Lawyers as Monopolists, Aristocrats, and Entrepreneurs

To litigate or not to litigate? The impacts of third-party financing on litigation

“…This assumption is discussed in the literature (Osiel, 1990;Hadfield, 2000;Crabdall and Winston, 2011). In our model, if attorneys or funders had market powers, they could put pressure on the plaintiff's decision to settle or to go to court.…”

“…These asymmetries will bear on the nature of the claim (frivolous or meritorious) that is unknown to the defendant. 18 The assumption of a competitive market for attorneys has been subject to some debates: see Osiel (1990), Hadfield (2000), Crabdall and Winston (2011). We discuss in conclusion this assumption.…”

Institutional legacies in TNCs and their management through training academies: the case of transnational law firms in Italy

“…The Italian approach to legal education is steeped in (and in many ways required by) Italy's civil law tradition with its emphasis on formal rationality, coherence and predictability (Faulconbridge et al 2009). Law is viewed as a self-contained system of interlocking quasi-scientific pronouncements, a 'purely analytical, intellectual construct, a sealed system of logically interconnected propositions impermeable to the economic pressures of the business world' (Osiel 1990(Osiel : 1037. This contrasts with the common law tradition of England and Wales where the doctrinal focus on the historically contingent decisions of case law (precedents) has always emphasized interpretation, flexibility and the development of legal instruments to support client interests, thus, positioning legal practice as a more innovative and entrepreneurial vocation (Flood 2007).…”

The Force of a Weak Field: Law and Lawyers in the Government of the European Union (For a Renewed Research Agenda)

“…The second aspect of this field’s weakness is the intense circulation of Euro‐lawyers in between the various EU‐implicated academic, bureaucratic, political and jurisdictional settings. Contrary to the strongly segmented national legal fields, where jumping from one profession to another (and, even more, holding simultaneously various positions) is obstructed by multiple barriers and incompatibilities (Osiel 1990; Dezalay 2007), the circulation from one European legal role to another (lawyer, judge, professor, expert, business lawyer, consultant) forms a classic pattern of the ELF. I have shown in previous works (Vauchez 2007a), the genesis of this mobility pattern (1950–1970).…”

“…27 27 The hypothesis of such a legal habitus shared by the jurists from the six founding Member States is backed by various historical accounts of their common legal history (Kantorowicz 1961; Osiel 1990). …”