VII. Conclusion

Professional culture combines professional traditions, symbols and norms reflect­ing the occupation’s perceived social role. The culture of the lawyers in England and Wales reflects vestiges of a long history based on two legal professions; barristers and solicitors.

After the Second World War and the advent of the welfare state, sectors of the legal profession, and the professional bodies, adopted a wider view of lawyers’ roles in ser­vice of social democracy. While the solicitors’ profession generally embraced an ethos of public service, the elite London commercial firms rapidly evolved in response to the growth of a neoliberal, capitalist state. Such contradictory change is an example of many ruptures in the self-image and ideology of the legal professions. Since the 1970s, the culture of the legal professions has been under pressure from change in society, in the funding of legal services and in the market.

Many lawyers are being forced to consider becoming part of a larger entity in order to be more competitive. The vision of the lawyer as an isolated and committed general

²⁵⁸ ibid, at 30.

²⁵⁹ ibid, at14.

²⁶⁰ ‘Fresh cab-rank rule row as LSB approves public access reforms’ Legal Futures 2 April 2013 (www. legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/fresh-cab-rank-rule-row-lsb-approves-public-access-reforms). practitioner, working alone or in a small partnership or chambers, increasingly, has less relevance. The profession is assailed by problems of scale, by diversity and by extreme specialisation. As the legal profession comes under increasing pressure to conform to a business mode of operation, as memberships diverge in terms of wealth and standing, the potential for common culture to bind lawyers together in a mutually supportive com­munity is open to question.