Developments in the Regulation of Lawyers: Competing Segments and Market Client, and Government Controls

Abstract

The series of challenges to the autonomy and self-regulatory authority of the professions which occurred in the 1970s has generally been attributed to changes in public attitudes and values. Questioning the adequacy of this explanation, this paper examines the emergence of new or strengthened market, client, and government controls affecting the legal profession and argues that these developments were initiated or facilitated by the actions of segments of the bar itself seeking to further their own interests. New market, client, and government controls served to modify and supplement collegial regulation rather than displace it. Furthermore, it is argued that these developments contribute not so much to the deprofessionalization of the legal profession as to its reprofessionalization whereby the parameters of its autonomy and self-regulatory authority are redefined.