Editorial Issue 1 2023

Abstract

Buschor opens the year with a study of managing partners in law firms in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 15 distinct roles for managing partners are identified, opening the field for further research. Governance structures are addressed and a relatively large number of administrative tasks and personal concerns are found in their roles. Collier et al look at legal help-seeking behaviour among British military veterans, showing that the more they delay in seeking help, the fewer possibilities there are for useful assistance. They also note that delay is associated with military identity in these legal clients. Tsereteli presents a well-researched case study on how the role of informality in systems of judicial recruitment allows change to appear to exist on paper but not in practice. The post-communist judiciary in Georgia shows the complex relationship between formal and informal rules governing judicial recruitment from a lawyer base; and how power is easily abused. Dehagahani and Newman take Galanter’s (1973) concept of repeat players and oneshotters into the world of criminal defence lawyers in Wales. Is such a categorisation helpful to the client or to the lawyer and what should the lawyer do for each? The binary assumption was found not to be useful in terms of treatment and attention. Smith’s (2013) approach was considered to be the most appropriate in terms of assessing the defence lawyer’s behaviourpartisanship for the accused, as well as detachment and confidentiality in dealings. Pivaty’s (2019) typology differentiating the strictly legal and the affective aspects of the lawyer’s role was also helpful. Winczorek looks at legal services for small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland. Winczorek shows the importance of SMEs internationally, entities of moderate complexity and high vulnerability. Accountants seem to help SMEs with their “legal” problems more than lawyers. Patterns of legal service use are developed using the Paths to Justice model (Genn (1999)). The domestic type tasks of “valet, butler and housekeeper” are developed to show the ways in which SMEs use lawyer assistance -only from a rational stance where it provides a useful business return.