The Embedded Nature of Rural Legal Services: Sustaining Service Provision in Wales

Abstract

There is a considerable amount of literature on embeddedness as part of sociological theory of economic action. Cultural and structural embeddedness often work together to shape the framework of economic relations, but, in an analysis of rural solicitors, we find unevenness between cultural and structural embeddedness. There are strong traits of the former, through a sense of place and belonging, but much less evidence of the latter with the structural relationships appearing relatively weak and underdeveloped. In a discussion supported by empirical data from a recent survey of rural legal practices in Wales, a number of causes are identified. The paper concludes that trends towards increasingly specialized rather than generalized legal service provision, set alongside the increasingly differentiated nature of rural space, suggest that the longer-term sustainability of rural legal practices may require both greater investment at the level of structural embeddedness alongside continuing reinvestment at the cultural level.

Access to legal work experience and its role in the (re)production of legal professional identity

“…Not only were smaller firms least likely to offer vacation placements, they were also more likely to offer ad hoc, informally arranged work experience: 42.1% of two -four partner firms and 41.3% of 11-25 partner firms only offered such work experience, supporting Rolfe and Anderson's finding that where small and medium sized firms do offer work experience, this is as a favour (for instance to children of clients) rather than as part of a formal recruitment strategy (2002, p. 23), pointing to the continuing importance of social networks within the private client sector (Franklin & Lee, 2007;Sommerlad, 2007).…”

“…These risks, which stem from the cost of paying someone who is likely to be unproductive for an extended period, have been accentuated by the Solicitors' Regulation Authority's (SRA, 2007) governance of traineeships, which places a significant, and therefore costly, demand on the non-chargeable time of partners 21 (Franklin & Lee, 2007, p. 224). This is particularly burdensome for smaller firms in the private client sector, which find it increasingly difficult to plan for, or indeed even envisage, a long term future (Devonald, 1994;Franklin & Lee, 2007), let alone engage in succession planning, particularly in the current economic climate (Hirsch, 2009). Consequently, fewer training contracts are offered by small and even medium sized firms for whom the cost and/or risk is too great, and both vacation placements and informal work experience (as opposed to long term paralegal work) are correspondingly difficult to obtain in this sector: 56.1% of sole practitioners and 48.3% of two-four partner firms were unlikely to offer any form of work experience at all.…”

Relational Embeddedness and Socially Motivated Case Screening in the Practice of Law in Rural China

“…In all fairness, the embedded nature of economic activities is hardly a novel idea to sociolegal scholars. In fact, many have noted the importance of relational embeddedness in legal practice, although they may not use this terminology (Franklin and Lee 2007;Kim 2009b;Landon 1990;Lazega and Van Duijn 1997;Michelson 2007;Parikh 2006;Uzzi and Lancaster 2004). Landon's research on rural attorneys in Missouri represents a case in point.…”

“What He Did Was Lawful”: Divorce Litigation and Gender Inequality inChina

“…Decades of research on lawyer–client relationships have repeatedly proved this point. Due to concerns with community contexts (Franklin and Lee ; Landon ), fee arrangements (Kritzer , , ), institutional pressure (Michelson ; Nardulli ; Blumberg ), and social stereotypes (Michelson ; Mather, McEwen, and Maiman ), the legal profession adapts various strategies to keep its clients in line—sometimes even at the expense of their lawful rights and interests. Along this line, researchers frequently identify face‐to‐face interactions as the primary locale where the legal profession exercises control over clients and cases (Mather, Maiman, and McEwen ; Sarat and Felstiner ; Griffiths ; Bogoch and Danet ; Hosticka ).…”