From a Professional Tribe to a Business NeoTribe: Towards a Theory of Consumer-based Lifestyles in the Legal Profession

The transition of the legal profession from a profession to business has exposed the commodification of the legal profession. This affected the way legal services are offered, the structure of the legal profession and its composition. Despite the commodification of the legal profession, the importance of consumption in articulating legal professional identity has gone carefully neglected. The purpose of this paper is to address this absence. This paper proposes that an alternative focus is required in order to shed new light in the formation of legal professional identity. Neo-tribal sociality addresses the importance of consumption in the formation of consumer groups. From this perspective, it provides an alternative focus for conceptualising legal professional identity. It also challenges the social organisation of the legal profession by providing alternative interpretations on issues of gender, class and age.