M Icro - Processes of Field Construction : E Vidence from a Global Law Firm

who inspired this project during my stay at the University of Alberta. Namrata Malhotra and Marc Ventresca have provided helpful criticism and comments. Especially, I am indebted to my supervisors Laura Empson and Tim Morris for their valuable advice and guidance throughout the project. ABSTRACT Organisational fields represent a central concept in institutional theory and discussions of professional work. Notwithstanding the concept's recognised importance, however, empirical definitions have remained vague. Field formation in particular still presents institutional theorists with an under-investigated puzzle. This paper addresses this puzzle by exploring micro-processes of field construction in the daily practice of English and German lawyers from a global law firm. Based on pilot study interview data, it identifies three principal work activities through which lawyers construct their fields: the drafting of legal documents, observations of senior colleagues, and negotiations of appropriate problem-solving approaches. The paper further examines how the nature of lawyers' work in different practice-groups affects the outcomes of these processes. While limited data make definite claims seem premature, they clearly indicate that English and German finance lawyers focus on common financial products and construct a cross-jurisdictional field around their shared legal practice. Litigators, conversely, focus on disparate sets of legal knowledge that foster field constitution around national legal orders. Accordingly, the paper suggests a more prominent acknowledgement of work activities and interaction as key processes in field constitution. It suggests that institutionalists' understanding of fields may benefit from displacing reified notions in favour of structurationist constructs that appreciate fields as outcomes of meaningful interaction.