Solo and small-firm lawyers face increasing competition today from the for-profit and not-for-profit law firm. The marketing strategies of these "new providers" of legal services are varied but each has met with considerable success. The impact of this tier of the legal profession on the practice of law, however,has not yet been systematically examined. This is the task of the present pilot or planning study. Four new modes of private legal services have been identified: (1) "clinical" law firms with a walk-in practice, (2) "mass" market law firms which offer walk-in service and legal insurance programs, (3) "traditional" law firms which receive insurance referrals, and (4) non-profit law firms attached to labor unions. The pilot project will include open-ended interviews with new providers of legal services as well as on site observation of each of these work settings. Because they appear to be replacing attorneys in solo practice, the latter also are in included in this typology to develop a control group for comparison. The success of for-profit new providers rests on the incorporation of a business model into the delivery of a professional service. But each of the requirements of the new model undermines traditional notions of professional work. Marketing a legal commodity contradicts the passive, service orientation of traditional law practice. Standardization challenges the tradition of individualized treatment. And comparing the output and productivity of lawyers throws into question the professional's control and autonomy of work. While the not-for-profit firm does not operate in a competitive market environment, attorneys are treated as "employees", with analogous erosion of the old professionalism. These ongoing changes in the delivery of private legal services raise descriptive and analytic questions that are germane to socio-legal research, organizational theory, and the sociology of the professions. The project investigates how attorneys have responded to these changes in the fabric of their practice and addresses the implications of these developments for understanding the nature of professional work in the late twentieth century.
