The independence of the legal profession suffered immeasurably when the bar associations were dissolved after the 1979 Revolution. They only gradually recuperated and reorganized in the 1990s, being allowed to hold internal elections again in 1997 and regain a degree of political independence. Since the early 2000s, however, hardliners have ensured that regimist lawyers dominate the bars’ boards, with the effect that the human rights work of the bar associations came to a halt. What has undermined the work of the bar associations most, however, is the parallel training and examination mechanisms set up in the judiciary for a different kind of lawyer, so-called Article 187 legal advisors. These do not take a bar exam and also otherwise are not organized by the Bar. They are required to seek renewal of their accreditation from the judiciary every year, thus making them highly dependent on the judiciary’s goodwill.

Look around rural America and you’ll see small towns losing population and suffering brain drain. Look closer, and you’ll notice lawyers are aging and not being replaced by new graduates. Doing nothing is not an option, rural residents deserve legal representation. States are now experimenting with policies to incentivize rural law practice, but ten years ago, South Dakota was first. Based on interviews with rural lawyers, The Rural Lawyer shows how rural incentive programs can work, what it is like to begin a law career in rural America, and how rural lawyers can help small communities thrive.

This chapter investigates the impact of artificial intelligence on legal services. The questions addressed include: How will artificial intelligence change and improve the legal services offered by lawyers? How will the legal profession change as a result of the increased use of artificial intelligence? How will artificial intelligence change the way lawyers work and the way they organise, charge for and finance their work? A key insight discussed concerns the focus when thinking about the impact of artificial intelligence on the work of lawyers: concentrating on the ‘tasks’ that lawyers perform reveals more insights than asking whether artificial intelligence will destroy ‘jobs’. Exploring the impact on ‘tasks’ of lawyers shows that they are both consumers and producers of services augmented by artificial intelligence. Focusing on ‘tasks’ also helps in understanding what kinds of activities are affected by artificial intelligence and which activities will be performed, at least for the foreseeable future, by human lawyers. The discussion also deals with the emergence of multidisciplinary teams and the success indicators for LawTech start-ups.

With or without professional in-house counsel, Chinese companies must rely heavily on outside lawyers to effectively manage legal risks in the United States. Companies operating in the United States must navigate through an intricate web of legal rights and obligations, which cannot be done without adequate legal assistance. While a vast literature has accumulated on the US legal profession and the legal service market, few scholars have studied the interactions between multinational companies and their US lawyers, leaving important questions open. For instance, do Chinese companies bring their lack of appreciation or even contempt for lawyers and legal services to the United States, or do they adapt to the host-state environment and take legal advice seriously? Moreover, how do Chinese companies choose from the 1.3 million US lawyers? Are Chinese companies becoming a significant revenue source for US law firms, which will give them pricing power in the market and the ability to dictate how legal services are provided? Do their lawyer selection preferences and legal expenditures vary across different Chinese companies, and if so, what institutional and firm-specific factors may explain the variations? This chapter answers these crucial yet unexplored questions within the dual institutional framework.

The legal professions in Asia are a plural concept. Many Asian countries are civil law jurisdictions in which lawyers, judges, and prosecutors are separately licensed. Even in common law jurisdictions, lawyers rarely are a homogeneous group. Moreover, there are paralegal or unauthorized occupational groups that parallel the profession of lawyers. The meaning of being a “lawyer” in Asia, therefore, is often more complex and controversial than in North American or European contexts. The different types of legal professions range from barristers and solicitors in Hong Kong and unified legal professions in other former British colonies, to Continental-style judges and prosecutors in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, Soviet-style “iron triangles” of police, procurators, and judges in China and Central Asia, and to unlicensed “barefoot” lawyers across the continent. This chapter provides an overview of the plurality of legal professions and their demographic and sociological characteristics. It goes on to highlight the legal service market, demonstrating the connections between lawyers and different kinds of clients and practice areas, and the interactions between the legal professions, judicial system, and state. The chapter concludes with readings on the role of lawyers in transforming the state—and the impact of state transformations on lawyers themselves.

‘ The inns of court man that never was studient’ argues that the contemporary stereotype of the idle and dissolute young inns of court gallant with more interest in playgoing than reading law reports, while doubtless exaggerated for moral and satirical effect, is corroborated by an abundance of biographical evidence.It also reflects two prime causes of student delinquency and disinclination for legal studies: lack of supervision and the intractability of the common law as a subject of study. ‘Guides to Method’ surveys the legal literature available to students, concluding that it offered little assistance to those attempting to navigate the law’s complexities. ‘Lay and Professional Legal Knowledge’ emphasises the gulf between the practising barrister’s expertise and the kinds of legal knowledge which most laymen were likely to need or possess.

Yet members acquired and exercised a remarkably wide range of non-legal accomplishments and skills. ‘Accomplishments and the Decline of Creativity’ argues that the inns did little to encourage such activities, especially after c.1615. ‘Varieties of Learning’ surveys the remarkably diverse intellectual life of the early modern inns, while the closing section ‘Achievements, Failures, Prescriptions’ evaluates their diverse roles as educational institutions, and the few contemporary proposals for their reform.

This chapter maps the continued presence of Roman Catholics at the inns of court, from the accession of Elizabeth and her protestant church settlement of 1559 to the eve of the civil war. ‘Survival and Resurgence’ shows that besides a significant remnant of Catholic lawyerswho had held firm to their traditional beliefs and successfully resisted conformity to the new dispensation, the 1570s saw the arrival of missionary priests charged with reviving the old faith. Besides supporting existing Catholics, they sought new adherents among the gentlemen students of the inns of court, as a vital step towards freeing the country from heresy.

Notwithstanding a battery of increasingly restrictive measures aimed at excluding Catholics from the inns, ‘Quietism and Survival’ shows that papists continued to be admitted and even promoted to the bar and bench. But the anticipated flood of well-born converts did not eventuate, and in the early seventeenth century the failure of Gunpowder Plot saw a more relaxed and tolerant attitude towards Catholics, at the inns as elsewhere, on the part of both government and the inns’ rulers. While both pragmatic and commendably tolerant, this policy stance underestimated the political potency of anti-popish paranoia among the population at large.

After an introductory excursus on the concept of the inns as early modern England’s third university, this chapter outlines the form of legal instruction which they provided by means of oral ‘learning exercises’, notably case-putting in moots and other exercises involving the argument of hypothetical cases in law,and ‘readings’ or lectures at both the inns of court and chancery.

The second section (‘The State of the Learning Exercises to 1640’) considers the supposed decline in the performance of exercises. It argues that even though they may have been rendered largely obsolete by the advent of the printed law-book, there is little to suggest that they were not generally performed in a conscientious and regular fashion before the outbreak of the civil war. But it was one thing to preserve the system as a going concern, quite another to revive it after the disruptions of the 1640s and ‘50s.

After outlining the motivation for a second edition, this opens with a brief account (‘Origins’) of how the book first came to be written and published. It then proceeds to discuss (‘Continuities and Changes’) the 1960s-early ‘70s historiographical context in which it was created and its positive reception on first publication. Some criticisms, questions and suggestions raised by readers and reviewers are also outlined and discussed. The following section (‘New Ways and New Work’) canvasses the impact of the digital revolution on scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, together with the burgeoning of specialised research, and explains how the large body of new work bearing on the history of the early modern inns has been accommodated in the following text.The final section (Future Directions) looks at challenges and opportunities for further research on the inns, addressing a wide range of questions and topics of interest to both general and legal historians.