The global restructuring of legal services work? A study of the internationalisation of Australian law firms

Abstract

The research discussed in this paper examines the ways that an elite group of law firms in Australia are contributing to the globalisation of business and restructuring of legal services work. We examine the distinctive commercial orientation and institutional corporate connections of this group, focusing exclusively on the continuities, breaks and reconversions of the Australian legal profession. Our findings reveal an institutionalised reproduction of strategic practice favouring the elite group of players that generally complies with the political, economic and symbolic power currently wielded by US and UK firms. The data specifically on the recent phase of internationalisation of legal services show Australian lawyers to be of lower status when compared to elite US and European law firms. Using a Bourdieuian method of analysis we explore the extent to which these Australian lawyers' strategic accounts show the potentially coercive and mimetic influence of the economic and symbolic capitals of dominant groups. We apply Sklair's global system theory as a means of interpreting Australian law firms' collective strategic intent, which at the time of this research is to develop a global competitive presence in markets in the Asia Pacific region.

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Australian Research Council, SPIRT Grant No. C00107500 October 2000. The ARC grant was held (2001–2004) at the University of Western Sydney and The University of Queensland. Our thanks also to Professor Bob Hinings and Dr Namrata Malhotra for their involvement in the initial phase of the data collection.

Notes

1. Emphasis added.

2. The majority of the ‘UK’ firms we refer to in this paper historically originated from the jurisdiction of the Law Society of England and Wales. We adopt UK as convenient shorthand. Following the mergers between 1995 and 2005 of UK law firms with firms in other countries several of the magic circle firms and a few others are now more accurately called European for their domestic centre of influence.

3. Excluding London offices. The firms Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance each have two offices in London.

4. Mallesons and Minter Ellison are unusual for establishing offices in London during the 1970s and retaining them since.