Views from the Front: A Dialog About the Corporate Law Firm

Having spent a few years in the trenches at a major corporate law firm, and, throwing caution to the wind, we decided to pursue a somewhat novel idea: a fictionalized discussion about the state of the corporate law firm between two ideological icons-Karl Marx and Betty Friedan. The increasing clamor of associate dissatisfaction at corporate law firms requires that these institutions consider the desirability of fundamental, transformational reform in order to create a more user-friendly atmosphere for associates, partners, and long-suffering support staff. In short, revolution-and who better to sow the seeds of revolution than Karl Marx and Betty Friedan? Both Marx and Friedan developed transformational, holistic, social theories-theories that provide a useful analytical framework for deconstructing the corporate law firm.