An Institutional Ecology of Law Firms in Silicon Valley

这是一项对加利福尼亚州硅谷律师事务所的研究，由教师早期职业发展(Career)计划支持。它将组织社会学与法律社会学联系起来，探索律师事务所作为组织和法律行为者在地方发展中的作用。该项目包括三个目标--理论目标、经验目标和教育目标。从理论上讲，该项目将解决关于新兴组织社区的特征、现代律师事务所的组织间影响以及正式合同作为经济治理机制的作用的持续辩论。从经验上讲，该项目将构建和分析两个相关的数据集，一个是关于硅谷一个关键法律工具(标准化风险资本融资合同，简称VCFC)的起源和影响的，另一个是关于更大的硅谷法律社区的结构和动态的。VCFC研究将能够对新的组织领域内出现和扩散一种新的合同手段的情况进行多变量统计分析。法律共同体研究将探索宣布这一法律创新的专业组织群体的动态，这些组织在很大程度上没有被研究过。在教育方面，该项目将推出一系列创新的法律和组织社会学经验课程，本科生和研究生将通过这些课程对创业的社会法律环境和职业生涯结构有新的见解。该设计包含三个部分--两个经验部分和一个教学部分。为了审查标准化氯氟化碳的出现、扩散和影响，该项目将汇编1975年至1990年期间约300项第一轮高技术融资的数据。数据收集将把关于每个VCFC条款的内容分析信息与(A)关于围绕交易的经济和体制条件的背景数据和(B)关于初创公司后来命运的结果数据联系起来。数据分析将寻求确定不同的“融资原型”，并揭示选择一个原型而不是另一个原型的决定因素和影响。为了考察硅谷法律界的结构和动态，该项目将汇编从1960年到1990年在该地区开展业务的律师事务所数量以及在这些律师事务所执业的律师数量的纵向数据。数据分析将审查这些法律行为者的命运是否受到周围组织社区的发展以及行为者自己接受或拒绝特定组织间角色的影响。最后，为了将这些经验性的努力整合到一个正在进行的教学和研究计划中，该项目将开发两个新的研讨会，强调体验式和协作式学习技术。第一个研讨会将集中讨论法律、创新和创业精神；第二个研讨会将集中讨论法律专业的社会学。该项目还将加强已有的课程，并开展若干校外外联工作。硅谷提供了一个难得的机会来研究创业和社区发展的机制，并将这些关键的组织现象与具体的组织间传粉者的活动联系起来。此前的研究表明，硅谷律师事务所往往扮演着传粉者的角色，在原本孤立的初创企业之间传播基本的运营诀窍。随着时间的推移，这些活动很可能已经改变了当地的商界，产生了制度化的做法，而今天的社区成员基本上认为这些做法是理所当然的。然而，与此同时，本地律师事务所本身也经历了许多来自周围动荡环境的压力。因此，这些公司必须被视为不断变化的社区秩序的创造者和创造者，同时在正在进行的共同进化交流中塑造和反映周围的资源和信息流。对这一复杂过程有更全面的了解，有望阐明有关组织创新、区域发展和法律专业在经济变革中的作用等关键问题。

This is a study of law firms in California's Silicon Valley, supported under the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. It links organizational sociology with the sociology of law to explore the role of law firms, as organizational and legal actors, in local development. The project integrates three objectives -- theoretical, empirical, and educational. Theoretically, the project will address ongoing debates over the characteristics of emerging organizational communities, over the interorganizational impact of the modern law firm, and over the role of formal contracts as economic governance mechanisms. Empirically, the project will construct and analyze two related data sets, one on the origins and effects of a key Silicon Valley legal device (the standardized venture capital financing contract, or "VCFC"), and the other on the structure and dynamics of the larger Silicon Valley legal community. The VCFC Study will allow multivariate statistical analysis of the emergence and diffusion of a novel contractual device within a new organizational field. The Legal Community Study will explore the dynamics of the heretofore largely unstudied population of professional organizations that promulgated this legal innovation. Educationally, the project will introduce a sequence of innovative, experiential courses in legal and organizational sociology, whereby undergraduate and graduate students will gain new insights into the socio-legal environment of entrepreneurship and into the structure of professional careers. The design incorporates three components -- two empirical and one instructional. To examine the emergence, diffusion and impact of the standardized VCFC, the project will compile data on approximately 300 first-round high-technology financings, occurring from 1975 to 1990. Data collection will link content-analytic information on the terms of each VCFC with (a) contextual data on the economic and institutional conditions surrounding the transaction and (b) outcome data on the subsequent fate of the start-up company. Data analyses will seek to identify distinct "financing archetypes," and to uncover the determinants and effects of choosing one such archetype over another. To examine the structure and dynamics of the Silicon Valley legal community, the project will compile longitudinal data on the population of law firms operating in the region -- and on the population of attorneys practicing within those firms -- from 1960 to 1990. Data analyses will examine whether the fates of these legal actors were shaped by the development of the surrounding organizational community and by the actors' own adoption or rejection of specific interorganizational roles. Finally, to integrate these empirical efforts into an ongoing program of teaching and research, the project will develop two new seminars, emphasizing experiential and collaborative learning techniques. The first seminar will focus on Law, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; the second, on the Sociology of the Legal Profession. The project will also enhance preexisting courses and launch a number of extramural outreach efforts. Silicon Valley offers a rare opportunity to examine the mechanics of entrepreneurship and community development, and to link these crucial organizational phenomena to the activities of concrete inter-organizational pollinators. Previous research suggests that Silicon Valley law firms often play this pollinator role, transmitting basic operating know-how between otherwise isolated start-ups. Over time, it is likely that such activities have transformed the local business community, giving rise to institutionalized practices that today's community members largely take for granted. At the same time, however, local law firms have, themselves, experienced numerous pressures emanating from the turbulent environment around them. Thus, these firms must be seen as both creations and creators of the shifting community order, simultaneously shaping and reflecting surrounding flows of resources and i nformation in an ongoing coevolutionary interchange. A fuller understanding of this complex process promises to shed light on critical issues regarding organizational innovation, regional development, and the role of the legal profession in economic change.