Corporate in-house and firm capture of work is shrinking solo practice

Evidence

The number of solo practitioners has declined in recent decades, particularly in urban areas, because corporations and other businesses tend to deal with their legal problems in-house or to take them to law firms with specialized expertise. As a result, solo practitioners are often “confined to those residual matters (and clients) that the large firms have not preempted,” serving the legal needs of middle-class and bluecollar clients. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1055

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes ch49 on lawyer density and connects to course interest in who actually gets legal representation. — connects to: Law-firm employment concentration grew enormously between 1968 and 2011 — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1043; Solo practice historically absorbed lawyers barred from major firms by background — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1053; Corporations expand in-house legal departments to cut reliance on elite firms — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1064 (+1 more)