Clark, Trevor;
(2023)
Leveraged Ethics: An Empirical Study of the Institutional
Logics and Ethics of Leveraged Finance Lawyers.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Thesis Trevor Clark - Deposit Version December 2023 PDF.pdf - Accepted Version Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 1 July 2025. Download (2MB) |
Abstract
This thesis is an empirical exploration of the practices and ethics of leverage finance lawyers who work in large international law firms in London. It relies on data collected in interviews with 47 participants, the majority of which were partners and senior associates at leading English and US law firms. My study identifies and explores the central and controversial practices of this practice setting. For example, lawyer designation, which leads bank lawyers to adjust their behaviour so as to appear more accommodating to the private equity lawyers that effectively appoint them. In response, private equity lawyers adopt a strategy of ‘moving the market’ in documentary terms on each transaction, which is frequently disconnected from the business context of the transaction and/or the needs of their client. The combined effect is that the typical transaction documents in this practice setting have become substantially one-sided in favour of private equity sponsors, and littered with uncertainty and loopholes. This thesis applies the institutional logics perspective to explore what might be the potential causes of this phenomena. My data reveal the principal logics which influence lawyer practices and ethical decision-making in this practice setting. The existing literature has revealed the effects of the major structural changes to large law firms that occurred in the 1980s and 1990s; my study shows how the field’s logics are also intimately connected to market forces and events which have transformed the structural conditions of this practice setting since the mid-2000s. Further, this thesis offers a practice area-focussed assessment of corporate lawyer susceptibility to powerful third parties; offers an evaluation of practice area-specific claims to technical expertise and high-quality service in large law firms, and; assesses lawyer behaviour against ethical duties in the SRA’s Standards and Regulations. In each case, this thesis contributes fresh insights and knowledge to the data we currently have.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Leveraged Ethics: An Empirical Study of the Institutional Logics and Ethics of Leveraged Finance Lawyers |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Laws |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10183301 |
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