ABSTRACT This paper explores professional identity formation and the increasing differentiation and fragmentation of the corporate end of the legal profession through a consideration of onshoring, the opening (for the first time) of satellite offices in the UK (but outside of London) by elite law firms. We situate interviews with 25 lawyers, associates and partners, working in onshored UK law firm offices in work on legal services globalisation and the sociology of ‘dirty work’ (tasks and occupations likely to be perceived as disgusting or degrading). In the context of onshoring, globalisation has led to sidelining in that onshoring allows entry to elite, global firms both for those (the graduates of ‘good-enough’ law schools) perhaps unable to ‘make it’ in London and for those law firm partners and associates who have tasted City life and rejected it. That entry is, however, imperfect. It is the ‘dirty [legal] work’ that is done outside of London: seen as both lesser and also necessary to the law firm’s profitability. We see onshoring as a relatively simple organisational change to the shape of the profession, and also as part of a radical reorientation of a division of labour and what it means to be a professional.

中文翻译：

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Matter Mills 和 London-Lite 办公室：探索全球化时代法律服务外包的形式

摘要本文通过考虑本土化，精英法律在英国（但在伦敦以外）开设（首次）卫星办公室，探讨了专业身份的形成以及法律专业企业端日益分化和分散的问题。公司。我们采访了 25 位在英国本土律师事务所办公室工作的律师、合伙人和合伙人，他们的工作涉及法律服务全球化和“肮脏工作”（可能被视为令人厌恶或有辱人格的任务和职业）的社会学。在本土化的背景下，全球化导致边缘化，因为本土化允许精英进入，全球性律师事务所，既适用于那些可能无法在伦敦“成功”的人（“足够好”的法学院的毕业生），也适用于那些尝过城市生活并拒绝它的律师事务所合伙人和合伙人。然而，该条目是不完美的。这是在伦敦以外完成的“肮脏的[法律]工作”：被视为对律师事务所的盈利能力来说既次要又必要。我们认为境内外包是对职业形态的一种相对简单的组织变革，也是对劳动分工及其成为专业人士意味着什么进行彻底重新定位的一部分。