Includes bibliographical references and index.

Volume 1: National Reports. Lawyers in a new geopolitical conjuncture: continuity and change / Hilary Sommerlad and Ole Hammerslev -- Australia: a legal profession globalised and magnified / Margaret Thornton and Asmi Wood -- Canada: continuity and change in a modern legal profession / Ronit Dinovitzer and Meghan Dawe -- England and Wales: a legal profession in the vanguard of professional transformation? / Hilary Sommerlad, Andrew Francis, Joan Loughrey and Steven Vaughan -- Scotland: caught between nationalism and the market: what does the future hold for Scots lawyers? / Alan Paterson and Peter Robson -- United States: out of many legal professions, one? / Scott L Cummings, Carroll S Seron, Ann Southworth, Rebecca L Sandefur, Steven A Boutcher and Anna Raup-Kounovsky -- Belgium: a law degree opens the door to a lot of occupations, even the bar / Steven Givens, Bernard Hubeau, Stefan Rutten, Jean Van Houtte and Margot Van Leuvenhaege -- Denmark, Sweden and Norway: liberalisation, differentiation and the emergence of a legal services market / Ole Hammerslev -- France: the reconfiguration of a profession / Christian Bessy and Benoit Bastard -- Germany: resistance and reactions to demands of modernisation / Matthias Kilian and Ulrike Schultz -- Italy: a delicate balance between maintenance and change / Evelyn Micelotta and Gabrielle Dorian -- Netherlands: developments and challenges / Nienke Doornbos and Leny de Groot-van Leeuwen -- Switzerland: the end of prosperity in the age of globalisations? / Isabel Boni-Le Goff, Eléonore Lépinard, Grégoire Mallard and Nicky Le Feuvre -- Czech Republic: legal professions looking for serenity and stability / Jan Kober -- Poland: opening the legal professions / Kaja Gadowska -- Russia: challenges of the market and boundary work / Ekaterina Moiseeva and Timur Bocharov -- Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina: challenges of liberalisation and democratic consolidation / Danilo Vuković, Valerija Dabetić and Samir Forić -- Argentina: the long transition of the legal profession / Martin Böhmer -- Brazil: fragmentary development, democratisation, and globalisation / Maria da Gloria Bonelli and Pedro Fortes -- Chile: lawyers engage with the market, specialisation, and rights / Christián Villalonga -- Mexico: significant growth and under-regulation of the legal profession / Luis Fernando Perez-Hurtado -- Venezuela: a despatch from the abyss / Manual Gómez and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo -- Burundi: middlemen and opponents in the shadow of the ethno-state / Sara Dezalay -- Kenya: between globalisation and constitutionalism / Winifred Kamau -- Nigeria: an account of adaptation / Enibokun Uzebu-Imarhiagbe -- South Africa: a profession in transformation / Jonathan Klaaren -- Zimbabwe: legal practitioners, politics and transformation since 1980 / George H Karekwaivanane -- Egypt: the long decline of the legal profession / Nathalie Bernard-Maugiron and Menna Omar -- Iran: a clash of two legal cultures? / Reza Banakar and Keyvan Ziaee -- Israel: numbers, make-up and modes of practice / Eyal Katvan, Limor Zer-Gutman and Neta Ziv -- Libya: lawyers between ideology and the market / Jessica Carlisle -- Palestine: lawyering between colonisation and the struggle for professional independence / Mutaz M Qafisheh -- Tunisia: a political profession? / Eric Gobe -- Turkey: emergence and development of the legal profession / Seda Kalem -- China: a tale of four decades / Sida Liu -- India: present and future: a revised sociological portrait / Swethaa S Ballakrishnen -- Indonesia: professionals, brokers and fixers / Santy Kouwagam and Adriaan Bedner -- Japan: towards stratification, diversification and specialisation / Masayuki Murayama -- Myanmar: law as a desirable and dangerous profession / Melissa Crouch -- South Korea: reshaping the legal profession / Jae Won Kim -- Taiwan and Hong Kong: localisation and politicisation / Ching-Fang Hsu -- Thailand: the evolution of law, the legal profession and political authority / Frank W Munger -- Vietnam: from cadres to a 'managed' profession / Pip Nicholson and Do Hai Ha -- Comparative sociology of lawyers, 1988-2018: the professional project / Richard L Abel

Volume 2: Studying lawyers comparatively in the 21st century : issues in method and methodology / Hilary Sommerlad and Ole Hammerslev -- Evolution of Latin American lawyers over three decades : 1990-2020 / Manuel A Gómez -- Africa's lawyers : from imperial agents to legal brokers in global markets / Sara Dezalay -- Lawyers in the Muslim world : between social transformation, judicial control, and feminization / Mirjam Künkler -- Post-socialist legal professions : jurisdictional volatility, changing regulatory logics and the return of guilds / Rafael Mrowczynski -- Understanding gender inequality in the legal profession / Marta Choroszewicz and Fiona Kay -- Men, masculinities and the legal professions : asking the 'man question' / Richard Collier -- Race, ethnicity and the legal profession / Hilary Sommerlad, Angela Melville, Lisa Hanson, Sameer Ashar, Meera Deo and Marijke ter Voert -- Still special after all these years? fundamental questions in legal services regulation / Andrew Boon and Noel Semple -- When and why do lawyer organisations seek to influence law? / Lynn Mather and Leslie C Levin -- Globalisation and education : reconfigurations in location, scale, form and content / Ole Hammerslev -- Paralegals and the casualisation of legal labour markets / Hilary Sommerlad, Jeanne Hersant, Nina Holvast, Luca Verzelloni, Stefanie Gustafsson, Rebecca L Sandefur and Tom Clarke -- Lawyers and access to justice / Rosemary Hunter, Annette Olesen and Rebecca L Sandefur -- Cause lawyering in conflicted, authoritarian and transitional societies : politics, professionalism and gender / Anna Bryson, Kieran McEvoy and Alex Batesmith -- Advocates for silenced voices : how human rights lawyers in Europe and Latin America defend the rule of law / Stefanie Lemke -- The many lives of big law : three decades in the evolution of large law firms / Manuel A Gómez and Marc Galanter -- Globalisation, lawyers, and emerging economies : the rise, transformation, and significance of the new corporate legal ecosystem in India, Brazil, and China / David B Wilkins, David M Trubek and Bryon Fong -- Lawyers and the European Union : the rise of a regulatory bar in Brussels (1989-2019) / Lola Avril -- Between rules and power : finding a place for lawyers in the sociology of professions / Sida Liu -- Accountants versus lawyers : comparing the moneymen with the monied (gentle)men / Sundeep Aulakh -- The mutation of medical professionalism / Mark Exworthy and Simon Moralee -- Legal technology : the great disruption? / Julian Webb -- State-centred comparison of legal professions in an era of globalization / Frank W Munger -- Law as reproduction and revolution : an interconnected history of the internationalisation of national legal hierarchies / Yves Dezalay and Bryant G Garth -- Money laundering, corruption and the legal profession : an exploration / Mike Levi -- Comparative sociology of lawyers, 1988-2018 : governance, regulation, access to justice, political engagement, regime change and the rule of law / Richard L Abel.

"This book presents an invaluable collection of essays by eminent scholars from a wide variety of disciplines on the main issues currently confronting legal professions across the world. It does this through a comparative analysis of the data provided by the reports on 46 countries in its companion volume: Lawyers in 21st-Century Societies: Vol. 1: National Reports (Hart 2020). Together these volumes build on the seminal collection Lawyers in Society (Abel and Lewis 1988a; 1988b; 1989). The period since 1988 has seen an acceleration and intensification of the global socio-economic, cultural and political developments that in the 1980s were challenging traditional professional forms. Together with the striking transformation of the world order as a result of the fall of the Soviet bloc, neo-liberalism, globalisation, the financialisation of capitalism, technological innovations, and the changing demography of lawyers, these developments underscored the need for a new, comparative exploration of the legal professional field. This volume deepens the insights in volume 1, with chapters on legal professions in Africa, Latin America, the Islamic world, emerging economies, and former communist regimes. It also addresses theoretical questions, including the sociology of lawyers and other professions (medicine, accountancy), state production, the rule of law, regional bodies, large law firms, access to justice, technology, casualisation, cause lawyering, diversity (gender, race, and masculinity), corruption, ethics regulation, and legal education. Together with volume 1, it will inform and challenge conceptions of the contemporary profession, and stimulate and support further research"-- Provided by publisher.