In many minds it was decided years ago that the legal profession is that only in name, having long since abandoned professional status in any meaningful sense to become a business. The reasons for this conclusion are so obvious – expansion, financial transparency, adoption of modern management practices etc – that they barely need recounting. And, like most cliches, it became one because there’s a good deal of truth in it.
And, yet, the longer I observe lawyers and law firms, the more convinced I become that the law remains basically a profession – rather than a business in the sense that many understand it. The outward changes that made people think of law firms as businesses were significant shifts but, in terms of the underlying ethos, they have had a surprisingly cosmetic impact. The mindset of a profession, good and bad, largely remains.
