Large Law Firms and Capture: Towards a Nuanced Understanding of Self-Regulation
(2015) 92 The Canadian Bar Review, 485-505
21 Pages Posted: 12 Jun 2015
Date Written: 2014
Abstract
The limited academic literature on regulation of the legal profession argues that law societies should further regulate large law firms. This article takes a countervailing position and submits that as a result of complex regulatory-like infrastructure that already exists within large firms, the law society has a weak incentive to regulate these firms. Large law firms develop and maintain their own codes of conduct and internal monitoring systems. While the rules of professional conduct serve as a baseline regulatory regime, large law firms have strong incentives to implement as or more stringent rules and relatively weak incentives to capture the law society.
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