Interorganizational Determinants of Promotion: Client Leadership and the Attainment of Women Attorneys

2005 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 678-701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine M. Beckman ◽  
Damon J. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Internal Labor Markets ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Demographic Composition ◽  
Women Attorneys ◽  
Corporate Clients

Explanations of gender inequality typically emphasize individual characteristics, the structure of internal labor markets, or pressures from the institutional environment. Extending the structuralist and institutional perspectives, this article argues that the demographic composition of an organization's exchange partners can influence the demographic composition of the focal organization when the focal organization is dependent upon its partners. Specifically, law firms with women-led corporate clients increase the number of partners who are women attorneys. Data on elite law firms and their publicly traded clients support a bargaining power hypothesis whereby law firms promote women attorneys when their corporate clients have women in three key leadership positions: general (legal) counsel, chief executive officer, and board director. These effects are stronger when the law firm has few clients, reinforcing the hypothesis that interorganizational influence is more vital when a focal organization is dependent on its exchange partner. The results also support a related explanation based on homophily theory. The analysis rules out several alternative explanations and establishes a relationship between the presence of women-led clients and the promotion of women attorneys in law firms.

Hiring Teams, Firms, and Lawyers: Evidence of the Evolving Relationships in the Corporate Legal Market

2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (04) ◽  
pp. 999-1031 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Coates ◽  
Michele M. DeStefano ◽  
Ashish Nanda ◽  
David B. Wilkins
Keyword(s):  
Law Firms ◽  
Legal Capacity ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Legal Market ◽  
Preferred Providers ◽  
Rival Firms ◽  
Specific Capital ◽  
Corporate Clients

How are relationships between corporate clients and law firms evolving? Drawing on interview and survey data from 166 chief legal officers of S&P 500 companies from 2006–2007, we find that—contrary to standard depictions of corporate client-provider relationships—(1) large companies have relationships with ten to twenty preferred providers; (2) these relationships continue to be enduring; and (3) clients focus not only on law firm platforms and lead partners, but also on teams and departments within preferred providers, allocating work to these subunits at rival firms over time and following “star” lawyers, especially if they move as part of a team. The combination of long-term relationships and subunit rivalry provides law firms with steady work flows and allows companies to keep cost pressure on firms while preserving relationship-specific capital, quality assurance, and soft forms of legal capacity insurance. Our findings have implications for law firms, corporate departments, and law schools.

Legal Reform, Law Firms, and Lawyer Stratification in Japan

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayumi Nakamura
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Legal Reform ◽  
Law School ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Judicial Reform ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Law School Graduates

AbstractIn many countries, the size of a law firm is closely related to the specializations and incomes of the lawyers it employs, and can be considered an index for disparities among lawyers. Gender and school prestige may affect the size of the first firm that lawyers join. Moreover, since the lawyer population has quadrupled over the last 20 years in Japan, mainly due to judicial reform, I hypothesize that this population increase has changed how gender and school prestige affect the size of the first firm law school graduates decide to join. To test this, I conducted a secondary statistical analysis on the effect of gender and school prestige on the size of the first firm that lawyers joined, using survey data collected by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations in 2010. Findings suggest that there were no significant differences in the size of women’s and men’s first employer, but that school prestige was significant. Moreover, the importance of school prestige has increased over the years.

scholarly journals Promotion to Partner in Large Law Firms Operating in the United Kingdom: Tournament Theory and the Monitoring of the Implied Promise

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
David Howell Shufflebotham
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Tournament Theory ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
The Uk

<p>This research is a study of the promotion to partner process in large law firms in the United Kingdom (UK). It is concerned with the application of tournament theory to such firms. In particular it is an examination of the ability of associate lawyers to monitor the implied promise that, in prescribed circumstances, they will have the opportunity of becoming a partner at their firms. In order to identify whether or not the rules of tournament theory on promotion to partnership hold true when set against the experiences of lawyers in large law firms operating in the UK, I established a theoretical framework based on a review of the relevant literature. I then tested that theoretical framework with data from two sources: case study interviews with partners at a large UK law firm; and a questionnaire distributed to a wider sample group of partners across a number of large UK law firms. The research found strong evidence to support the application of the core elements of tournament theory to large law firms in the UK. The research also found, however, that the implied promise envisaged by tournament theory was not the promise monitored by the individuals who took part in the research project.</p>

Female American in-house counsel are no more likely to reach senior ranks than female counterparts in law firms

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Gender Disparities ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Senior Leadership ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Public Companies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Primary Mechanism ◽  
Large Corporations ◽  
Job Category

Purpose The authors wanted to find out if women in-house lawyers were treated more equitably than their counterparts in law firms and, therefore, reached higher ranks more often. Design/methodology/approach The authors examined 10 years of data about public companies in the ExecuComp dataset. The information includes name, age, gender, job category and numerous compensation measures. Public companies must report their top five earners. The authors narrowed their focus to 2,154 lawyers of whom 1,851 were men and 303 were women. Findings Analysis supported hypothesis 1, showing women are underrepresented in senior legal roles in large corporations. Hypothesis 2, however, was not supported. It was expected that women would be more likely to hold senior positions in female-dominated industries, but this was not the case. Finally, hypothesis 3 was not supported either. It suggested in-house women counsel would earn comparable compensation to their male counterparts. But analysis showed women earned 92.6pc of men earn and their bonuses were only 73.2pc of men’s. Originality/value The authors say the research has important practical lessons for companies. Many of the remedies for gender disparities in law firms apply also to in-house counsel, they say. A primary mechanism is to integrate more women into senior leadership positions. This will tend to lead to reductions in compensation disparities, as well as greater accountability and transparency.

Knowledge Management in Law Firms

2011 ◽  
pp. 1818-1840
Author(s):  
Petter Gottschalk
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Knowledge ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Social Community ◽  
The Creation

Law enforcement is of concern to law firms. A law firm can be understood as a social community specializing in the speed and efficiency in the creation and transfer of legal knowledge (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). Many law firms represent large corporate enterprises, organizations, or entrepreneurs with a need for continuous and specialized legal services that can only be supplied by a team of lawyers. The client is a customer of the firm, rather than a particular lawyer. According to Galanter and Palay (1991, p. 5), relationships with clients tend to be enduring:

Frames

2021 ◽  
pp. 45-72
Author(s):  
Swethaa S. Ballakrishnen
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
New Work ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
New Firms ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Indian Law ◽  
Ideal Worker

This chapter explores the role of institutional novelty in moderating the experience of gender. It shows how the emergence of the Indian elite law firm has been uniquely shaped by the newness of the work and the organizational structure — as well as a new, neoliberal workforce not found in other professional firms of similar status. As new firms doing new work, these elite law firms are indeed advantaged by being able to escape strong preconceived notions of work and identity. In addition, the newness of the law schools that socialize these firms' workers contribute to the firms' multi-layered advantage, an advantage not enjoyed by other firms that are similarly structured by globalization but that draw their workforce from more long-established educational institutions. Ultimately, the chapter demonstrates how globalization and class come together to renegotiate traditional assumptions of gender and the framework of an ideal worker. It argues that the gender outcomes in these firms result not from a movement for gender equality, but instead from the emergence of the Indian law firm as a new site of high-prestige global labor.

scholarly journals Why East Asians but not South Asians are underrepresented in leadership positions in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (9) ◽  
pp. 4590-4600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackson G. Lu ◽  
Richard E. Nisbett ◽  
Michael W. Morris
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Chief Executive Officers ◽  
South Asians ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
The United States ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
East Asians ◽  
Cultural Fit ◽  
Bamboo Ceiling ◽  
Executive Officers

Well-educated and prosperous, Asians are called the “model minority” in the United States. However, they appear disproportionately underrepresented in leadership positions, a problem known as the “bamboo ceiling.” It remains unclear why this problem exists and whether it applies to all Asians or only particular Asian subgroups. To investigate the mechanisms and scope of the problem, we compared the leadership attainment of the two largest Asian subgroups in the United States: East Asians (e.g., Chinese) and South Asians (e.g., Indians). Across nine studies (n= 11,030) using mixed methods (archival analyses of chief executive officers, field surveys in large US companies, student leader nominations and elections, and experiments), East Asians were less likely than South Asians and whites to attain leadership positions, whereas South Asians were more likely than whites to do so. To understand why the bamboo ceiling exists for East Asians but not South Asians, we examined three categories of mechanisms—prejudice (intergroup), motivation (intrapersonal), and assertiveness (interpersonal)—while controlling for demographics (e.g., birth country, English fluency, education, socioeconomic status). Analyses revealed that East Asians faced less prejudice than South Asians and were equally motivated by work and leadership as South Asians. However, East Asians were lower in assertiveness, which consistently mediated the leadership attainment gap between East Asians and South Asians. These results suggest that East Asians hit the bamboo ceiling because their low assertiveness is incongruent with American norms concerning how leaders should communicate. The bamboo ceiling is not an Asian issue, but an issue of cultural fit.

Enablers for Advancement of Women into Leadership Position

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Shubhasheesh Bhattacharya ◽  
Sonali Bhattacharya ◽  
Sweta Mohapatra
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Organizational Factors ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Women In Leadership ◽  
Individual Factors ◽  
Leadership Position ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Development Support ◽  
And Training

Women in a leadership position has been a matter of concern the world over especially in information technology (IT)/ information technology enabled services (ITES). However, for the advancement of women in leadership positions, individual characteristics are not enough. Besides individual factors, it is the detection of organizational factors that enable the advancement of women into leadership positions. The present article develops a multidimensional scale on the perceived enablers for the advancement of women in leadership position in the IT/ITES sector. The scale considers both individual factors (characteristics) and organizational factors, such as welfare schemes, career development support, and training. The article also reveals that individual factors, such as self-confidence, ambition, and perceived competency are also enablers of advancing women to leadership positions. Researchers could examine the considered dimensions of the proposed scale in other sectors and with respect to other constructs related to women's work-life balance.

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