Feature Articles
The State of the Legal Profession
Globalization: From Theory to Practice
In 2007, Kate Bouquard (C’01, L’04), an associate in the corporate and securities department in Greenberg Traurig’s New York office, was representing U.S. companies in the acquisition of U.S.-owned entities. By the end of 2008, she was doing the same work — for foreign clients.
“Being at a global law firm like Greenberg, and at Georgetown Law, they really have an emphasis on being a global lawyer, so I’ve been really prepared for this time,” she says. “It sounds theoretical, the global lawyer, but that’s truly what it is; it’s being able to build international business relationships and facilitate cross-border transactions when market conditions change.”
Indeed, of all the trends facing the legal profession, the trend toward globalization is the most exciting, for lawyers as well as those in academia. Visiting Professor Carole Silver — executive director of the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession and one of the country’s foremost scholars on globalization — described some of these trends at the Center for Transnational Legal Studies’ panel on the emerging global lawyer last fall in London.
In the last 20 years, the number of lawyers working overseas for the NLJ 250 has grown at a rate of more than 10 times the number of lawyers working in the U.S. offices of these firms, Silver noted. As of October, the 64 largest U.S. firms supported 386 offices in 37 countries, with more than 8700 lawyers overseas, she said. Seventy-five percent of those were in Europe, with half of those in London.
The approach to lawyering overseas has changed, too, as firms have shifted from exporting a few lawyers overseas to advise on U.S. law to a more localized approach. “The picture today is really quite different,” Silver said, noting that two-thirds of all lawyers working in the overseas offices of the 64 largest firms have no U.S. legal education at all and are typically trained and licensed in the jurisdiction in which they practice. “Fewer than 20 percent of all the overseas office lawyers earned a J.D. in the United States.”
At the same event, Ted Burke (L’86), CEO of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, said that “a global lawyer isn’t an expert in the laws of every country,” though he noted that global lawyers do need to be flexible, open minded, creative and sensitive to the idea of different cultures and systems. “The parochial lawyer — the one who says, ‘Well, this is the way we do it here and that’s the way it must be done everywhere’ — is a client killer.”
William P. Frank (C’63) of Skadden Arps noted in the panel discussion that law firms are now publicly traded in Australia, a trend that some predicted would have spread to U.S. firms by now. It hasn’t happened yet, but Frank added that he hoped it would not. “On the one hand we are a business,” he said, “but on the other hand, we still are a profession.”
More Flexible Career Paths
Other “megatrends” in the profession cited by the experts include the great increase in recent years in law firm mergers and the segmentation of law firms into revenue “tiers.” (In a November 12 presentation for the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession, Hildebrandt’s Jim Jones, citing the Legal Business Global 100, noted that the top 10 Global 100 law firms account for a third of the total revenues in these firms.) And many note a rise in permanent nonpartner positions in law firms.
“Law firms now offer more flexible career paths, and I believe that they are to be commended for recognizing that they had been losing good talent over that issue,” said Carol Rakatansky (L’92), associate general counsel at Sallie Mae who — like most general counsel — began her career in a firm. Different career tracks and levels, with different rates and pay scales, are more accepted now in law firms, she says.
Still, those who aspire to an alternative career in a firm may do well to play their cards close to their vests. “Students come to me and say, being a non-equity partner or being a permanent counsel sounds great,” Regan says. “But then I ask managing partners, ‘Suppose someone in an interview said, this is what I aspire to?’ They generally say, ‘We wouldn’t be interested.’ They want to keep it as a consolation prize for those who aim to be equity partner but fall short.”
Since they’re not in the business of running a large law firm, those at the Center can examine what is happening, for example, to this group of lawyers in non-partner positions. Are they stigmatized? Do they have opportunities to advance? Are they primarily women?
“When a guy stands up [at a law firm meeting] and says, ‘I’ve got to leave now to go take care of my kids,’ that’s really cool — you’re making a statement,” said Michael Nannes (L’77), the chairman of Dickstein Shapiro. Nannes appeared with fellow alums Linda Oliver (L’80), Audrey Bracey Deegan (L’80, G’80) and Dean of Students Mitchell Bailin at a recent panel on work-life balance sponsored in part by the Center. By contrast, Nannes noted, when a woman steps out, people may question her commitment to the job. “That’s just not fair, but it is part of the reality.”
Some of the other Center projects currently underway include an investigation of law firm culture and its role in the conduct and ethical standards of lawyers; as well as Silver’s research on international law graduates who come to the United States for postgraduate legal education. A survey of law graduates will also gather data about the career trajectories of Georgetown Law alumni; a sample was recently sent to more than 4400 alums.
“Our research is going to inform students about opportunities available to them, how to chart their paths as well,” Silver says.
Other Georgetown Law faculty members have been busy studying the legal profession, as well. Professor Jonathan Molot, for example, has been conducting research that focuses on how lawyers might be better able to manage and minimize legal risks for their clients.
“We all would like to get more faculty involved in this,” says Bauman, Center co-director, “so more of our colleagues start to think about these kinds of questions and it gets more instinctively on a lot of people’s radar screens.”
Regan, Bauman and Silver say they would like the Center to serve as a bridge between the growing community of scholars who are studying the tumultuous changes that are occurring in the legal profession, and the lawyers who experience these changes on a daily basis.
“It’s these kinds of questions that we talk about all the time and we’re trying to figure out ways to systematize,” Bauman says. “Someone says, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if [we looked at]…’ and that’s what happens.”
