IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/brjirl/v58y2020i3p483-506.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Uberizing the Legal Profession? Lawyer Autonomy and Status in the Digital Legal Market

Author

Listed:
  • Yao Yao

Abstract

The online gig economy has disrupted many occupations in the past decade, but only more recently has it had an impact on professional fields. The recency of this trend indicates a need for understanding the impact of the online gig economy on professional workers. Using interview data from lawyers who work on one of China's most successful online legal service platforms, this study finds that supplementary income and flexibility are the two major motives for lawyers to work online. Nevertheless, when working online, lawyers face lower intra‐professional status and lower professional autonomy. Despite its growth, the digital legal market is imposing a minimal threat to the traditional legal market due to the lack of interference in labour supply and demand between these two markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Yao Yao, 2020. "Uberizing the Legal Profession? Lawyer Autonomy and Status in the Digital Legal Market," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(3), pages 483-506, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:58:y:2020:i:3:p:483-506
    DOI: 10.1111/bjir.12485
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12485
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/bjir.12485?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kässi, Otto & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2018. "Online labour index: Measuring the online gig economy for policy and research," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 241-248.
    2. Ajay Agrawal & John Horton & Nicola Lacetera & Elizabeth Lyons, 2015. "Digitization and the Contract Labor Market: A Research Agenda," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Analysis of the Digital Economy, pages 219-250, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Melissa Mazmanian & Wanda J. Orlikowski & JoAnne Yates, 2013. "The Autonomy Paradox: The Implications of Mobile Email Devices for Knowledge Professionals," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(5), pages 1337-1357, October.
    4. Avner Shared & John Sutton, 1981. "The Self-Regulating Profession," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 48(2), pages 217-234.
    5. Andrey Shevchuk & Denis Strebkov, 2018. "Safeguards against Opportunism in Freelance Contracting on the Internet," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(2), pages 342-369, June.
    6. Jonathan V. Hall & Alan B. Krueger, 2018. "An Analysis of the Labor Market for Uber’s Driver-Partners in the United States," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 71(3), pages 705-732, May.
    7. John J. Horton, 2017. "The Effects of Algorithmic Labor Market Recommendations: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(2), pages 345-385.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael David Maffie, 2023. "Becoming a pirate: Independence as an alternative to exit in the gig economy," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(1), pages 46-67, March.
    2. Nishikawa, Bruna T. & Orsato, Renato J., 2021. "Professional services in the age of platforms: Towards an analytical framework," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    3. Paula McDonald & Penny Williams & Robyn Mayes & Maria Khan, 2024. "Income generation on care work digital labour platforms," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 62(2), pages 358-380, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Braesemann, Fabian & Stephany, Fabian & Teutloff, Ole & Kässi, Otto & Graham, Mark & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2021. "The polarisation of remote work," SocArXiv q8a96, Center for Open Science.
    2. Ni Huang & Gordon Burtch & Yili Hong & Paul A. Pavlou, 2020. "Unemployment and Worker Participation in the Gig Economy: Evidence from an Online Labor Market," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 431-448, June.
    3. Fabian Braesemann & Fabian Stephany & Ole Teutloff & Otto Kassi & Mark Graham & Vili Lehdonvirta, 2021. "The global polarisation of remote work," Papers 2108.13356, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2022.
    4. Panos Constantinides & Ola Henfridsson & Geoffrey G. Parker, 2018. "Introduction—Platforms and Infrastructures in the Digital Age," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 381-400, June.
    5. Wood, Alex & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2021. "Antagonism beyond employment: how the ‘subordinated agency’ of labour platforms generates conflict in the remote gig economy," SocArXiv y943w, Center for Open Science.
    6. Martindale, Nicholas & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2021. "Can labour market digitalization increase social mobility? Evidence from a European survey of online platform workers," SocArXiv 54aqh, Center for Open Science.
    7. Kässi, Otto & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2018. "Online labour index: Measuring the online gig economy for policy and research," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 241-248.
    8. Melia, Elvis, 2020. "African jobs in the digital era: Export options with a focus on online labour," IDOS Discussion Papers 3/2020, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    9. Davide Arcidiacono & Giorgio Piccitto, 2023. "Assessing Inclusivity Through Job Quality in Digital Plat‐Firms," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(4), pages 239-250.
    10. Mayo Fuster Morell & Ricard Espelt, 2019. "A Framework to Assess the Sustainability of Platform Economy: The Case of Barcelona Ecosystem," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-20, November.
    11. Heiland, Heiner, 2020. "Workers' Voice in platform labour: An Overview," WSI Studies 21, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    12. Alexander Cuntz, 2018. "Creators' Income Situation in the Digital Age," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 49, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    13. Mourelatos, Evangelos, 2023. "Does Mood affect Sexual and Gender Discrimination in Hiring Choices? Evidence from Online Experiments," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    14. John Horton & William R. Kerr & Christopher Stanton, 2017. "Digital Labor Markets and Global Talent Flows," NBER Chapters, in: High-Skilled Migration to the United States and Its Economic Consequences, pages 71-108, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Sebastian Butschek & Roberto González Amor & Patrick Kampkötter & Dirk Sliwka, 2019. "Paying Gig Workers - Evidence from a Field Experiment," CESifo Working Paper Series 7983, CESifo.
    16. Janine Berg & Miriam A. Cherry & Uma Rani, 2019. "Digital labour platforms: a need for international regulation?," Revista de Economía Laboral - Spanish Journal of Labour Economics, Asociación Española de Economía Laboral - AEET, vol. 16, pages 104-128.
    17. Stephany, Fabian & Teutloff, Ole, 2024. "What is the price of a skill? The value of complementarity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(1).
    18. Victor Alfonso Naya & Guillaume Bied & Philippe Caillou & Bruno Crépon & Christophe Gaillac & Elia Pérennes & Michèle Sebag, 2021. "Designing labor market recommender systems: the importance of job seeker preferences and competition," Post-Print hal-03540319, HAL.
    19. Evangelos Mourelatos & Jaakko Simonen & Simo Hosio & Daniil Likhobaba & Dmitry Ustalov, 2024. "How has the COVID-19 pandemic shaped behavior in crowdsourcing? The role of online labor market training," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 94(9), pages 1201-1244, November.
    20. Maier, Michael F. & Viete, Steffen & Ody, Margard, 2017. "Plattformbasierte Erwerbsarbeit: Stand der empirischen Forschung," IZA Research Reports 81, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:58:y:2020:i:3:p:483-506. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.