MAKING OF LAWYERS' CAREERS [Paperback]

An unprecedented account of social stratification within the US legal profession.

How do race, class, gender, and law school status condition the career trajectories of lawyers? And how do professionals then navigate these parameters?

The Making of Lawyers’ Careersprovides an unprecedented account of the last two decades of the legal profession in the US, offering a data-backed look at the structure of the profession and the inequalities that early-career lawyers face across race, gender, and class distinctions. 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 interviewed more than two hundred lawyers and drew insights from their individual stories, contextualizing data with theory and close attention to the features of a market-driven legal profession.

Their findings show that lawyers’ careers both reflect and reproduce inequalities within society writ large. They also reveal how individuals exercise agency despite these constraints.

Robert L. Nelsonis the MacCrate Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation and professor of sociology and law at Northwestern University.Ronit Dinovitzeris professor of sociology at the University of Toronto.Bryant G. Garthis Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of California, Irvine.Joyce S. Sterlingis professor of law emeritus at the University of Denver College of Law.David B. Wilkinsis the Lester Kissel Professor, Vice Dean for Global Initiatives on the Legal Profession, and Faculty Director of the Center on the Legal Profession,  Harvard Law School.Meghan Daweis a resident research fellow at the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School.Ethan Michelsonis professor of sociology and law at Indiana University.Note on Authorship

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