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Mapping the Ecology of China’s Corporate Legal Sector: Globalization and Its Impact on Lawyers and Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Sida LIU ,
David M. TRUBEK  and
David B. WILKINS
Sida LIU
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
David M. TRUBEK
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison
David B. WILKINS
Affiliation:
Harvard Law School
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Abstract

Globalization is rapidly changing the landscape of law practice in China, especially its corporate legal sector. This article reports on the preliminary findings of the China research of the Globalization, Lawyers, and Emerging Economies (GLEE) Project—a comparative study that examines how globalization is reshaping the market for legal services in important emerging economies and how these developments are contributing to the transformation of the political economy in these countries and beyond. Adopting an ecological approach, which examines how different segments of the legal system interact with one another in complex ways, this article maps the corporate core, international linkages, and domestic contexts of China’s globalizing corporate legal sector and discusses its impact on lawyers and society.

Keywords

Chinaglobalizationecologylawyercorporate legal sector
Type
Research Article
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , November 2016 , pp. 273 - 297
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 

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Footnotes

*

Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto and Faculty Fellow at the American Bar Foundation. Correspondence to Sida Liu, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 725 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2J4, Canada. E-mail address: [email protected].

**

Voss-Bascom Professor of Law and Dean of International Studies Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Law School.

***

Lester Kissel Professor of Law, Vice Dean for Global Initiatives on the Legal Profession, and Faculty Director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School.

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