Becoming Global Lawyers: A Comparative Study of Civic Professionalism

Abstract

Through their professional education and training, new lawyers are generally encouraged to adopt a civic vision of professional identity. This article explores convergences and divergences in how new lawyers entering an increasingly globalized legal profession conceive of their civic roles in different national contexts. In particular, I draw on interviews and a cross-cultural identity-mapping method to examine the lived experiences of civic professionalism among corporate-lawyers-in-training in the United States and China. I found that professional identity formation in the US sample is largely marked by role distancing and a sense of constrained public-interest expression. In contrast, Chinese respondents generally identified strongly with their civic roles, while framing their public contributions in pragmatic, state-aligned terms. I conclude with a comparative analysis of young lawyers’ bottom-up efforts to expand their civic impact.

A Study on the Linkage between the Workplace Variations and Lawyers’ CSR Meanings in Chinese Legal Service Market Using Ordinary Linear Regression Model

“…As a direct result, an increasing number of Chinese law firms and individual lawyers began to deliver a variety of pro bono work to declare CSR in the field of the legal profession [3]. Evidence indicates that pro bono work with Chinese characteristics emphasizing lawyers' CSR commitment is taking shape across the country [4]. The quality of CSR practice is becoming a remarkable sign to evaluate Chinese lawyers and law firms' performance [3].…”