Lawyers and Their Discontents:
Findings from a Survey of the Chicago Bar
John
P. Heinz, Kathleen E. Hull, and Ava A. Harter
Abstract
Both journalists and scholars have reported that many
lawyers are acutely unhappy with their careers. Evidence from a
survey of a large random sample of Chicago lawyers, however, is
inconsistent with these reports. About 800 lawyers were personally
interviewed in 1994-95. Only 1.6% of the respondents reported that
they were "very dissatisfied" with their jobs, while 84% said that
they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied." Male and female lawyers
did not differ significantly in these overall satisfaction ratings.
Although these findings are consistent with research on occupational
satisfaction generally, the lack of a gender difference is surprising
because the circumstances of women within the legal profession are,
on average, markedly less advantageous than those of men. In more
particular aspects of job satisfaction, however, women are often
significantly more dissatisfied than men. Family circumstances,
especially for lawyers who have children, have more impact on women
than on men, as both the literature and general knowledge would
lead one to expect. African-American respondents were significantly
more dissatisfied than whites. Some of this difference may be associated
with characteristics of the settings within which the lawyers work,
including a large income difference. In multivariate analyses, only
income and practice setting were found to be significantly associated
with lawyer job satisfaction--neither gender nor race was significant
in these analyses.
John P. Heinz, School
of Law, Northwestern University
Kathleen E. Hull, Department of Sociology, Northwestern
University
Ava A. Harter, Attorney, Dayton, Ohio
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