This book investigates the transformation of the English legal profession during the 1990s as it navigated the competing pressures of market forces and state intervention. Richard L. Abel, a distinguished scholar in the sociology of law, utilizes extensive archival research and analysis of professional regulatory bodies to argue that the traditional autonomy of the legal profession was fundamentally eroded by political reforms and economic shifts. The text provides a framework for understanding how professional associations like the Bar and the Law Society struggled to maintain self-regulation amidst rapid institutional change.

Experts recognize this work as a foundational socio-legal study of the English legal system's transition toward a more market-oriented model. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the author's rigorous attention to institutional detail.