Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nmvwc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-03T12:18:38.958Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Legal Data Banks, the Glut of Lawyers, and the German Legal Profession

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Michael Hartmann
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent developments in higher education and in microelectronics have converged to alter the work and status of the legal profession. In this study of the subject of these far-reaching trends on lawyers in the German insurance industry, the professional jurisdiction of lawyers is found to have been greatly weakened. The need for the professional expertise of lawyers is greatly reduced because qualified nonlawyer business clerks have access through the legal data banks to legal knowledge once only available to them after many years of experience. Ironically, however, the excess supply of lawyers has led insurance companies to hire them to do work below their qualification level that can be done by qualified nonlawyer clerks; thus these over-credentialed lawyers find it almost impossible to establish or maintain any professional legal jurisdiction.

Type
Change and Adaptation of Lawyers' Work: Evolving Theories
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , 1993 , pp. 421 - 441
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 by The Law and Society Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This research project was carried out by the author and Dipl. Soc. M. Wegge.

References

Abbott, Andrew (1986) “Jurisdictional Conflicts: A New Approach to the Development of the Legal Professions,” 1986 A.B.F. Research J. 187.Google Scholar
Abbott, Andrew (1989) “The New Occupational Structure: What Are the Questions?” 16 Work & Occupations 273.Google Scholar
Abel, Richard L. (1985) “Comparative Sociology of Legal Professions: An Exploratory Essay,” 1985 A.B.F. Research Journal 5.Google Scholar
Abel, Richard L. (1988a) The Legal Profession in England and Wales. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Abel, Richard L. (1988b) “England and Wales: A Comparison of the Professional Projects of Barristers and Solicitors,” in Abel & Lewis 1988a.Google Scholar
Abel, Richard L. (1988c) “United States: The Contradictions of Professionalism,” in Abel & Lewis 1988a.Google Scholar
Abel, Richard L., & Lewis, Philip S. C., eds. (1988a) Lawyers in Society, Vol. 1: The Common Law World. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Abel, Richard L., & Lewis, Philip S. C., eds. (1988b) Lawyers in Society, Vol. 2: The Civil Law World. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Abel, Richard L., & Lewis, Philip S. C., eds. (1989) Lawyers in Society, Vol. 3: Comparative Theories. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
AVG (Arbeitgeberverband), ed. (1991) “Mitarbeiter in der Versicherungswirtschaft,” 46 Versicherungswirtschaft 148.Google Scholar
Blankenburg, Erhard, & Schultz, Ulrike (1988) “German Advocates: A Highly Regulated Profession,” in Abel and Lewis 1988b.Google Scholar
Calhoun, Craig, & Copp, Martha (1988) “Computerization in Legal Work: How Much Does New Technology Change Professional Practice?” 4 Research in the Sociology of Work 233.Google Scholar
Clark, Andrew, & Economides, Kim (1988) “Technics and Praxis: Technological Innovation and Legal Practice in Modern Society.” 15 Sociologia del diritto 41.Google Scholar
GDV, ed. (1990) “Die deutsche Versicherungswirtschaft,” Jahrbuch des Gesamtverbandes der Deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft e.V. 1990. Karlsruhe: Verlag Versicherungswirtschaft.Google Scholar
Hagan, John, Huxter, Marie, & Parker, Patricia (1988) “Class Structure and Legal Practice: Inequality and Mobility among Toronto Lawyers,” 22 Law & Society Rev. 9.Google Scholar
Harrington, William G. (1985) “A Brief History of Computer-assisted Legal Research,” 77 Law Library J. 543.Google Scholar
Hartmann, Michael (1987) “Professionalisierung: Eine wahrscheinliche Zukunft für die Anwaltschaft?” 8 Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie 285.Google Scholar
Hartmann, Michael (1988) “Juristen in der Versicherung: Zwischen Professional und normalem Sachbearbeiter,” 40 Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozial-psychologie 706.Google Scholar
Hartmann, Michael (1989) “Zwischen Stabilität und Abstieg—Juristen als akademische Elite in der Wirtschaft,” 40 Soziale Welt 437.Google Scholar
Hartmann, Michael (1990) Juristen in der Wirtschaft—Eine Elite im Wandel. München: C. H. Beck.Google Scholar
Hartmann, Michael (1991) “Akademiker in der Sachbearbeitung: Unsicherheitselement in den innerbetrieblichen Sozialbeziehungen?” in W. Littek, U. Heisig, & H.-D. Gondek, Dienstleistungsarbeit: Strukturveränderungen, Beschäftigungsbed-ingungen und Interessenlasgen. Berlin: Edition Sigma.Google Scholar
Hartmann, Michael, & Wegge, M. (1993) Rechtsprechungsdatenbank und professionelle Zuständigkeit. Bochum: Universitatsverlag Dr. N. Bochmeyer.Google Scholar
Haug, Marie R. (1973) “Deprofessionalization: An Alternative Hypothesis for the Future,” in Halmos, P. C., ed., Professionalization and Social Change. Keele: Univ. of Keele.Google Scholar
Heinz, John P., & Laumann, Edward O. (1982) Chicago Lawyers: The Social Structure of the Bar. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Hommerich, Christoph (1988) Die Anwaltschaft unter Expansionsdruck. Köln: Bundesanzeiger Verlag.Google Scholar
Hommerich, Christoph, & Werle, Raymond (1987) “Die Anwaltschaft zwis-chen Expansionsdruck und Modernisierungszwang: Wandlungs-tendenzen einer klassischen Profession,” 8 Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie 1.Google Scholar
Hommerich, Christoph, & Werle, Raymond (1988) “Das Rechtssystem und die juristische Profession,” 9 Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie 74.Google Scholar
Katsh, M. Ethan (1989) The Electronic Media and the Transformation of Law. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Larson, Magali Sarfatti (1977) The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, Keith, & Ritzer, George (1988) “The Sociology of the Professions: Dead or Alive?” 15 Work & Occupations 251.Google Scholar
Paterson, Alan A. (1988) “The Legal Profession in Scotland: An Endangered Species or a Problem for Market Theory?” in Abel & Lewis 1988a.Google Scholar
Powell, Michael J. (1985) “Developments in the Regulation of Lawyers: Competing Segments and Market, Client, and Government Controls,” 64 Social Forces 281.Google Scholar
Rothman, Robert A. (1984) “Deprofessionalization: The Case of Law in America,” 11 Work & Occupations 183.Google Scholar
Sander, Richard H., & Williams, E. Douglass (1989) “Why Are There So Many Lawyers? Perspectives on a Turbulent Market” 14 Law & Soc. Inquiry 431.Google Scholar
Consulting, Scientific (1990) Vorab-Presseerklärung zur Infobase 1990. Frankfurt-am-Main: Scientific Consulting.Google Scholar
Spangler, Eve (1986) Lawyers for Hire: Salaried Professional at Work. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Versicherungswirtschaft (1989) “Berifsbildung. BWV:70.000 Versicherungs-fachwirte,” 44 Versicherungswirtschaft 7002.Google Scholar
Weyers, Hans-Leo (1986) Versicherungsvertragsrecht. Frankfurt-am-Main: Metzler.Google Scholar