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SPECIAL ISSUE
LAW FIRMS, LEGAL CULTURE,
AND LEGAL PRACTICE
STUDIES IN LAW, POLITICS,
AND SOCIETY
Series Editor: Austin Sarat
Recent Volumes:

Volumes 1–2: Edited by Rita J. Simon

Volume 3: Edited by Steven Spitzer
Volumes 4–9: Edited by Steven Spitzer and Andrew S. Scull
Volumes 10–16: Edited by Susan S. Sibey and Austin Sarat
Volumes 17–33: Edited by Austin Sarat and Patricia Ewick
Volumes 34–52: Edited by Austin Sarat
STUDIES IN LAW, POLITICS, AND SOCIETY VOLUME 52

SPECIAL ISSUE
LAW FIRMS, LEGAL
CULTURE, AND LEGAL
PRACTICE
EDITED BY
AUSTIN SARAT
Department of Law, Jurisprudence &
Social Thought and Political Science,
Amherst College, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan

India – Malaysia – China
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2010

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in these chapters are not necessarily those of the Editor or the publisher.

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ISBN: 978-0-85724-357-7
ISSN: 1059-4337 (Series)

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CONTENTS

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS vii

EDITORIAL BOARD ix

MEASURING LAW FIRM CULTURE

Elizabeth Chambliss 1

REJECTING THE CULTURE OF

INDEPENDENCE: CORPORATE LAWYERS
AS COMMITTED TO THEIR CLIENTS
Robert Eli Rosen 33

LAW FIRM STRATEGIES FOR HUMAN

CAPITAL: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE
William D. Henderson 73

TAXES AND DEATH: THE RISE

AND DEMISE OF AN AMERICAN LAW
FIRM
Milton C. Regan Jr. 107

FROM POLICY TO PRACTICE: ASSESSING

THE EFFECT OF LARGE LAW FIRM
PRO BONO STRUCTURE ON PRO BONO
COMMITMENT
Steven A. Boutcher 145

v
vi CONTENTS

‘‘IF YOU BECOME HIS SECOND WIFE, YOU

ARE A FOOL’’: SHIFTING PARADIGMS OF
THE ROLES, PERCEPTIONS, AND WORKING
CONDITIONS OF LEGAL SECRETARIES IN
LARGE LAW FIRMS
Felice Batlan 169

RACIAL AND ETHNIC MINORITY

REPRESENTATION IN LARGE U.S.
LAW FIRMS
Elizabeth H. Gorman and Fiona M. Kay 211
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Felice Batlan Chicago-Kent College of Law, Chicago,

IL, USA
Steven A. Boutcher Department of Sociology and Public
Policy, University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, MA, USA
Elizabeth Chambliss New York Law School, New York,
NY, USA
Elizabeth H. Gorman Department Sociology, University of
Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
William D. Henderson Indiana University Maurer School
of Law, Bloomington, IN, USA
Fiona M. Kay Department of Sociology, Queen’s
University, Kingston, ON, Canada
Milton C. Regan Jr. Georgetown University Law Center,
Washington, DC, USA
Robert Eli Rosen School of Law, University of Miami,
Coral Gables, FL, USA

vii
EDITORIAL BOARD

Gad Barzilai Laura Gomez

University of Washington, USA and University of New Mexico, USA
Tel Aviv University, Israel
Piyel Haldar
Paul Berman University of London, UK
University of Connecticut, USA
Thomas Hilbink
Roger Cotterrell University of Massachusetts, USA
University of London, UK
Desmond Manderson
Jennifer Culbert McGill University, Canada
Johns Hopkins University, USA
Jennifer Mnookin
Eve Darian-Smith U.C.L.A., USA
University of Massachusetts, USA
Laura Beth Nielsen
David Delaney American Bar Foundation, USA
Amherst College, USA
Paul Passavant
Florence Dore Hobart and William Smith
Kent State University, USA College, USA
David Engel Susan Schmeiser
State University of New York at University of Connecticut, USA
Buffalo, USA
Jonathan Simon
Anthony Farley University of California,
Boston College, USA Berkeley, USA
David Garland Marianna Valverde
New York University, USA University of Toronto, USA
Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller Alison Young
University of Hawaii, USA University of Melbourne, Australia

ix
MEASURING LAW FIRM CULTURE

Elizabeth Chambliss

ABSTRACT

This chapter proposes a research agenda for the study of large law firm
culture and explains how the research would contribute to both legal
ethics and organizational theory. It focuses on two sets of questions that
are uniquely suited to investigation in large law firms. First: what is the
significance of organizational culture, relative to that of professional
networks and subgroups? To what extent does organizational membership
shape lawyers’ understandings about ‘‘how things are done’’? Second: how
is organizational culture sustained? What are the mechanisms of cultural
integration in volatile, multioffice firms? The chapter draws on a pilot
study of law firm culture in one 500-lawyer firm.

1. INTRODUCTION

What do we mean by law firm culture? Can law firm culture be measured in
any systematic way? And how is firm culture sustained in today’s volatile,
multioffice law firms?
Legal scholars have only recently begun taking law firms seriously as an
important arena – and agent – of professional conduct (Nelson & Trubek,
1992; Regan, 2002). Drawing on management theory (Kirkland, 2005),
sociology (Chambliss, 2006, 2009), and cognitive psychology (Levin, 2004;

Special Issue: Law Firms, Legal Culture, and Legal Practice

Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Volume 52, 1–31
Copyright r 2010 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
ISSN: 1059-4337/doi:10.1108/S1059-4337(2010)0000052004
1
2 ELIZABETH CHAMBLISS

Regan, 2007), legal scholars are increasingly interested in empirical research

on law firms, and the effects of firm-level variables on individual values,
conduct, and careers. Legal ethics scholars, in particular, are turning to
organizational theory and research for insights into the dynamics of ethical
decision making within firms and strategies for promoting ethical awareness
and compliance (Chambliss & Wilkins, 2002b; Fortney, 1996, 2000;
Kirkland, 2005; Lerman, 1999; Levin, 2004; Parker, 2004; Regan, 2004,
2007; Schneyer, 1991).
Legal scholars’ increasing attention to the firm as a unit of analysis has
coincided with a period of exponential growth, geographic expansion, and
volatility among law firms – especially the large, corporate law firms that
dominate the legal services market (Baker & Parkin, 2006; Galanter &
Henderson, 2008). Gone are the days of one-office-per-firm and stable law
firm identities. These days, most large law firms have multiple offices and
law firms merge, split, and dissolve with increasing frequency (Aronson,
2007). Gone, too, are traditional patterns of internal advancement and
attachment to the firm (Galanter & Henderson, 2008). Individual lawyers
have become much more mobile, increasingly building their careers outside
the boundaries of any one firm (Jones, 2007).
What is the significance of organizational culture in this context? How
might this construct be measured? And how might the literature on
organizational culture be enriched by the study of large law firms?
Most previous research on law firm culture focuses on large-firm ethical
culture and the effects of firm-level variables on lawyers’ values and conduct.
Such research treats law firm culture as a homogenous, independent variable
and tends to rely on limited data about individual firms.
This chapter aims to redirect legal ethics research to the study of law firm
culture as a research object, that is, to comparative organizational research.
Understanding law firm culture, and its effect on individual lawyers,
requires comparative research on firms, based on robust ethnographic and
mixed method designs. Such research would contribute to both legal ethics
and organizational theory.
Section 2 reviews the existing empirical literature on law firm culture and
criticizes some of its working assumptions. Section 3 suggests new directions
for research, based on a pilot study of law firm culture in one 500-lawyer firm.
It focuses on two sets of questions that are uniquely suited to investigation in
large law firms. First: what is the significance of firm culture, relative to that
of professional networks and subgroups? To what extent does organizational
membership shape lawyers’ understandings about ‘‘how things are done’’?
Second: how is firm culture sustained? What are the mechanisms of cultural
Measuring Law Firm Culture 3

integration in volatile, multioffice firms? The chapter concludes with thoughts

about research methods and strategies for gaining access to firms.

2. EXISTING LITERATURE

The empirical literature on law firm culture suffers from an insider–outsider

split. The insiders are law professors and law-trained sociolegal scholars who
mostly take a scandalized1 view toward the values and practices of large-firm
lawyers. The insiders portray large law firms as ‘‘unhappy, unhealthy, and
unethical’’ (Schiltz, 1999, p. 871) places where greedy partners teach young
associates to worship money and lie about their hours. Short titles include
‘‘Blue-Chip Bilking’’ (Lerman, 1999, p. 205), ‘‘Soul for Sale’’ (Fortney, 2000,
p. 239), and ‘‘Working Without a Net’’ (Suchman, 1998, p. 837). Nearly every
study begins by recounting extreme examples of misconduct within firms.
Thus, the insiders, who are most attentive to questions of relevance to the
profession, position themselves as outsiders to practice. To practicing lawyers,
they come off as scolds (Chambliss, 2006, p. 1565).
The outsiders are management and social science professors who are
interested in organizational culture but rarely turn their attention to law
firms. Most of the management literature on organizational culture focuses
on corporations (Martin, 2002) or other types of professional service firms,
such as accounting firms (Empson, 2004; Hinings, Greenwood, & Cooper,
1999). Meanwhile, the broader social science literature is all over the map,
fragmented by theoretical and epistemological debates (Martin, 2002; Martin
& Frost, 1996; Ouchi & Wilkins, 1985). After all, what is culture? Or as
Martin (2002, p. 5) asks: ‘‘what is not culture?’’ There is no place for the
observer to stand. Thus, the existing literature points to normative and/or
epistemological despair.

2.1. The Inside View: Large Law Firms as Arenas for Misconduct

Within law, most systematic research on large law firm culture focuses on law
firms’ ethical culture, that is, lawyers’ ‘‘moral universe’’ (Suchman, 1998,
p. 838) or ‘‘working ethics’’ (Kirkland, 2005, p. 633 n.4). The goal of the
research is to describe and interpret ‘‘how large-firm lawyers view their work’’
(Kirkland, 2005, p. 634) and ‘‘how lawyers identify, frame, and resolve ethical
questions’’ (Regan, 2004, p. 4). Much of the research is motivated by
instances of professional misconduct and a desire to ‘‘understand the nature
4 ELIZABETH CHAMBLISS

and causes of misconduct’’ (Lerman, 1999, p. 218) – in particular, the relative

contribution of individual versus situational factors.
For instance, Ethics Beyond the Rules, an interdisciplinary research project
organized by the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Litigation, was
prompted by ‘‘a number of highly publicized cases of misconduct by y large-
firm litigators’’ (Suchman, 1998, p. 838). Its working hypothesis was that
lawyers’ conduct depends significantly on ‘‘environmental factors’’ (Frenkel,
Nelson, & Sarat, 1998, p. 697), especially the settings in which lawyers work.
Based primarily on focus groups with large-firm litigators, participants sought
to identify the ‘‘institutional, professional, and socio-economic factors’’ that
contribute to litigation misconduct (Nelson, 1998, p. 773). The goal of the
project was to ‘‘bring legal realism to the study of ethics and professionalism’’
(Frenkel et al., 1998, p. 698).
Similarly, Regan (2004) described his book-length case study of Wall Street
lawyer John Gellene, whose falsification of an affidavit cost him 15 months in
prison, as ‘‘a response to the increasing call for work in legal ethics that takes
account of the particular contexts in which lawyers practice’’ (p. 4). The book
focused on the interaction between Gellene’s individual psychology and the
‘‘dramatic forces that have irrevocably transformed elite law practice over the
past quarter century,’’ particularly the move from seniority-based to
performance-based (eat what you kill) compensation (pp. 4, 7). Regan
opened the book with a line from Felix Holt: The Radical, by George Eliot:
‘‘[T]here is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public
life’’ (p. xiii).
A final example is Kirkland’s (2005) study of the ethics of large-firm
litigators. Building on Jackall’s (1988) work on the moral consciousness of
corporate managers and the findings of Ethics: Beyond the Rules, Kirkland
examined ‘‘how bureaucratic legal workplaces shape lawyers’ ethical
consciousness’’ (p. 634) and ‘‘the habits of mind y that guide large-firm
lawyers in their work’’ (p. 712). She focused particularly on the way large-firm
lawyers are trained to adapt to different partners’ work norms and the
implications of this ‘‘choice of norm rule’’ (p. 638) for lawyers’ approach to
ethical issues. Kirkland argued that ‘‘understanding the organizational
influences on large-firm litigators is y essential to understanding the
development of litigation ethics’’ (p. 662).
These careful, grounded analyses of the interplay between individual and
situational factors are a welcome antidote to the profession’s traditional
approach to legal ethics, which tends to be hortatory and stubbornly
individualistic. As a policy matter, the profession has resisted the ethical
regulation of law firms as entities, arguing that rules and sanctions aimed at
Measuring Law Firm Culture 5

law firms will undermine lawyers’ individual accountability (Love, 2001;

O’Sullivan, 2002). Such claims beg for systematic analysis (Chambliss, 2005;
Davis, 2008).
From a theoretical perspective, however, the study of law firm culture is
hampered by its ties to the legal ethics literature. One problem is the blurring
of boundaries between empirical and normative analysis. The trade press
coverage of life in large law firms is relentlessly negative – more so than the
available evidence would support (Dinovitzer & Garth, 2007; Hull, 1999). The
denouncement of large-firm norms and culture is the lifeblood of associate
weblogs and survival stories by large-firm refugees (Laird, 2005; Roosevelt,
2005; Stracher, 1998). Most of the law review literature is also negative, using
selected empirical findings to bolster negative normative claims (Conley &
Baker, 2005; Hull, 1999; Kelly, 1999). This urge to judge – and condemn –
large law firms sneaks into even the most systematic empirical work.
For instance, a key finding of both Ethics: Beyond the Rules and
Kirkland’s (2005) study is that large-firm litigators tend to take a pragmatic
rather than a moralistic approach to legal ethics. In his report on the focus
groups for Ethics: Beyond the Rules, Suchman (1998) wrote:
[b]oth associates and partners repeatedly distinguished between ethics (meaning the letter
and, to a limited extent, the spirit of the professional rules) and morals (meaning
substantive issues of right and wrong). y A large-firm associate captured this sense of
the distance between ‘‘ethics’’ and ‘‘right and wrong’’ by noting that ‘‘most of the issues
that we’re talking about here aren’t issues of ultimate justice or even specific justice. They
are question of following the rules so that the cases will come out, and the right
information will be presented, and ultimately, justice will be served.’’ (p. 843)

According to Suchman, both litigators and judges described pretrial

discovery practice ‘‘as a highly stylized competition in which each side could
be counted upon to employ a fairly predictable repertoire of maneuvers.’’
In this game, deception and diversion are both normal and normative. Thus, for most
large-firm litigators, the ethics of the lawyer-court relationship revolve not around the
morality of the game itself – or even around the morality of winning a case on strategy
rather than on the merits – but rather around the legitimacy or illegitimacy of particular
tactics within the game’s official and unofficial rules. (pp. 850–851)

These interesting findings could be interpreted in a number of ways. One

might view litigators’ comments as an example of role morality whereby, as
advocates within a highly specialized (or ‘‘stylized’’) adversary system, they
view their primary moral obligation as one of upholding their specialized role
(Freedman, 1975; Fried, 1986). Or one might accept litigators’ perspective as
being an accurate reflection of the character of the discovery rules, which
6 ELIZABETH CHAMBLISS

arguably are primarily procedural and pragmatic rather than moralistic

(Chambliss, 2005, p. 1565). One might assume that large-firm litigators are
no more – or less – moral, or moralistic, than academics.
But Suchman (1998) interpreted litigators’ pragmatic approach to the
discovery rules as evidence that large-firm litigators ‘‘marginalize [ ] ethics’’
(p. 843) and ‘‘deny the moral dimensions of their work’’ (p. 845). According
to Suchman, this ‘‘disconnect y reflects the growing inadequacy of the
profession’s mechanisms for resolving ethical ambiguities and for transmitting
moral standards that rise above baseline rules’’ (p. 838).
To the extent that these attorneys accepted moral responsibility for discovery practices,
it was primarily responsibility for acting civilly towards their opposing counterpart and
for giving good counsel to their lay client. y [I]nformants had little to say about
obligations to the well-being of the legal profession (in contrast to specific colleagues and
adversaries); obligations to the well-being of third-party witnesses and other non-
professional bystanders (in contrast to clients); and obligations to the well-being of the
larger society (in contrast to the justice system, alone). (p. 853)

Kirkland’s (2005) analysis of litigators’ ethics is likewise framed in broad

normative terms. Like Suchman (1998), Kirkland found that large-firm liti-
gators tend to take a pragmatic approach to the application of the discovery
rules, defining the ‘‘ethics’’ of discovery practice in terms of ‘‘civility’’ and
‘‘sending honest signals’’ (p. 722) rather than ‘‘standards of ultimate justice’’
(p. 721). According to Kirkland, litigators’ focus on their own performance
and ‘‘a game well-played’’ (p. 724) stems from the organizational logic of large
law firms, in which lawyers ‘‘become highly attuned to the personalities and
preferences of the lawyers for whom they work,’’ thus learning to view
‘‘notions of right and wrong, proper and improper’’ as ‘‘mutable’’ (p. 711).
The ability to understand and follow the rules of a fluid organizational game is of
preeminent importance in large law firms. It is the lawyers who have most thoroughly
adopted this habit of mind and are able to act on the logic of their firms who succeed in
today’s large firms. (p. 711)

Like Suchman (1998), Kirkland interpreted her findings as evidence that

large-firm practice is unprincipled:
A lawyer working in a world where the choice of norm rule directs him to consult fixed or
internal sources of norms is likely to understand ethics and morals as rooted in principles
or values. In contrast, the choice of norm rule and associated habit of mind I found at
work in large law firms encourages a consciousness that understands ethics, morals,
principles and values as mutable – i.e. as guidelines, etiquette and tastes. (p. 629)

This broad conclusion is not supported by the study. Taking a pragmatic

approach to one’s day-to-day work is not unique to large-firm litigators, as
Measuring Law Firm Culture 7

Kirkland (2005, p. 728) herself acknowledged. Jackall (1988) found the same
tendency among corporate managers. How many academics spend the
workday thinking about the ultimate justice of educational admission
standards or professors’ obligations to the well-being of society?2
A pragmatic approach also is not unique to lawyers working in large,
bureaucratic firms. As Kirkland (2005) noted, plaintiffs’ lawyers take an
equally pragmatic approach to discovery practice, but rationalize their
conduct in terms of ‘‘a generally understood external standard’’ such as
‘‘truth’’ or ‘‘justice’’ (p. 724). Kirkland contrasted plaintiffs’ lawyers’ appeal to
‘‘a widely held value that the adversarial system purports to serve’’ with large-
firm litigators’ focus on a ‘‘game well-played’’ – a standard ‘‘defined by the
large-firm litigators themselves’’ (p. 724). But surely rhetorical appeals to truth
and justice do not make plaintiffs’ lawyers more principled than large-firm
litigators.
Perhaps most importantly, taking a pragmatic approach to the
application of the discovery rules does not mean that large-firm lawyers
view all ‘‘ethics, morals, principles, and values as mutable’’ (Kirkland, 2005,
p. 629). To the contrary, most large-firm lawyers distinguish between
conflicts of interest and discovery issues, both of which may involve a
significant tactical component, and issues such as billing fraud, which they
view in moral terms (Chambliss, 2006, p. 1565; Regan, 2004, p. 332). Within
a tactical context, a focus on civility and sending honest signals is not
unprincipled.
This is not to say that normative concerns about lawyers’ ethical
pragmatism are misplaced. Management psychologists have argued that
much corporate misconduct is rooted in self-deception (Messick & Bazer-
man, 1996) and a process of ‘‘ethical fading’’ (Tenbrunsel & Messick, 2004,
p. 224), whereby the moral implications of a decision fade with repeated
exposure. It is easy to imagine how such a process could operate among
large-firm litigators – or within any specialized ‘‘community of practice’’
(Mather, McEwen, & Maiman, 2001, p. 10).
The point, however, is that such concerns are not yet adequately
grounded in research and may be the product of academic bias. After all, the
line between ‘‘ethical fading’’ and professional training is, to some extent, in
the eye of the beholder. In the case of litigators, it depends, in part, upon
one’s views about the legitimacy of the adversary system in a civil context
(Luban, 1988, p. 149). This normative debate should not be imported into
the empirical analysis. The aim of empirical ethics research is to understand
lawyers’ working ethics. This effort is hampered when researchers approach
large-firm lawyers with suspicion.
8 ELIZABETH CHAMBLISS

A second and related problem with the legal ethics research is its exclusive
focus on cultural disintegration and decline; there is no analysis of cultural
integration or organizational learning. The basic plot is that law firm culture
used to be strong and collegial and good, with lots of mentoring and sharing
of clients and strong social ties among partners. Then firm growth and
competition came along and ruined it all. This narrative of professional
decline is characteristic of traditional legal ethics scholarship (Chambliss,
2005; Galanter, 1996).
For instance, Regan’s (2004) analysis of ‘‘the tragic fall’’ (p. 4) of Wall
Street lawyer John Gellene treated Gellene’s case as ‘‘an epitome of all that
has changed for the worse in Wall Street practice’’ (Conley & Baker, 2005, p.
791). Although Regan was careful to distance himself from ‘‘broad theories
of professional decline’’ (p. 6) and his brief discussions of law firm culture
were nuanced and carefully grounded, his account of the evolution of
Gellene’s law firm, Milbank Tweed, nevertheless was pitched primarily as the
story of a ‘‘fall’’ and the ‘‘crumbling’’ of the old order (p. 9). Regan described
the evolution of Milbank ‘‘from a bastion of the social elite to an aggressive
entrepreneurial enterprise’’ (p. 8) characterized by ‘‘perpetual instability’’
(p. 36), where ‘‘the goal y is not victory but survival’’ (p. 37). The book
jacket described large-firm practice as a ‘‘labyrinth’’ beset by ‘‘pervasive
conflicts of interest.’’ The book’s short title – ‘‘Eat What You Kill’’ – evokes
a predatory, hypercompetitive world.
Galanter and Henderson (2008) have argued explicitly that law firm
culture inevitably declines. According to them, ‘‘culture inevitably becomes
weaker as law firm partnerships become larger and more geographically
dispersed’’ (p. 33). They claim that the widespread ‘‘erosion of cohesive firm
culture’’ (p. 142) threatens the ethicality of large-firm lawyers.

In our discussions with lawyers, we have run across examples of large law firms that
continue to share risk and inspire investment and sacrifice for the collective enterprise of
the firm. Ethical lapses threaten a hallowed firm’s reputation and the trust of longtime
colleagues. But this ethos becomes harder to maintain (and virtually impossible to create
or restore) in larger, geographically dispersed firms that are perpetually competing for
clients and entry-level associates. (p. 33)

Conley (2004) has provided the most detailed account of the process of
cultural disintegration in large law firms. Based on in-class, ethnographic
interviews with practicing lawyers in North Carolina (short title: ‘‘How Bad
Is It Out There?’’), Conley concluded that ‘‘law firm cultures y appear to
exhibit some major tendencies’’ (p. 2007), including a heavy dependence on
Measuring Law Firm Culture 9

founders. According to Conley, once the founders depart, most law firms
eventually degenerate into competitive factions and ‘‘a new culture based
solely on economic power’’:
[F]ounder effect is extremely important. In stable and prosperous firms of any size where
the founders remain active, their values and the practices that derive from those values
tend to remain ascendant, regardless of whether the founders occupy positions of overt
authority. y The departure of the founders can be followed by what I think of as a
‘‘mythological’’ transitional phase, in which the founders are remembered, talked of, and
thought of as powerful influences, and the beliefs and practices they inculcated continue
to be reinforced. y At some point, however, the powerful myth can degenerate into
empty legend, or the founders can become merely names attached to nothing at all.
When that happens, the firm’s cultural direction is up for grabs, with factions of existing
lawyers and even potential merger or acquisition partners all competing for dominance.
y The most likely outcome y is a new culture based solely on economic power. The
partners who control the biggest clients y demand that they be given control y and
others acquiesce. y We have heard of no instances in which a qualitative, collaborative
system has been overthrown and then has made a comeback. (p. 2007)

Of course, it may be that cultural change in large law firms is unidirectional:

from strong to weak; from collaborative to competitive; and from values to
economics. One might conclude that existing research provides an accurate
depiction of the world. If this is the case, one is led to wonder whether such
changes are confined to large law firms (Kelly, 1999; Sennett, 1998; Stone,
2004) and what the study of large law firms might contribute to a broader,
comparative inquiry. Surely the explanations – and implications – are not
unique to law.
It seems more likely, however, that the narrative somewhat overstates
the decline, and that large law firms vary in their responses to growth
and competitive pressure. As Galanter (1996) himself has argued, ‘‘nostalgia
for the good old days y has been a constant accompaniment of elite
law practice at least since the formation of the large firm a hundred
years ago’’ (p. 552). This tendency toward nostalgia is not unique to
American legal ethics; Leubsdorf (2001) found the same tendency among
French advocates. Future research should be more attentive to this
nostalgic tendency, and the possibility of counterexamples and variation
among firms.
A final problem with the research on law firm ethical culture is its casual
treatment of the firm as a unit of analysis. One issue is a tendency to
generalize about law firms based on interviews with one or two lawyers.
Suchman’s (1998, p. 839) analysis was based on focus groups with 19
litigators from 10 different law firms. Kirkland’s (2005, p. 660) analysis was
10 ELIZABETH CHAMBLISS

based on interviews with 22 litigators from 10 firms. Thus, both studies were
based on roughly two lawyers per firm. Two data points is a shaky
foundation for firm-level conclusions. Such research designs also preclude
analysis of variation among firms.
A related issue is the tendency to generalize from a particular practice
area, such as litigation. Both Suchman (1998) and Kirkland (2005) focused
exclusively on large-firm litigators, but there are important differences
between litigation and transactional work, as well as between different types
of litigation and transactional work. As Regan (2004) has argued, most
large law firms today are ‘‘multicultural’’:

Law firms today grow more by acquiring individual lawyers, practice groups, or entire
firms than by promoting associates to partner. This means they tend to house more and
more divergent personalities and areas of practice under one roof. This can make it
difficult to establish and sustain an overall organizational culture. At the same time, legal
work continues to require more refined specialization. As a result, lawyers are likely to
draw many of their norms and much of their practice culture from colleagues working in
the same specialty, rather than from the firm as a whole. The organizational setting in
which lawyers practice thus is not monolithic, but multicultural. (p. 8)

To some extent, these problems stem from the demands of qualitative

research. Ethics: Beyond the Rules was a three-stage study, with four full
days devoted to focus groups with large-firm litigators, who were randomly
selected (Suchman, 1998, p. 839). Kirkland’s (2005) interviews lasted from
an hour and a half to 3 hours each, representing roughly 50 hours of
interview time. Expanding such inquiries sufficiently to investigate multiple
practice areas in multiple firms would be expensive and time-consuming.
One solution would be to rely on surveys (Fortney, 1996, 2000) or mixed-
method designs (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004; Lazega, 2001; Nelson,
1988). Surveys of ‘‘ethical climate’’ (Victor & Cullen, 1988) are a staple of
research on business ethics and would provide an interesting basis for
comparison – although such surveys have their problems, too (Crane, 1999;
Key, 1999).
But the problem is not simply one of method. There is also a need for
theoretical development. The legal ethics literature, like the trade press,
lacks a systematic approach to law firm culture, as an object of analysis.
Most of the research focuses on the social psychology of individual
misconduct, with the firm appearing as a character actor in the individual’s
drama. This approach invites the intrusion of Big Law stereotypes that are
difficult for even the most rigorous analysis to avoid.
Measuring Law Firm Culture 11

2.2. The Broader Literature: Paradigm Proliferation

Of course, it is difficult to say what a more systematic study of large law firm
culture would look like. The term ‘‘culture,’’ like ‘‘ethics,’’ is difficult to
define, and the broader literature on organizational culture suffers from
‘‘paradigm proliferation’’ (Martin, 2002, p. 49) – or, some would say,
benefits from it (Ouchi & Wilkins, 1985, p. 479).
Some scholars would deny the objectivity of culture altogether, viewing
culture as primarily or entirely a projection of the researcher (Czarniawska,
1998; Martin, 2002) and his or her informants (Key, 1999). For instance,
postmodern accounts view all representations of culture as partial and, to
some extent, arbitrary (Martin & Frost, 1996, p. 611). This arbitrariness
stems from the relationship between the signifier and the signified and is not
capable of resolution through better measurement (Alvesson & Berg, 1992,
p. 202). From this perspective, organizational culture research is primarily a
struggle among researchers for intellectual dominance (Martin & Frost,
1996). Some argue that organizational theory should be reconceived as a
literary genre (Czarniawska, 1999).
Assuming the researcher’s interest survives this epistemological
critique, the next question is whether cultural concepts and categories
should be defined by the researcher or by organizational members
themselves. Most ethnographic research on organizational culture traces
its roots to cultural anthropologists such as Malinowski (1961) and
Geertz (1983), who thought it essential that researchers view things from
a native or ‘‘emic’’ point of view (Martin, 2002, p. 37), without normative or
theoretical preconceptions. As Geertz (1983, p. 58) wrote, ‘‘the trick is to
figure out what the devil [the natives] think they are up to.’’ Theory-
building, however, requires an ‘‘etic’’ or outsider point of view, in which
research categories and questions are drawn from prior theory and research
(Martin, 2002, p. 36).
A related issue is whether to focus on cultural integration, by privileging
those manifestations of organizational culture about which there is
consensus; cultural differentiation, which emphasizes the existence of and
relationships between subcultures; or cultural fragmentation, which views
cultural consensus as ‘‘transient and issue-specific’’ (Martin, 2002, p. 94).
Although each of these perspectives arguably has its place in any research
context, researchers often disagree about their relative importance and
empirical fit. For instance, some argue that the management literature tends
to overemphasize cultural integration, by defining organizational culture in
terms of managers’ ideals and perspectives and treating inconsistencies as
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