Law: Profession or Business?

At its core, the argument (against advertising) presumes that attorneys must conceal from themselves and from their clients the real-life fact that lawyers earn their livelihood at the bar. We suspect that few attorneys engage in such self-deception ... Bankers and engineers advertise, and yet these professions are not regarded as undignified.

Bates v. Arizona, 433 U.S. 350, 369 (1977).

Is law a profession, a business, or both? For decades, every law school, bar association, and law society has posed this proverbial question.[1] The fact is that today, the profession of law annually generates more than $1.1 trillion dollars in revenue. There are several million people employed in the legal profession, and hundreds of thousands support it through products and services.[2] Essentially, the business of law is to manage the profession: the revenue, the people, and the processes required to achieve outcomes that benefit clients.

The legal profession exists because of the need for advice about the law as well as the relationships defined by the law. Attorneys earn their living through their respective clients who enter daily into legal relationships. The use of lawyers varies from country to country. Aside from criminal cases, hiring an attorney is generally optional. Because representation by a lawyer may not be necessary, there is usually no specific requirement that a consumer or a business use a lawyer; the lawyer must add value. For example, a contract between two parties is still a contract regardless of who the parties are. Therefore, a lawyer adds value for the client when he or she can demonstrate the ability and has the resources to achieve the client’s desired objectives.

The business of law ranges from providing ideas to supplying equipment in order to make the practice of law more effective and efficient. There are individuals and companies for which law is purely a business. They support the business of law through the services and products they provide. Their activity is commonly referred to as “law practice management.”[3] Leaders in Legal Business is an overview of these businesses and the thousands of people who manage, develop, and influence the business — which is law.

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[1] See Champ S. Andrews, The Law: A Business or a Profession? (June 1908), 107 YALE L. J. 602 (JUNE 1908); Jeremy M. Miller, Is Law a Business or a Profession – And Does It Really Matter? 107 Los Angeles D. J. (1994).?

[2] Mari Sako, Make-or-Buy Decisions in Legal Services: A Strategic Perspective, University of Oxford (2010), https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/tile_image/sako-make-or-buy-in-legal-services.pdf .?

[3] Law practice management is the study and practice of business administration in the legal context, including such topics as workload and staff management, financial management, office management, and marketing, including legal advertising.