Two Pathways to Proletarianization: Understanding Professionals' Adaptation to the “Corporatization” of Chinese Law Firms

ABSTRACT This study examines how lawyers in China adapt to the “corporatization” of law firms, which limits their professional autonomy within bureaucratic structures. “Proletarianization” theory, which emerged in the 1970s, effectively explains employment relations and internal stratification within the legal profession, but it has been underestimated in comparison to the more heated debates surrounding “(de)professionalization” theory. Using a revised “proletarianization” framework, the research analyzes the various responses of lawyers to corporatization by considering both organizational structures and individual strategies. The study is based on qualitative data from 4 months of participatory observation and 44 in‐depth interviews, revealing two primary models of corporatized law firms: the “horizontal assembly line” model, focused on routine legal tasks, and the “vertical pyramid” model, aimed at complex legal knowledge. These models involve different labor processes and levels of proletarianization impacting lawyers' control over their work. Furthermore, the study explores how employed lawyers perceive corporatization and manage limited autonomy and alienation, influenced by their individual career ideologies. Overall, this research provides a critical lens for analyzing the work conditions of professionals in corporatized law firms by blending the sociology of work and the sociology of profession.