Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-20T19:19:56.793Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Financial Rewards of Elite Status in the Legal Profession

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Ronit Dinovitzer
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article focuses on the role of intergenerational status attainment for legal careers. By decomposing the earnings gap between elite and nonelite lawyers at two points in their careers, we find that inherited cultural capital produces an earnings advantage as soon as lawyers begin their careers and that this gap persists over time. We further find that the processes underlying this gap change as lawyers make their way through the profession. While in early careers, the elite advantage is due to stronger starting endowments, the advantage for junior lawyers results from a more complex process, which combines starting endowments, professional capital gained during the first years of practice, and the rate at which endowments are differentially rewarded in the profession. Elaborating on work that identifies the importance of maintaining and concentrating diverse forms of capital in the legal profession, we explain the process through which elite lawyers gain and retain their advantage over time.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , Fall 2011 , pp. 971 - 998
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2011 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alwin, Duane. 1974. College Effects on Educational and Occupational Attainments. American Sociological Review 39:210–23.Google Scholar
Aschaffenburg, Karen, and Maas, Ineke. 1997. Cultural and Educational Careers: The Dynamics of Social Reproduction. American Sociological Review 62:573–87.Google Scholar
Blau, Peter M. 1973. The Organization of Academic Work. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Blau, Peter, and Duncan, Otis Dudley. 1967. The American Occupational Structure. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1998. The State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Carlin, Jerome. 1962. Lawyers on Their Own. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Carlin, Jerome. 1996. Lawyers' Ethics: A Survey of the New York Bar. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Collins, Randall. 1979. The Credential Society. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Croizet, Jean‐Claude, and Claire, Theresa. 1998. Extending the Concept of Stereotype Threat to Social Class: The Intellectual Underperformance of Students from Low Socioeconomic Backgrounds. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 24:588–94.Google Scholar
Crook, Christopher J. 1997. Cultural Practices and Socioeconomic Attainment: The Australian Experience. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Dalton, Melville. 1959. Men Who Manage. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Dau‐Schmidt, Kenneth, and Mukhopadhaya, Kaushik. 1999. The Fruits of Our Labors: An Empirical Study of the Distribution of Income and Job Satisfaction across the Legal Profession. Journal of Legal Education 49:342–66.Google Scholar
Daymont, Thomas N., and Andrisani, Paul J. 1984. Job Preferences, College Major, and the Gender Gap in Earnings. Journal of Human Resources 19:408–28.Google Scholar
De Graaf, Paul M. 1988. Parents' Financial and Cultural Resources, Grades, and Transition to Secondary School in the Federal Republic of Germany. European Sociological Review 4:209–21.Google Scholar
Dezalay, Yves. 1995a. “Turf Battles” or “Class Struggles”: The Internationalization of the Market for Expertise in the “Professional Society.” Accounting, Organizations and Society 20:331–44.Google Scholar
Dezalay, Yves. 1995b. Professional Competition and the Social Construction of Transnational Markets. In Professional Competition and Professional Power, ed. Dezalay, Yves and Sugarman, David, 1–15. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dezalay, Yves, and Garth, Bryant G. 1996. Dealing in Virtue: International Commercial Arbitration and the Construction of a Transnational Legal Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul. 1982. Cultural Capital and School Success: The Impact of Status Culture Participation on the Grades of U.S. High School Students. American Sociological Review 47:189–201.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul, and Mohr, John. 1985. Cultural Capital, Educational Attainment, and Marital Selection. American Journal of Sociology 90:1231–261.Google Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, and Garth, Bryant G. 2007. Lawyer Satisfaction in the Process of Structuring Legal Careers. Law & Society Review 41:1–50.Google Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, Garth, Bryant G., Sander, Richard, Sterling, Joyce, and Wilder, Gita Z. 2004. After the JD: First Results of a National Study of Legal Careers. American Bar Foundation and NALP. http://www.americanbarfoundation.org/uploads/cms/documents/ajd.pdf (accessed April 20, 2011).Google Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, Reichman, Nancy, and Sterling, Joyce. 2009. The Differential Valuation of Women's Work: A New Look at the Gender Gap in Lawyers' Incomes. Social Forces 88:819–54.Google Scholar
Dixon, Jo, and Seron, Carroll. 1995. Stratification in the Legal Profession: Sex, Sector, and Salary. Law & Society Review 29:381–412.Google Scholar
Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs. 1981. Women in Law. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs. 1983. Comment: Epstein Responds to Menkel‐Meadow's Review Essay on Women in Law . American Bar Foundation Research Journal 8:1006–8.Google Scholar
Erikson, Robert, and Jonsson, Jan O. 1998. Rewards among Employees in Sweden Social Origin as an Interest‐Bearing Asset: Family Background and Labour‐Market. Acta Sociologica 41:19–36.Google Scholar
Erlanger, Howard S. 1980. The Allocation of Status within Professions: The Case of the Legal Profession. Social Problems 58: 882–903.Google Scholar
Farrington, David P., and Loeber, Rolf. 2000. Some Benefits of Dichotomization in Psychiatric and Criminological Research. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health 10:100–22.Google Scholar
Featherman, David, and Hauser, Robert. 1978. Opportunity and Change. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc S., and Henderson, William D. 2008. The Elastic Tournament: The Second Transformation of the Big Law Firm. Stanford Law Review 60:1867–1930.Google Scholar
Ganzeboom, Harry B. G., and Treiman, Donald J. 1996. Internationally Comparable Measures of Occupational Status for the 1988 International Standard Classification of Occupations. Social Science Research 25:201–39.Google Scholar
Garth, Bryant G. 2004. Noblesse Oblige as an Alternative Career Strategy. Houston Law Review 41:93–111.Google Scholar
Gordon, Robert. 1984. The Ideal and the Actual in the Law: Fantasies and Practices of New York City Lawyers, 1870–1910. In The New High Priests: Lawyers in Post‐Civil War America, ed. Gawalt, Gerard, 51–74, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Hagan, John. 1990. The Gender Stratification of Income Inequality among Lawyers. Social Forces 68:835–55.Google Scholar
Hagan, John, Huxter, Marie, and Parker, Patricia. 1988. Class Structure and Legal Practice: Inequality and Mobility among Toronto Lawyers. Law & Society Review 22:501–50.Google Scholar
Hagan, John, and Kay, Fiona. 1995. Gender in Practice: A Study of Lawyers' Lives. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hagan, John, Zatz, Marjorie, Arnold, Bruce, and Kay, Fiona. 1991. “Cultural Capital, Gender, and the Structural Transformation of Legal Practice. Law & Society Review 25:239–62.Google Scholar
Hauser, Robert M., and Warren, John R. 1997. Socioeconomic Indexes for Occupations: A Review, Update, and Critique. Sociological Methodology 27:177–298.Google Scholar
Heinz, John, and Laumann, Edward O. 1982. Chicago Lawyers: The Social Structure of the Bar. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Heinz, John P., Nelson, Robert L., and Laumann, Edward O. 2001. The Scale of Justice: Observations on the Transformation of Urban Law Practice. Annual Review of Sociology 27:337–62.Google Scholar
Heinz, John P., Nelson, Robert L., Sandefur, Rebecca L., and Laumann, Edward O. 2005. Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hout, Michael. 1984. Status, Autonomy, and Training in Occupational Mobility. American Journal of Sociology 89:1397–1409.Google Scholar
Hout, Michael. 1988. More Universalism, Less Structural Mobility: The American Occupational Structure in the 1980s. American Sociological Review 93:1358–1400.Google Scholar
Hull, Kathleen E., and Nelson, Robert L. 2000. Assimilation, Choice, or Constraint? Testing Theories of Gender Differences in the Careers of Lawyers. Social Forces 79:229–64.Google Scholar
Jæger, Mads Meier, and Holm, Anders. 2003. Which Background Factors Matter More in Intergenerational Educational Attainment: Social Class, Cultural Capital or Cognitive Ability? A Random Effects Approach. Working Paper. Centre for Applied Microeconometrics, Institute of Economics University of Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Jann, Ben. 2008. The Blinder‐Oaxaca Decomposition for Linear Regression Models. Stata Journal 8:453–79.Google Scholar
Janowitz, Morris. 1960. The Professional Soldier. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Jones, F. L., and Kelley, Jonathan. 1984. Decomposing Differences between Groups: A Cautionary Note on Measuring Discrimination. Sociological Methods and Research 12:323–42.Google Scholar
Jonsson, J. O. 1987. Class Origin, Cultural Origin, and Educational Attainment. European Sociological Review 3:229–42.Google Scholar
Kane, Thomas J. 2004. College‐Going and Inequality. In Social Inequality, ed. Neckerman, Kathryn M., 319–54. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
Kay, Fiona M. 1997. Flight from Law: A Competing Risks Model of Departures from Law Firms. Law & Society Review 31:301–36.Google Scholar
Kay, Fiona M. 2008. Professional Monopolies and Divisive Practices in Law: “Les Femmes Juridiques” in Civil Law Canada. International Journal of Law in Context 4:187–215.Google Scholar
Kay, Fiona M., and Hagan, John. 1995. The Persistent Glass Ceiling: Gendered Inequalities in the Earnings of Lawyers. British Journal of Sociology 46:279–310.Google Scholar
Kay, Fiona M., and Hagan, John. 1998. Raising the Bar: The Gender Stratification of Law Firm Capitalization. American Sociological Review 63:728–43.Google Scholar
Kay, Fiona M., and Hagan, John. 1999. Cultivating Clients in the Competition for Partnership: Gender and the Organizational Restructuring of Law Firms. Law & Society Review 33:517–56.Google Scholar
Kay, Fiona M., and Hagan, John. 2003. Building Trust: Social Capital, Distributive Justice, and Loyalty to the Firm. Law & Social Inquiry 28: 483–519.Google Scholar
Kay, Fiona M., and Wallace, Jean E. 2009. Mentors as Social Capital: Gender, Mentors, and Career Rewards in Law Practice. Sociological Inquiry 79:418–52.Google Scholar
Kornhauser, Lewis A., and Revesz, Richard L. 1995. Legal Education and Entry into the Legal Profession: The Role of Race, Gender, and Educational Debt. New York University Law Review 70:829–964.Google Scholar
Kronman, Anthony T. 1995. The Lost Lawyer: Failing Ideals of the Legal Profession. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ladinsky, Jack. 1963. Careers of Lawyers, Law Practice, and Legal Institutions. American Sociological Review 28:47–54.Google Scholar
Lempert, Richard O., Chambers, David L., and Adams, Terry K. 2000. Michigan's Minority Graduates in Practice: The River Runs through Law School. Law & Social Inquiry 25:395–505.Google Scholar
Lena, Hugh F., Roach, Sharyn L., and Warkov, Seymour. 1993. Professional Status at Mid‐Career: The Influence of Social and Academic Origins on Lawyers' Achievement. Sociological Forum 8:365–82.Google Scholar
Mare, Robert. 1981. Change and Stability in Educational Stratification. American Sociological Review 46:72–87.Google Scholar
Morgan, Stephen. 2005. On the Edge of Commitment: Educational Attainment and Race in the United States. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Nelson, Robert L. 1988. Partners with Power: The Social Transformation of the Large Law Firm. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Nelson, Robert L. 1994. The Futures of American Lawyers: A Demographic Profile of a Changing Profession in a Changing Society. Case Western Reserve Law Review 44:345–406.Google Scholar
Noonan, Mary C., Corcoran, Mary E., and Courant, Paul N. 2005. Pay Differences among the Highly Trained: Cohort Differences in the Sex Gap in Lawyers' Earnings. Social Forces 84:853–72.Google Scholar
Nordli Hansen, Marianne. 2001. Closure in an Open Profession: The Impact of Social Origin on the Educational and Occupational Success of Graduates of Law in Norway. Work, Employment & Society 15:489–510.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, Owen, Van Doorslaer, Eddy, Wagstaff, Adam, and Lindelow, Magnus. 2007. Analyzing Health Equity Using Household Survey Data: A Guide to Techniques and Their Implementation. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Peterson, Robert W., and Schoenherr, Richard A. 1978. Organizational Status Attainment of Religious Professionals. Social Forces 56:794–822.Google Scholar
Pierce, Jennifer L. 1995. Gender Trials: Emotional Lives in Contemporary Law Firms. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Powell, Michael J. 1988. From Patrician to Professional Elite: The Transformation of the New York City Bar Association. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Ridgeway, Cecilia L. 1997. Interaction and the Conservation of Gender Inequality: Considering Employment. American Sociological Review 62:218–35.Google Scholar
Rueschemeyer, Dietrich. 1986. Comparing Legal Professions Cross‐Nationally: from a Professions‐Centered to a State‐Centered Approach. American Bar Foundation Research Journal 3:415–46.Google Scholar
Sauder, Michael, and Espeland, Wendy. 2009. Rankings and Diversity. Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice 18:587–610.Google Scholar
Seron, Carroll, and Munger, Frank. 1996. Law and Inequality: Race, Gender … and, of Course, Class. Annual Review of Sociology 22:187–212.Google Scholar
Sewell, William H., and Hauser, Robert M. 1975. Education, Occupation, and Earnings: Achievement in the Early Career. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Smigel, Erwin O. 1964. The Wall Street Lawyer. Glencoe, NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
Sommerlad, Hilary. 2008. What Are You Doing Here? You Should Be Working in a Hair Salon or Something: Outsider Status and Professional Socialization in the Solicitors' Profession. Web Journal of Current Legal Issues 2. http://webjcli.ncl.ac.uk/2008/issue2/sommerlad2.html (accessed April 20, 2011).Google Scholar
Spurr, Stephen J., and Sueyoshi, Glenn T. 1994. Turnover and Promotion of Lawyers: An Inquiry into Gender Differences. Journal of Human Resources 29:813–42.Google Scholar
Stake, Jeffrey Evans, Dau‐Schmidt, Kenneth G., and Mukhopadhaya, Kaushik. 2007. Income and Career Satisfaction in the Legal Profession: Survey Data from Indiana Law School Graduates. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 4:939–81.Google Scholar
Steele, Claude M., Spencer, Steven J., and Aronson, Joshua. 2002. Contending with Group Image: The Psychology of Stereotype and Social Identity Threat. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 34:379–440.Google Scholar
Sterling, Joyce, Dinovitzer, Ronit, and Garth, Bryant G. 2007. The Changing Social Role of Urban Law Schools. Southwestern University Law Review 36:389–432.Google Scholar
Treiman, Donald J. 2000. Occupations, Social Stratification, and Social Mobility. In The Blackwell Companion to Sociology, ed. Blau, J., 297–313. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wallace, Jean E. 2001. The Benefits of Mentoring for Female Lawyers. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 58:366–91.Google Scholar
Warkov, Seymour, and Zelan, Joseph. 1965. Lawyers in the Making. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1968. Economy and Society, ed. Roth, Guenther and Wittich, Claus. New York: Bedminister Press.Google Scholar
Wilkins, David B. 1999. Legal Ethics: Partners without Power? Journal of the Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics 2:15–48.Google Scholar
Wilkins, David, Dinovitzer, Ronit, & Batra, Rishi. 2007. Urban Law School Graduates in Large Law Firms. Southwestern University Law Review 36:433–507.Google Scholar
Valian, Virginia. 1999. Why So Slow? The Advancement of Women. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar