UC Berkeley

Research on law firms as organizations has largely grown up in literatures that rarely, if it all, speak to one another in sustained ways. Whether drawing from economic, ecological, network, or neo-institutional frameworks, organizational scholars often use law firms as sites for research without necessarily considering the unique qualities of a professional firm (for example, their ethical responsibilities or the type of legal work they perform). Legal scholars, meanwhile, largely focus on the legal characteristics of law firms without examining how their organizational structures or broader environments influence their behavior. Dialogue between these approaches can add significant theoretical grist to the organizations literature by identifying how the rules of different fields influence organizational behavior, while at the same time deepening legal scholarship by situating study of the law firm in broader theoretical discourses.

In this dissertation, I will review the theoretical treatment of law firms, discuss the internal structures and external environments of law firms, test whether network theories of organization explain the observed network of a professional firm, and examine the longitudinal trajectory of law firm growth and survival. To do so, I will develop novel hypotheses that integrate professional and organizational theories.