How are Legal Workplaces Organised?

How a legal workplace is organised has significant impacts on virtually every part of a lawyer’s work, including:

• who is employed,
• how they are employed (contract, salary, etc),
• diversity of the staff,
• the workplace culture,
• hours of work,
• docking,
• clientele and the role of clients,
• types of cases,
• governance,
• compensation (both monetary and non-monetary),
• and much more.

Below are some ways firms are organised. The section is intended to give students insight into how workplace organisation can be the cause (or a solution!) to common lawyering concerns including lack of diversity, wellness, retention, and so on. Keep in mind these are only some ways lawyers can organize their work with a focus on Ontario. In other jurisdictions, other business structures are allowed (fee sharing, non-lawyer ownership or investment in firms or specific matters). There are many access to justice considerations for these sorts of arrangements.

Law Firm

A law firm is a company that involves itself in the business of law. Lawyers might focus very narrowly on certain kinds of law or deal with various general law cases. Private firms can be organised a number of different ways (canvassed below). Law firms with more than a few lawyers typically have a specific hierarchical structure. Law firms can be organised in a number of different ways, some of which are canvassed below.

Partnerships

A Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) has different rights and responsibilities in different jurisdictions around the world. In Canada, an LLP is governed by the Partnerships Act which allows partners to establish a private agreement with one another as to the governance and financial arrangements within the firm. In this model there is no governance board or shareholders. However, an LLP is not a company and each partner’s individual/personal liability for the actions of others is limited (although not actions of the firm, their own actions and the actions of those they supervise). There are also different tax implications for LLPs. See more general information for LLPs in Ontario.

At the ‘top’ is typically the Managing Partner(s), a senior lawyer or founder of a firm. They are usually the head of a committee of other senior lawyers and are the lead on most aspects of the firm from policies and practices to strategic planning and direction. Sometimes there are non-lawyer administrators that help with these duties. “Partners” are also “shareholders” in the firm – meaning they are part owners of the firm. “Associates” are the more junior partners in a firm. There are sometimes “junior” and “senior” associates depending how long they have worked at the firm. “Summer Associates” are still in law school. They work at the firm over the summer, typically with interest in working at the firm in future.

Murray Gottheil, former BigLaw lawyer, writes frequest LinkedIn analyses of the culture and practices of bigger law firms. This piece from November 26, 2022, gives a view of the hierarchical structure of law firms and the sometimes insidious ways that hierarchy is emphasized.

“From top to bottom [the firm] goes something like this: Managing Partner, Other Partners (ranked in order of billings and client originating credits), Senior Associates, Professional Managers, Junior Associates, Law Clerks, Legal Assistants, Clerical Staff, Articling Students, and Cleaners. Everyone in a law firm has a pretty good notion about what the hierarchy is, although Articling Students have sometimes found out to their shock and horror that they do in fact rank under the Law Clerks, Legal Assistants, and Clerical Staff. In a well-run law firm (assuming that there is in fact such a thing), the Partners recognize the value of having all of their personnel feel like they are a respected part of the team. Sometimes they even spend money on ‘team building’ to accomplish this goal, in the form of retreats, social events, gifts, and bonuses…. Perhaps they give bigger offices to the Senior Partners than to the Junior Partners or Associates. Or assign the staff based on the seniority of the lawyer rather than the needs of the lawyer’s clients. Or maybe the Law Clerks know that the work of people higher on the food chain is to be done before the work required by the people at the bottom, regardless of urgency. Or maybe the people who dwell on the mountain get their computers fixed faster than the valley people.”

Sole Proprietorship

As the name suggests, lawyers in a sole proprietorship practice alone, although sole practitioners might employ administrative staff, paralegals, or other professionals to support their practice.

Working on your own has many benefits, including control over decisions, files, and so on. Some clients prefer hiring a sole practitioner and have a more personal relationship with them.

There are also challenges with sole proprietorships, especially because the lawyer holds all liability on their own. It can also be challenging – although by no means impossible – to be “off” work or away for lengthy periods of time. This also depends on the type of work that the practitioner takes on.

How are Legal Workplaces Organised?

Lawyers can also practice “in association”. As noted by the Law Society of Ontario:

“There is no specific legal definition of an “association.” Lawyers who choose to practise in association with other lawyers usually operate their separate practices from the same location, with an agreement to share the overhead costs. Because the term “association” can mean various arrangements, lawyers choosing to practise in association are obliged to clearly identify the nature of the relationship between the associated parties to clients and the public at large.”

This model can be helpful to share costs, provide file coverage, and more generally work a collegial environment.

Legal Collective (Law Collective) & Movement Lawyering

There are a range of other creative and non-hierarchical ways to organise law-related work. Some groups organise themselves as a collective to provide legal and other supports to communities and movements. The Community Justice Collective, for example,  https://www.cjclaw.org/, describes its philosophy as follows:

“Movement lawyering is rooted in the idea that legal work alone cannot win meaningful change. Rather, change that is transformative requires organizing and strategy led by people most impacted by injustice. Legal work is one piece of that strategy.”

Social Enterprise Lawyering

This relatively unique approach involves doing legal work in which profits are given to another firm doing work on behalf of individuals who cannot afford legal services. See, for example, Andrew Pilliar, “Exploring A Law Firm Business Model to Improve Access to Justice” (2015) 32 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, online: <http://windsor.scholarsportal.info/ ojs/leddy/index.php/WYAJ/article/view/4512>.

Alternative Business Structures

The idea of “alternative business structures” has also been hotly debated at the LSO. As Professor Noel Semple defines them,

1. “An alternative business structure is a law firm which is not entirely owned and managed by lawyers.   Examples of ABS law firm models would include :
   a law firm which is a publicly traded corporation,
2. a law firm which is a privately held corporation, with non-lawyers holding some or all of the shares, and
3. a law firm which is a partnership of equals between lawyers and non-lawyers.”

For more arguments in favour of ABS, see Noel Semple, “Access to Justice: Is Legal Services Regulation Blocking the Path?” (2013) 21 International Journal of the Legal Profession 267, online: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2303987 and “Accessibility, Quality, and Profitability for Personal Plight Law Firms: Hitting the Sweet Spot” (Ottawa: Canadian Bar Association, 2017), online: www.cba.org/PersonalPlight/.

Professor Jasminka Kalajdzic also took a critical view of Alternative Business Structures here: “Memo Re: ABS Research (Prepared for Ontario Trial Lawyers Association)” (Toronto: OTLA, 2014), online: https://www.otla.com/docDownload/680494.

The LSO eventually did permit Alternative Business Structures for charities only.

In-house Counsel/ Lawyer/ General Counsel

Some lawyers work within an organisation to provide legal advice and services. These lawyers are sometimes called “in house counsel” or “general counsel”. This type of law practice comes with specific ethical and professional duties.