The Globalization of the Legal Profession

[by Bill Henderson, crossposted to the ELS Blog]

For anyone interested in the  economic and political forces that arereshaping the legal profession, here is an event that you need toattend.  On Friday, November 21, the Harvard Law School Program on theLegal Profession and the American Society of International Law aresponsoring a conference entitled “The Globalization of the LegalProfession.”  Conference registration is free, but space is limited. Details are online here.

Back in April, the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at GULC put on a conference entitled the “Future of the Global Law Firm.” Similar to upcoming program at Harvard, speakers included academics,practitioners, clients, and allied professionals.  The shared sense ofrapid and major structural change was palpable.    I consider theupcoming program an important extension of that conversation. 

Further, as I reflect on the proliferation of so-called “global law schools” inChina and India, which are being set up to serve major US and UK legalemployers (and a topic at the HLS event), I am convinced thatglobalization will eventually reshape the  American legal education system. Now is the time to plan; in ten years, the majority of law schoolscould be in the uneviable position of reacting to a major structurechange.