Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-02T21:38:08.488Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Private Law Firms in the Public Interest: The Organizational and Institutional Determinants of Pro Bono Participation, 1994–2005

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Steven A. Boutcher
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Despite longstanding concern that the commercialization of legal practice is antithetical to professionalism, corporate law firms have dramatically increased their pro bono participation over the past few decades. What explains this paradox? This article examines the organizational and institutional determinants of pro bono participation across an elite field of large law firms. I find that pro bono work is only partly rooted in internal organizational dynamics and that the institutional environment appears more important for explaining variation in pro bono participation. These findings indicate that large firms may be more drawn to pro bono work as a social process tied to professional status and legitimacy than to concrete, rational organizational goals. Moreover, these findings point to the importance of the interstitial space that these firms inhabit between the legal profession and corporate market as an especially important factor in facilitating, rather than dampening, pro bono participation.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , Spring 2017 , pp. 543 - 564
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Almandoz, Juan. 2014. Founding Teams as Carriers of Competing Logics: When Institutional Forces Predict Banks' Risk Exposure. Administrative Science Quarterly 59:442–73.Google Scholar
American Bar Association. n.d. Model Rules of Professional Rules: Rule 6.1, Voluntary Pro Bono Publico Service. Chicago: Center for Professional Responsibility. http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_6_1_voluntary_pro_bono_publico_service.html (accessed January 15, 2011).Google Scholar
American Bar Association. 2005. Supporting Justice: A Report on the Pro Bono Work of America's Lawyers. Chicago: ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service.Google Scholar
American Bar Association. 2009. Supporting Justice II: A Report on the Pro Bono Work of America's Lawyers. Chicago: ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service.Google Scholar
Baltagi, Badi H., and Wu, Ping X. 1999. Unequally Spaced Panel Data Regressions with AR(1) Disturbances. Econometric Theory 15:814–23.Google Scholar
Baron, James N., Hannan, Michael T., and Burton, M. Diane. 1999. Building the Iron Cage: Determinants of Managerial Intensity in the Early Years of Organizations. American Sociological Review 64:527–47.Google Scholar
Bastedo, Michael N., and Bowman, Nicholas A. 2010. U.S. News & World Report College Rankings: Modeling Institutional Effects on Organizational Reputation. American Journal of Education 116:163–83.Google Scholar
Battilana, Julie, and Dorado, Silvia. 2010. Building Sustainable Hybrid Organizations: The Case of Commercial Microfinance Organizations. Academy of Management Journal 53:1419–40.Google Scholar
Boon, Andrew, and Whyte, Avis. 1999. Charity and Beating Begins at Home: The Aetiology of the New Culture of Pro Bono Culture. Legal Ethics 2:169–91.Google Scholar
Boutcher, Steven A. 2009. The Institutionalization of Pro Bono in Large Law Firms: Trends and Variation Across the AmLaw 200. In Private Lawyers and the Public Interest: The Evolving Role of Pro Bono in the Legal Profession, ed. Granfield, Robert and Mather, Lynn, 135–53. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Boutcher, Steven A. 2010. From Policy to Practice: Assessing the Effect of Large Law Firm Pro Bono Structure on Pro Bono Commitment. Studies in Law, Politics & Society 52:145–67.Google Scholar
Boutcher, Steven A. 2011. Rethinking Culture: Organized Pro Bono, Large Law Firms, and the External Origins of Culture. University of St. Thomas Law Journal 2:108–28.Google Scholar
Boutcher, Steven A. 2013. Lawyering for Social Change: Pro Bono Publico, Cause Lawyering, and the Social Movement Society. Mobilization 18:179–96.Google Scholar
Campbell, John L. 2007. Why Would Corporations Behave in Socially Responsible Ways? An Institutional Theory of Corporate Social Responsibility. Academy of Management Review 32:946–67.Google Scholar
Carroll, Archie B. 1999. Corporate Social Responsibility: Evolution of a Definitional Construct. Business & Society 38:268–95.Google Scholar
Chen, Stephanie. 2009. For Jobless Lawyers, Plan B Includes Good Works. CNN. March 16, 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/16/lawyer.layoff.public/index.html (accessed March 16, 2009).Google Scholar
Cummings, Scott L. 2004. The Politics of Pro Bono. UCLA Law Review 52:1–149.Google Scholar
Cummings, Scott L., and Rhode, Deborah L. 2010. Managing Pro Bono: Doing Well by Doing Better. Fordham Law Review 78:2357–2442.Google Scholar
Daniels, Stephen, and Martin, Joanne. 2009. Legal Services for the Poor: Access, Self‐Interest, and Pro Bono. Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance 12:145–66.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul J., and Powell, Walter W. 1983. The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociological Review 48:147–60.Google Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, and Garth, Bryant. 2009. Pro Bono as an Elite Strategy in Early Lawyer Careers. In Private Lawyers and the Public Interest: The Evolving Role of Pro Bono in the Legal Profession, ed. Granfield, Robert and Mather, Lynn, 115–34. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, Garth, Bryant, Sander, Richard, Sterling, Joyce, and Wilder, Gita. 2004. After the JD: First Results of a National Study of Legal Careers. Chicago: NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education/American Bar Foundation.Google Scholar
Einolf, Christopher J. 2011. Gender Differences in the Correlates of Volunteering and Charitable Giving. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 40:1092–1112.Google Scholar
Epstein, Cynthia F. 2002. Stricture and Structure: The Social and Cultural Context of Pro Bono Work in Wall Street Firms. Fordham Law Review 70:1689–98.Google Scholar
Epstein, Cynthia F. 2009. Issues Entrepreneurs: Charisma, Charisma‐Producing Events, and the Shaping of Pro Bono Practice in Large Law Firms. In Private Lawyers and the Public Interest: The Evolving Role of Pro Bono in the Legal Profession, ed. Granfield, Robert and Mather, Lynn, 211–30. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Espeland, Wendy N., and Sauder, Michael. 2007. Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds. American Journal of Sociology 113:1–40.Google Scholar
Friedland, Roger, and Alford, Robert R. 1991. Bring Society Back in: Symbols, Practices and Institutional Contradictions. In The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, ed. Powell, Walter W. and DiMaggio, Paul J., 232–63. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc, and Palay, Thomas M. 1991. Tournament of Lawyers: The Transformation of the Big Law Firm. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Galaskiewicz, Joseph. 1997. An Urban Grants Economy Revisited: Corporate Charitable Contributions in the Twin Cities, 1979–1981, 1987–1989. Administrative Science Quarterly 42:445–71.Google Scholar
Granfield, Robert. 2007. The Meaning of Pro Bono: Institutional Variations in Professional Obligations among Lawyers. Law & Society Review 41:113–46.Google Scholar
Greene, William H. 2003. Econometric Analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Heinz, John P., and Laumann, Edward O. 1994. Chicago Lawyers: The Social Structure of the Bar. New York: Russell Sage Foundation/American Bar Foundation.Google Scholar
Heinz, John P., Nelson, Robert L., Sandefur, Rebecca L., and Laumann, Edward O. 2005. Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hsiao, Cheng 1986. Analysis of Panel Data. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hwang, Hokyu, and Powell, Walter W. 2009. The Rationalization of Charity: The Influences of Professionalism in the Nonprofit Sector. Administrative Science Quarterly 54:268–98.Google Scholar
Johnson, Victoria 2007. What is Organizational Imprinting? Cultural Entrepreneurship in the Founding of the Paris Opera. American Journal of Sociology 113:97–127.Google Scholar
Justus, Jolie L. 2003. Using Business Strategies and Innovative Practices to Institutionalize Pro Bono in Private Law Firms. University of Missouri–Kansas City Law Review 72:365–75.Google Scholar
Kronman, Anthony T. 1993. The Lost Lawyer: Failing Ideas of the Legal Profession. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lardent, Esther F. 2000. Making the Business Case for Pro Bono. Washington, DC: Pro Bono Institute.Google Scholar
Lempert, Richard O., Chambers, David L., and Adams, Terry K. 2000. Michigan's Minority Graduates in Practice: The River Runs Through Law School. Law & Social Inquiry 25:395–505.Google Scholar
Levin, Leslie C. 2009. Pro Bono and Low Bono in the Solo and Small Firm Context. In Private Lawyers and the Public Interest: The Evolving Role of Pro Bono in the Legal Profession, ed. Granfield, Robert and Mather, Lynn, 155–82. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Levin, Leslie C., and Mather, Lynn. 2012. Lawyers in Practice: Ethical Decision Making in Context. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Linowitz, Sol M. 1994. The Betrayed Profession: Lawyering at the End of the Twentieth Century. New York: Scribner.Google Scholar
Lochner, Phillip R. 1975. The No Fee and Low Fee Legal Practice of Private Attorneys. Law & Society Review 9:431–74.Google Scholar
Margolis, Joshua D., and Walsh, James P. 2003. Misery Loves Companies: Rethinking Social Initiatives by Business. Administrative Science Quarterly 48:268–305.Google Scholar
Marquis, Christopher, and Lounsbury, Michael. 2007. Vive la Resistance: Competing Logics and the Consolidation of US Community Banking. Academy of Management Journal 50:799–820.Google Scholar
Mather, Lynn, McEwen, Craig A., and Maiman, Richard J. 2001. Divorce Lawyers at Work: Varieties of Professionalism in Practice. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McGuire, Jean B., Sundgren, Alison, and Schneeweis, Thomas. 1988. Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Financial Performance. Academy of Management Journal 31:854–72.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W., and Rowan, Brian. 1977. Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony. American Journal of Sociology 83:340–63.Google Scholar
Meyer, Marshall W. 1979. Organizational Structure as Signaling. Pacific Sociological Review 22:481–500.Google Scholar
Nelson, Robert L., & Trubek, David M. 1992. Arenas of Professionalism: The Professional Ideologies of Lawyers in Professional and Workplace Contexts. In Lawyers Ideals/Lawyers Practices: Transformations in the American Legal Profession, ed. Nelson, Robert L., Trubek, David M., and Solomon, Rayman L., 177–214. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Orlitzky, Marc, Schmidt, Frank L., and Rynes, Sara L. 2003. Corporate Social and Financial Performance: A Meta‐Analysis. Organization Studies 24:403–41.Google Scholar
Pache, Anne‐Claire, and Santos, Filipe. 2013. Inside the Hybrid Organization: Selective Coupling as a Response to Conflicting Institutional Logics. Academy of Management Journal 56:972–1001.Google Scholar
Powell, Michael J. 1988. From Patrician to Professional Elite: The Transformation of the New York City Bar Association. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Rhode, Deborah L. 2005. Pro Bono in Principle and in Practice: Public Service and the Professions. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Rhode, Deborah L. 2009. For Whose Good? American Lawyer, July 1, 56.Google Scholar
Russell, Irma S. 2003. The Lawyer as Public Citizen: Meeting the Pro Bono Challenge. University of Missouri–Kansas City Law Review 72:439–46.Google Scholar
Sandefur, Rebecca L. 2007. Lawyers' Pro Bono Service and American‐Style Civil Legal Assistance. Law & Society Review 41:79–112.Google Scholar
Sauder, Michael, and Espeland, Wendy N. 2009. The Discipline of Rankings: Tight Coupling and Organizational Change. American Sociological Review 74:63–82.Google Scholar
Sherer, Peter D., and Lee, Kyungmook. 2002. Institutional Change in Large Law Firms: A Resource Dependency and Institutional Perspective. Academy of Management Journal 45:102–19.Google Scholar
Solomon, Rayman L. 1992. Five Crises or One: The Concept of Legal Professionalism, 1925–1960. In Lawyers' Ideals/Lawyers' Practices: Transformation in the American Legal Profession, ed. Nelson, Robert L., Trubek, David M., and Solomon, Rayman L., 144–73. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
StataCorp. 2007. Stata Statistical Software: Release 10.0. College Station, TX: Stata Corporation.Google Scholar
Stinchcombe, Arthur. 1965. Organizations and Social Structure. In Handbook of Organizations, ed. March, James G., 142–93. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Stone, Harlan. 1934. The Public Influence of the Bar. Harvard Law Review 48:1–14.Google Scholar
Strossen, Nadine. 1993. Pro Bono Legal Work: For the Good of Not Only the Public, but Also the Lawyer and the Legal Profession. Michigan Law Review 91:2122–49.Google Scholar
Suddaby, Roy, and Greenwood, Royston. 2005. Rhetorical Strategies and Legitimacy. Administrative Science Quarterly 50:35–67.Google Scholar
Thoits, Peggy A., and Hewitt, Lyndi N. 2001. Volunteer Work and Well‐Being. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 42:115–31.Google Scholar
Thornton, Patricia H., Ocasio, William, and Lounsbury, Michael. 2012. The Institutional Logics Perspective: A New Approach to Culture, Structure, and Process. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Waddock, Sandra A., and Graves, Samuel B. 1997. The Corporate Social Performance–Financial Performance Link. Strategic Management Journal 18:303–19.Google Scholar
White, Lucie E. 2000. Pro Bono or Partnership? Rethinking Lawyers' Public Service Obligations for a New Millennium. Journal of Legal Education 50:134–46.Google Scholar
Wilkins, David, Chambliss, Elizabeth, Jones, Lisa, and Adamson, Haile. 2002. The State of Black Alumni: Final Report of the Harvard Black Alumni Survey. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, John, and Musick, Marc. 1997. Who Cares? Toward an Integrated Theory of Volunteer Work. American Sociological Review 62:694–713.Google Scholar
Wooten, Melissa, and Hoffman, Andrew J. 2008. Organizational Fields: Past, Present and Future. In The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, ed. Greenwood, Royston, Oliver, Christine, Sahlin, Kerstin, and Suddaby, Roy, 130–47. London: Sage.Google Scholar