Stratification and Diversification in the Legal Profession

Justice System Reform has increased the number of lawyers significantly. Although the Justice System Reform Council’s recommendations were not fully realized, the increase of the lawyer population brought stratification of law firms and diversification of legal practice. The Big Five firms emerged as the largest business law firms attracting best Legal Training and Research Institute graduates. For individual clients, mass process law firms began to advertise on TV and the Internet. Traffic accidents and family matters appeared as the major focused fields. The division of legal practice for individuals and for corporations is becoming clear but many law firms do both types of work. The majority of firms other than solo practitioners have cost sharing arrangements. Income differences are large among lawyers. Lawyers began to advertise their services as a method of obtaining new clients, changing themselves from “profession” to “legal service business”. The number of in-house lawyers has increased in this century. Most in-house lawyers are now assigned to law departments. The growth of business law firms and that of law departments went side by side and expanded the business law field. New temporal career paths emerged between law firms and national ministries.