Traditions, symbols, and the challenges of researching the legal profession: the case of the cab rank rule and the Bar’s responses

ABSTRACT The English Bar sets great store by traditions and symbols. One of these, the cab rank rule, is considered above reproach. The author was commissioned to examine the working of the rule by the Legal Services Board. The resulting analysis caused much indignation among the Bar with a complete rejection of the research. This article discusses from sociological and economic perspectives how the rule functions and why the Bar was unable to engage positively. It also examines various issues in doing research on the legal profession by looking at other researchers’ histories, how the legal profession is averse to change and modernisation and clings to a manufactured sense of tradition. Any challenge to the profession’s symbolic order is perceived as a threat rather than a moment of reflection.