The changing economic geography of large U.S. law firms
研究了美国大型律师事务所分支机构的扩张模式，发现2000年代末后其扩张与美国国内及伦敦市场的有机增长关联减弱，可能受全球金融危机影响，但关键海外市场仍在增长。
The number of lawyers working for large U.S. law firms has increased dramatically. One important manifestation of this is the growing network of branch offices. Informed by three theories of spatial change—law firms (i) following the geographic expansion of their clients, relying on (ii) traditional agglomeration economies and relying on (iii) agglomeration benefits emerging from a location’s connectivity to other important geographies—we analyze longitudinal data on large U.S. law firms and the global urban network in which they are embedded. We find that, after the late 2000s, geographic expansion was less connected to organic market growth in U.S. domestic markets and London, a plausible explanation being the global financial crisis. At the same time, growth has continued in key foreign markets. We demonstrate how network analysis and a relational approach to organizations and organizational fields can yield insights into the structure and dynamics of industries.