Professional Education, Global Professional Service Firms and the Cultures of Professional Work in Europe, 2009

Global accountancy, architecture and legal professional service firms (PSFs) play a vital role in the global economy and facilitate cross border business. Their operations are, however, complicated by the fact that the home-country, predominantly US and UK, professional cultures, practices and institutions are very different to those encountered elsewhere. This project seeks to examine the way global PSFs manage such differences through the use of selective recruitment and professional education. The project uses a case study of English global law firms in Europe because of their expansive globalization strategies in the region. The project will: (1) examine the selective recruitment strategies of firms and analyse trends in relation to the universities and countries of education preferred by firms through a survey of the qualifications and biographies of partners working in the European offices of English global law firms; (2) analyse the role of in-house training programmes, as well as 'preferred' external training providers, in the management of professional cultures through interviews with partners, associates and training managers in England, Germany and Italy; (3) investigate the implications of the training programmes used by firms for the regulation of professional education through interviews with training providers and regulators of professional education.