John P. Heinz

Owen L. Coon Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology
Faculty Associate, Institute for Policy Research
Northwestern University
j-heinz@northwestern.edu

John Heinz is an authority on the application of social science to the study of law. He joined the Northwestern faculty in 1965, was director of Northwestern's Program in Law and the Social Sciences from 1968 to 1970, and has been a research faculty member of IPR since 1972. He has been affiliated with the American Bar Foundation since 1974, serving as executive director from 1982 to 1986 and as distinguished research fellow since 1987.

Heinz received an AB from Washington University in St. Louis, where he also was a graduate fellow in political science, and an LLB from Yale University, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Before coming to Northwestern, he was a captain in the Air Force, assigned to the office of Secretary and to the White House. He has served on the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for Social Sciences, as the delegate of the Association of American Law Schools to the American Council of Learned Societies, and as chair for eight years of the Professional Advisory Committee to the Cook County State's Attorney.

At Northwestern’s law school he has taught courses in criminal law, law and social order, sociology of the legal profession, criminology, regulated industries, and evidence. He is co-author of Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar (2005), The Hollow Core: Private Interests in National Policy Making (1993), Chicago Lawyers: The Social Structure of the Bar (1982; revised, 1994) and Public Access to Information (1979); he also has published many articles. The Law and Society Association, the principal interdisciplinary association of scholars studying the legal system, presented Heinz and co-author Edward Laumann with the 1987 Harry Kalven Prize for their research on the social structure of the Chicago bar.

Current Research

Networks of Relationships Among Conservative Lawyers. Conservative and libertarian lawyers have created scores of organizations devoted to their causes, but little scholarly attention has been given to the entrepreneurs who built these organizations or to the particular roles of lawyers. In collaboration with Ann Southworth of Case Western Reserve University and Anthony Paik of the University of Iowa, Heinz is analyzing data concerning the extent of contact among a selected set of prominent lawyers active on behalf of conservative organizations. The research seeks to identify the mediators or brokers who create links among the varying interest groups, and explores the role of the Federalist Society in seeking to unify and mobilize the conservative coalition.

Success in the Legal Profession. This project seeks to identify particular attributes of lawyers that contribute to their success. Three types of success are being analyzed — financial success, prestige or influence, and personal satisfaction. Multiple regression equations are used to construct models predicating each of these three types of success. One question addressed in the research is whether different attributes or characteristics of the lawyers are associated with the different kinds of success, or whether the same variables predict all three.

Selected Publications

Books

Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar with R. Nelson, R. Sandefur, and E. Laumann. University of Chicago Press (2005).

The Hollow Core: Private Interests in National Policymaking with E. Laumann, R. Nelson and R. Salisbury. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press (1993; paperback edition 1997).

Chicago Lawyers: The Social Structure of the Bar with E. Laumann. Russell Sage Foundation and the American Bar Foundation. New York: Basic Books (1982). Revised edition, Northwestern University Press and the American Bar Foundation (1994).

Public Access to Information (with A. Gordon). New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books (1979).

Scholarly Articles

Heinz, J., with A. Southworth, and A. Paik. 2003. Lawyers for conservative causes: Clients, ideology, and social distance. Law & Society Review 37(1): 5-50.

Heinz, J., with R. Nelson and E. Laumann. 2001. The scale of justice: Observations on the transformation of urban law practice. Annual Review of Sociology 27(1): 337-62.

Heinz, J., with P. Schnorr, E. Laumann, and R. Nelson. 2001. Lawyers’ roles in voluntary associations: Declining social capital? Law and Social Inquiry 26(3): 597-630.

Heinz, J., with E. Michelson and E. Laumann. 2000. The changing character of the lawyer-client relationship: Evidence from two Chicago surveys. In The Management of Durable Relations, ed J. Weesie and W. Raub, Amsterdam: Thela/Thesis.

Heinz, J., with with R. Sandefur and E. Laumann. 1999. The changing value of social capital in an expanding social system: Lawyers in the Chicago Bar, 1975 and 1995. In Corporate Social Capital and Liability, ed. R. Leenders and S. Gabbay,. Boston: Kluwer.

Heinz, J., with K. Hull and A. Harter. 1999. Lawyers and their discontents: Findings from a survey of the Chicago Bar. Indiana Law Journal 74(3): 735-58.

Heinz, J., with E. Laumann, R. Nelson, and E. Michelson. 1998. The changing character of lawyers’ work: Chicago in 1975 and 1995. Law & Society Review 32(4): 751-75.