Century, Vol 1: National Reports (Bloomsbury Publishing 2020). These are also the organs that handle the ethical aspects of the profession exercising disciplinary powers by law. Raffaelle Bianchi Riva, ‘Towards the Italian Code of Conduct for Lawyers. Independence of the Legal Profession in the Second Half of the 20th Century’ (2020) 17 Historia et Ius 1.

34 As a side note, this is a peculiar Italian historical phenomenon, perfectly grasped in the literary masterpiece the Leopard, in which the nephew of Prince Fabrizio, the main character of the novel and exponent of the old world that was about to be overthrown by the Risorgimento wave and the creation of an Italian state, states at his deathbed that ‘everything must change for everything to remain the same’. See, generally, Monica Sassatelli, ‘Everything Changes and Nothing Changes: Change, Culture and Identity in Contemporary Italian Social Theory’ in Handbook of Contemporary European Social Theory (Routledge 2006).

35 Thornton (n 2).

36 Campanella (n 16).

37 Prandstraller (n 16).

38 Carlo Petrone and Gabriella Pessolano-Filos, L’Avvocato Italiano: Mito, Tradizioni e Nuove Realtà. Indagine Sociologica (Franco Angeli 1993).

39 Censis (n 11).

40 The 2016 Censis report shows that 91% of associated firms count less than nine lawyers in their ranks. See, ibid. Such a disaggregation of the profession, together with the high number of lawyers in Italy, has been said to have contributed to the impoverishment and proletarization of the profession. This is, however, beyond the scope of the present paper.

41 (Directive 2005/36/EC). See also, Gilles Muller, ‘The Liberalization of Legal Services within the EU Internal Market’ (2014) 9 GTCJ 123.

42 Andrea Boitani and Dermot McCann, ‘Liberalization Interrupted’ (2007) 23 IP 157.

43 For an overview of this process, see Evelyn Micelotta and Marvin Washington, ‘Institutions and Maintenance: The Repair Work of Italian Professions (2013) 34 OS 1137.

44 Muzio and Faulconbridge (n 3).

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid.

47 See the ranking provided by legalcommunity.it, available at: https://legalcommunity.it/studi-legali-daffari-la-best-50-vale-29-miliardi-bonellierede-supera-i-200-. Despite this, Italian lawyers largely practice in micro and medium size offices often with few lawyers employed. Relatively recent quantitative studies, mostly involving the region of Lombardy and Florence, reveal that to this day most legal offices are composed of fewer than three lawyers, although less in Lombardy (56.6%) than in Florence (83%). It is not uncommon that these firms have a family-based organisation. See, Luca Verzelloni, ‘Inside the Italian Law Firms’ (2017) 9 OJESLS 25.

48 At least when compared to the average small size of Italian firms.

49 Faulconbridge and Muzio (n 8).

50 An approach that resembles the definition of occupational professionalism as given by Julia Evetts. See, Julia Evetts, ‘Professionalism: Value and Ideology, (2013) 61 CS 863.

51 In the Italian context, these firms are constituted of 5–10 lawyers, while in bigger cities like Rome and Milan can reach up to 50 lawyers.

52 John Flood and Fabian Sosa, ‘Lawyers, Law Firms, and the Stabilization of Transnational Business’ (2007) 28 NJIL&B 489, 511.

53 Leslie C. Levin, ‘The Ethical World of Solo and Small Law Firm Practitioners’ (2004) 41 HLR 309.

54 It is not uncommon, however, to find lawyers working together, while just sharing material expenses (rent, bills, etc.) but each maintaining his/her own clients. One lawyer in an interview made a strong case against formal associations of lawyers that, in her view, were chiefly conducive to toxic internal dynamics of jealousy among colleagues. Interview n 8.

55 Interview n. 5.

56 Ibid.

57 This is an important difference from the boutique firms in United Kingdom and the United States, which are largely dependent on larger corporate firms for their business and clients. Ann Southworth and Catherine L Fisk, The Legal Profession: Ethics in Contemporary Practice (West Publishing 2014). In this regard, they are often referred to – in a somewhat depreciative way – as refuge for lawyers who do not fit in large law firms or have lifestyle reasons for leaving. See, among others, Ronit Dinovitzer and Bryant Garth, ‘The New Place of Corporate Law Firms in the Structuring of Elite Legal Careers’ (2020) 45 L&SI 339.

58 Law graduates need to spend this – often not paid – training period, attending court-room sessions and learning from their dominus the particularities of the profession before being even allowed to take the bar exam.

59 Interview n. 5.

60 Interview n. 11.

61 Interview n. 3.

62 Interview n. 6.

63 Interview n. 1 & Interview n. 5. For a comprehensive account of how these firms dominated the market in the post World War II era in Italy. See, Testoni (n. 1).

64 Interview n. 3.

65 Interview n. 1 & Interview n. 12.

66 As confirmed in Fairclough and Micelotta (n 2).

67 Interview n. 5.

68 Similar to what was argued about science in Max Weber, ‘Science as a Vocation’ (1959) 87 Daedalus 111.

69 In Italy, criminal and tax law firms are still largely constituted of solo practitioners or family based law offices, and as such beyond the scope of this research.

70 European Union Law and Human Rights Law is mostly the province of administrative law firms as it is closely related to the administration of the state and the constitutionality of norms. Interview n. 12.

71 Interviews n. 6 & 7.

72 This is not to say that large law firms do not perform custom work, but that boutique firms make custom work their priority and take pride in that.

73 Interview n. 2.

74 Ibid.

75 Interview n. 5 & 6. These words echo those of Giorgio Sutti, a lawyer practicing since the 1940s, for whom the work of a lawyer is analogous to the one of a shoemaker that designs customized shows for his/her clients. Cited in Testoni (n. 1).

76 Tanina Rostain, ‘The Emergence of Law Consultants’ (2006) 75 FLR 1397.

77 Robert Eli Rosen, ‘We’re All Consultants Now: How Changes in Client Organizational Strategies Influences Change in the Organization of Corporate Legal Services’ (2002) 44 ALR 637.

78 Interview n. 2.

79 Interview n. 5 & 6.

80 As much of the literature on new technologies and lawyering often state, referring to as the future of the profession. Mark Fenwick and Erik P. M. Vermeulen, ‘The Lawyer of the Future as “Transaction Engineer”: Digital Technologies and the Disruption of the Legal Profession’ in M. Corrales, et al. (eds), Legal Tech, Smart Contracts and Blockchain (Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd 2019); Christian Vieth, et al., How Legal Technology Will Change the Business of Law (2016).

81 Interview n. 5 & 6.

82 Interview n. 5.

83 Interviews n. 5 & 6.

84 Interview n. 1.

85 Interview n. 2.

86 Interview n. 3.

87 Interview n. 5.

88 Evetts (n. 48).

89 Perhaps a picture of the profession that has never reflected the empirical reality. See, Magali Sarfatti Larson, The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis (University of California Press 1977).

90 The way an individual and a professional relate to culture, politics, and society reveals a great deal. For Pierre Bourdieu: ‘Hidden behind the statistical relationships between educational capital or social origin and this or that type of knowledge or way of applying it, there are relationships between groups maintaining different, and even antagonistic, relations to culture, depending on the conditions in which they acquired their cultural capital and the markets in which they can derive most profit from it’. See, Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Harvard University Press 1987), 4.

91 According to whom: ‘Brilliant intellectual powers are not essential. Too much imagination, too much wit, too great cleverness, too facile fluency, if not leavened by a sound sense of proportion, are quite as likely to impede success as to promote it. The best clients are apt to be afraid of those qualities. They want as their counsel a man who is primarily honest, safe, sound, and steady’. See, R Swaine, The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessors, 1819–1947, Vols. I (Ad Press 1946), 266.

92 The habitus, which in Pierre Bourdieu's sociology is referred to as the mastery of the rules of the game of a given field and the capacity of inhabiting the world in a specific, legitimate way. Pierre Bourdieu, ‘The Force of Law: Toward a Sociology of the Juridical Field’ (1987) 38 HLJ 805.

93 The Sanremo Festival is the Italian version of the Eurovision Song Contest and it is where most pop Italian music is first presented. See, Paolo Magaudda, ‘Populism, Music and the Media. The Sanremo Festival and the Circulation of Populist Discourses’ (2020) 13 P&C 132.

94 They lay somewhere in between what Bourdieu labels ‘legitimate’ and ‘popular’ taste, refined, but not too explorative. Bourdieu (n. 88), 8.

95 A process that, in any event, has been ongoing since the early 2000s and only recently has seen certain of its aspects becoming mandatory. See, generally, Giovanni Buonomo, Il Nuovo Processo Telematico. Nell’Era dell’Amministrazione Digitale (Giuffré Editore 2009).

96 Interview n. 2.

97 Brief, informal conversation with a lawyer on site.

98 Interview n. 5.

99 Interview n. 1.

100 Interview n. 5.

101 Michael T. Hannah and John Freeman, Organizational Ecology (Harvard University Press 1989).

102 See, Andrea Tempestini, Gli Avvocati sono una Casta. Come i Magistrati. Punto e Basta. Available at: https://www.liberoquotidiano.it/news/italia/1273517/Gli-avvocati-sono-una-casta--Come-i-magistrati--Punto-e-basta.html.