Screen LibraryThe making of lawyers' careers : inequality and opportunity in the American legal profession /
"How do hierarchies of race, class, gender, and law school status condition the career trajectories of lawyers? And how do individual lawyers strategically navigate the constraints and opportunities of their environments? Where do they find professional satisfaction? This book offers an unprece...
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| Main Authors: | |
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| Published: |
The University of Chicago Press,
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| Publisher Address: | Chicago, IL : |
| Publication Dates: | 2023. |
| Literature type: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Series: |
Chicago series in law and society
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| Subjects: | |
| Summary: |
"How do hierarchies of race, class, gender, and law school status condition the career trajectories of lawyers? And how do individual lawyers strategically navigate the constraints and opportunities of their environments? Where do they find professional satisfaction? This book offers an unprecedented account of opportunity structures and social stratification within the early 21st century American legal profession, combining unique longitudinal survey data with interviews, storytelling, and insights from social theory. Starting in 2000, the authors collected over 10,000 survey responses from more than 5,000 lawyers, following these lawyers through the first twenty years of their careers. They also conducted in-depth interviews with more than 200 lawyers. They contextualize their findings through attention to the features of a market-driven legal profession, in particular the growth in recent decades of the private sector relative to the public sector and corresponding disparities in earnings and status between these different segments. The analysis in this book reveals a legal profession that is highly stratified. Although individual lawyers exercise agency and often find satisfaction in their work, there are deep divisions within the profession by client type and practice setting, and women and attorneys of color face discrimination and persistent barriers to advancement. The careers of lawyers both reflect and reproduce inequalities in law and society writ large"-- |
| Carrier Form: | 415 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages [375]-393) and index. |
| ISBN: |
9780226828909 0226828905 9780226828923 0226828921 |
| Index Number: | KF297 |
| CLC: | D971.265 |
| Call Number: | D971.265/N429 |
| Contents: |
Introduction : The making of lawyers' careers ; From the golden age to the age of disruption : Setting the context for lawyers' careers in the new millennium -- Change and continuity in the legal field : From walled-off hemispheres to more or less mixed hierarchical sequences ; Race, class, and gender in the structuring of lawyers' early careers ; Two hemispheres revisited : Fields of law, practice settings, and client types -- Moving up and moving on : Careers in law firms ; Rethinking the solo practitioner ; Moving inside : Practicing law in business organizations ; Commitment, careerism, and stratification : Careers in government, nonprofits, and public interest organizations -- White spaces : The enduring racialization of American law firms / Student debt and cumulative (dis)advantage in lawyers' careers ; Hegemonic masculinity, parenthood, and gender inequality / Dualities of politics, public service, and pro bono in lawyers' careers / Lawyers' satisfaction and the making of lawyers' careers / Conclusion : Structure and agency in the making of lawyers' careers. |