Incorporating and Selling Legal Services Plans: The Declineof Solo Practice

如今，个人律师事务所和小型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。这些法律服务“新提供者”的营销策略各不相同，但每一个都取得了相当大的成功。然而，这一层次的法律职业对法律实践的影响尚未得到系统的审查。这是目前试点或规划研究的任务。已经确定了四种新的私人法律服务模式：(1)“临床”律师事务所，提供上门服务；(2)“大众”市场律师事务所，提供上门服务和法律保险计划；(3)“传统”律师事务所，接受保险推荐；(4)附属于工会的非营利律师事务所。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，以及对每一种工作环境进行现场观察。因为他们似乎正在取代单独执业的律师，后者也被包括在这个类型学中，以形成一个对照组进行比较。以营利为目的的新提供商的成功取决于将商业模式整合到专业服务的交付中。但新模式的每一项要求都破坏了传统的专业工作观念。法律商品的营销与传统法律实践的被动服务取向相矛盾。标准化挑战了个体化治疗的传统。比较律师的产出和生产力，会让人对专业人士对工作的控制和自主产生质疑。虽然非营利性公司不是在竞争激烈的市场环境中运作，但律师被视为“雇员”，这类似地侵蚀了旧的专业精神。私人法律服务提供的这些持续变化提出了与社会法律研究、组织理论和专业社会学密切相关的描述性和分析性问题。该项目调查了律师如何在他们的实践结构中应对这些变化，并解决了这些发展对理解20世纪后期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.