Client Selection As a Site of Resistance: Corporate Lawyers’ Ethics through a Moral Economy Lens

Do all clients and causes merit representation? This question is at the heart of currents debates on lawyers’ ethics in the academic, the professional and the public domain. Amongst other developments, the climate crisis and the Russian invasion in Ukraine brought this topic to a head.

By using a moral economy lens (Webb forthcoming), this paper explores client selection and existing controversies about large law firms’ social license to operate as a ‘site of resistance’. These controversies can be seen as indicative of the ‘double movement’ a moral economy lens provides us with. That is, the engagement in counter-moves that resist the processes of marketisation and commodification within corporate practice. This exploration sheds light on the interaction between macro- (developments in society) meso- (logics and dynamics at the level of firm) and microlevels (how individuals view and respond to this matter) which can help to identify and comprehend corporate lawyers’ ethics in response to changing societal demands.