Referral Practices among Lawyers: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

Spurr, Stephen J.

doi:10.1086/492214

Cited by 9 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…New client revenues make it possible to further capture information on the quality dimension of lawyers' performance: Lawyers who provide higher-quality work will establish a good reputation with clients, who will then be more likely to recommend their services. Although sources of new client revenue are diverse, considerably important sources are referrals from previous clients and other lawyers (Spurr, 1988;Garicano and Santos, 2004). Therefore, this performance measure captures a lawyer's ability to create personal connections, reputation, and visibility.…”

Section: New Client Revenuementioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Gaps in Performance: Evidence from Young Lawyers

Azmat

Ferrer

2017

Journal of Political Economy

130

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper documents and studies the gender gap in performance among associate lawyers in the United States. Unlike other high-skilled professions, the legal profession assesses performance using transparent measures that are widely used and comparable across firms: the number of hours billed to clients and the amount of new client revenue generated. We find clear evidence of a gender gap in annual performance with respect to both measures. Male lawyers bill ten percent more hours and bring in more than twice the new client revenue than do female lawyers. We demonstrate that the differential impact across genders in the presence of young children and differences in aspirations to become a law firm partner account for a large share of the difference in performance. We also show that accounting for performance has important consequences for gender gaps in lawyers' earnings and subsequent promotion. Whereas individual and firm characteristics explain up to 50 percent of the earnings gap, the inclusion of performance measures explains a substantial share of the remainder.Performance measures also explain a sizeable share of the gender gap in promotion.

show abstract

Section: New Client Revenuementioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Gaps in Performance: Evidence from Young Lawyers

Azmat

Ferrer

2017

Journal of Political Economy

130

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Spurr (1988, p. 87) calls this exchange a referral for AT&T, defining a referral as ''a recommendation from A to B, such that B should purchase services from C.'' However, Adam might recommend to Joe not to purchase from AT&T. And a referral could also be for a product, not only a service. Therefore, we modify Spurr's (1988) original definition of a referral as a recommendation from A to B, such that B should, or should not, purchase from C (see Fig. 1).…”

Section: Referrals: a Conceptualizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, it includes three actors: the source of the referral -the referrer (A); the receiver of the referral, who is involved in the purchase decision -the potential customer (B); and the recipient of the referral, who provides the product or service to the market -the supplier firm (C) (Gilly, Graham, Wolfinbarger, & Yale, 1998a;Spurr, 1988) (Fig. 1).…”

Section: Referrals: a Conceptualizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, horizontal referrals reduce potential customers' search costs and should lead potential customers to an appropriate supplier who can address their problem. For example, Spurr (1988) finds that through horizontal referrals in legal trials, lawyers of higher quality receive trials with claims of greater intrinsic value.…”

Section: Horizontal Referralsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, we introduce three types of referrals: (1) customer-to-potential customer referrals, where the referrer is a customer of the supplier firm, for example, an iPhone user recommends to his friend to purchase an iPhone (Arndt, 1967); (2) horizontal referrals, where the referrer is not a customer of the supplier firm, for example, a contract lawyer refers her client to a lawyer who specializes in personal injury (Spurr, 1988); and (3) supplierinitiated referrals, where the supplier firm matches the referrer and a potential customer, as when SAS requests the U.S. Treasury Department to refer SAS to other government departments (Lee, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Referral equity and referral management: the supplier firm's perspective

Hada¹,

Grewal²,

Lilien³

2010

Review of Marketing Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

From the supplier firm's perspective, a referral is a recommendation from A (the referrer) to B (the potential customer) that B should, or should not, purchase from C (the supplier firm). Thus, as referrals are for a specific supplier firm, they should be viewed as part of the supplier firm's marketing and sales activities. We recognize three types of referralscustomer-to-potential customer referrals, horizontal referrals, and supplier-initiated referrals -that have critical roles in a potential customer's purchase decision. We develop the concept of referral equity to capture the net effect of all referrals for a supplier firm in the market. We argue that supplier firms should view referral equity as a resource that has financial value to the firm as it affects the firm's cash flows and profits. We offer strategies firms can use to manage referrals and build their referral equity and suggest a research agenda.

show abstract

Connecting friends

Ding

2023

Journal of Economic Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Referral Practices among Lawyers: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Gender Gaps in Performance: Evidence from Young Lawyers

Gender Gaps in Performance: Evidence from Young Lawyers

Referral equity and referral management: the supplier firm's perspective

Connecting friends

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About