Incorporating and Selling Legal Services Plans: The Declineof Solo Practice

今天，独立律师和小律师事务所面临着来自营利性和非营利性律师事务所日益激烈的竞争。这些“新的法律服务提供者”的营销策略各有不同，但每一种都取得了相当大的成功。然而，这一级别的法律专业对法律实践的影响尚未得到系统的研究。这就是目前试点或规划研究的任务。已经确定了四种私人法律服务的新模式：(1)提供无预约执业的“诊所”律师事务所，(2)提供无预约服务和法律保险计划的“大众”市场律师事务所，(3)接受保险转介的“传统”律师事务所，以及(4)附属于工会的非营利性律师事务所。试点项目将包括与新的法律服务提供者进行不限成员名额的面谈，以及对这些工作环境进行实地观察。因为他们似乎在单独执业中取代了律师，后者也被包括在这种类型学中，以开发一个对照小组进行比较。营利性新提供商的成功取决于将商业模式纳入专业服务的提供。但新模式的每一项要求都破坏了对专业工作的传统观念。营销一种合法商品与传统法律实践的被动、服务导向相矛盾。标准化挑战了个性化治疗的传统。而比较律师的产量和生产率，就会让人质疑专业人士对工作的控制力和自主性。虽然这家非营利性公司并不在竞争激烈的市场环境中运营，但律师被视为“雇员”，旧的专业精神也受到了类似的侵蚀。私人法律服务提供方面的这些持续变化提出了与社会法律研究、组织理论和职业社会学密切相关的描述性和分析性问题。该项目调查律师如何应对其执业结构中的这些变化，并探讨这些发展对理解二十世纪末专业工作性质的影响。

Solo and small-firm lawyers face increasing competition today from the for-profit and not-for-profit law firm. The marketing strategies of these "new providers" of legal services are varied but each has met with considerable success. The impact of this tier of the legal profession on the practice of law, however,has not yet been systematically examined. This is the task of the present pilot or planning study. Four new modes of private legal services have been identified: (1) "clinical" law firms with a walk-in practice, (2) "mass" market law firms which offer walk-in service and legal insurance programs, (3) "traditional" law firms which receive insurance referrals, and (4) non-profit law firms attached to labor unions. The pilot project will include open-ended interviews with new providers of legal services as well as on site observation of each of these work settings. Because they appear to be replacing attorneys in solo practice, the latter also are in included in this typology to develop a control group for comparison. The success of for-profit new providers rests on the incorporation of a business model into the delivery of a professional service. But each of the requirements of the new model undermines traditional notions of professional work. Marketing a legal commodity contradicts the passive, service orientation of traditional law practice. Standardization challenges the tradition of individualized treatment. And comparing the output and productivity of lawyers throws into question the professional's control and autonomy of work. While the not-for-profit firm does not operate in a competitive market environment, attorneys are treated as "employees", with analogous erosion of the old professionalism. These ongoing changes in the delivery of private legal services raise descriptive and analytic questions that are germane to socio-legal research, organizational theory, and the sociology of the professions. The project investigates how attorneys have responded to these changes in the fabric of their practice and addresses the implications of these developments for understanding the nature of professional work in the late twentieth century.