Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work

This book provides the first thorough examination of the concept of lawyer roles in knowledge work, offering a detailed comparative exploration and analysis of the globalized legal services industry in terms of individual and corporate professional functions. Knowledge management has long been identified by scholars within the business sphere as a key strategic device in the development of complex organizations and developing markets. However, this essential process has been largely ignored within socio-legal studies and professional practice applications as a specific subject for close scrutiny. Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work seeks to address this anomaly, with Gottschalk and Hamerton recognizing the strong lineage and correlation that exists between the study of knowledge management and contemporary legal practice. Using an interdisciplinary focus which includes illustrative case-studies, the book explores European, North American, and global perspectives as well as models to identify, position, and reveal the forward-looking lawyer as a defender, enabler, and investigator. In doing so, it revaluates current strategic legal practice and organizational behaviour within the context of changing patterns of business, the workplace, social rules, systems of governance, decision making, social ordering and control. Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work will speak to students of law, business management, criminology, and sociology, along with legal practitioners and professionals within allied fields.