Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-txr5j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-14T02:35:44.143Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Case of Love and Hate: Four Faces of Alienation Among Young Lawyers in France and Switzerland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2020

Isabel Boni-Le Goff ,
Eléonore Lépinard ,
Nicky Le Feuvre  and
Grégoire Mallard
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Over the past three decades, the legal profession has experienced globalization, the rise of mega-law firms, and intensified competition. These transformations have been associated with declining career perspectives, the hyper-specialization of legal work, and increased levels of stress. We argue that the concept of alienation offers valuable insights into these changes by providing an original analysis of the objective and subjective experiences of early career lawyers at work. We elaborate a multidimensional typology that covers the content and retributions of legal work. By categorizing experiences of alienation along these two axes, we identify four ideal-types of alienation: powerlessness, purposelessness, time deprivation, and unfairness. Based on qualitative studies carried out in France and Switzerland, we illustrate how young lawyers differentially experience each type of alienation, according to gender, status, and firm size. We conclude by suggesting how these factors combine to produce long-terms effects, such as the high female attrition rates observed in the Swiss and French legal professions.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , May 2020 , pp. 279 - 303
Copyright
© 2020 American Bar Foundation

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

REFERENCES

Abel, Richard. “The Politics of Professionalism: The Transformation of English Lawyers at the End of the Twentieth Century.” Legal Ethics 2, no. 2 (1999): 131–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acker, Joan. “Gendering Organizational Theory.” In Gendering Organizational Analysis. Edited by Mills, Albert J. and Tancred, Peta, 248–60. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications Ltd., 1992.Google Scholar
After the JD III. American Bar Foundation, NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education, 2015.Google Scholar
Ashley, Louise, and Empson, Laura. “Understanding Social Exclusion in Elite Professional Service Firms: Field Level Dynamics and the ‘Professional Project.’” Work, Employment and Society 31, no. 2 (2017): 211–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, Catherine, and Madden, Adrian. “Time Reclaimed: Temporality and the Experience of Meaningful Work.” Work, Employment and Society 31, no. 1 (2017): 3–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beckman, Christine M., and Phillips, Damon J.. “Interorganizational Determinants of Promotion: Client Leadership and the Attainment of Women Attorneys.” American Sociological Review 70, no. 4 (2005): 678–701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bessy, Christian. L’organisation des activités des avocats, entre monopole et marché. Paris: LGDJ, Lextenso éditions, 2015.Google Scholar
Boni-Le Goff, Isabel, Lépinard, Eléonore, Mallard, Gregoire, and Feuvre, Nicky Le. “Switzerland. The End of Prosperity in the Age of Globalization?” In Lawyers in the 21st Century. Vol. 1. National Reports. Edited by Abel, Richard L. and Hammerslev, Ole. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2020.Google Scholar
Brannen, Julia, and Nilsen, Ann. “From Fatherhood to Fathering: Transmission and Change among British Fathers in Four-Generation Families.” Sociology 40, no. 2 (2006): 335–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bühlmann, Felix, Elcheroth, Guy, and Tettamanti, Manuel. “The Division of Labour Among European Couples: The Effects of Life Course and Welfare Policy on Value-Practice Configurations.” European Sociological Review (2009), available at www.esr.oxfordjournals.org.Google Scholar
Burnett, Simon B., Gatrell, Caroline J., Cooper, Cary L., and Sparrow, Paul. “Fathers at Work: A Ghost in the Organizational Machine.” Gender, Work and Organization 20, no. 6 (2013): 632–46.Google Scholar
Carter, Bob, Danford, Andy, Howcroft, Debra, Richardson, Helen, Smith, Andrew, and Taylor, Phil. “Stressed Out of My Box: Employee Experience of Lean Working and Occupational Ill-Health in Clerical Work in the UK Public Sector.” Work, Employment and Society 27, no. 5 (2013): 747–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, Richard. “Rethinking Men and Masculinities in the Contemporary Legal Profession: The Example of Fatherhood, Transnational Business Masculinities, and Work-Life Balance in Large Law Firms.” Nevada Law Journal 13, no. 2 (2013): 410–37.Google Scholar
Collier, Richard. “Wellbeing in the Legal Profession: Reflections on Recent Developments (or, What Do We Talk about, When We Talk about Wellbeing?)”. International Journal of the Legal Profession 23, no. 1 (2016): 41–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connell, R. W.Masculinities. Cambridge, MA: Polity, 2005.Google Scholar
Crowley, Martha, and Hodson, Randy. “Neoliberalism at Work.” Social Currents 1, no. 1 (2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Bronwyn, and Harré, Rom. “Positioning: The Discursive Production of Selves.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 20, no. 1 (1990): 43–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derber, Charles. “Managing Professionals: Ideological Proletarianization and Post-Industrial Labor.” Theory and Society 12, no. 3 (1983): 309–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derber, Charles, Schwartz, William A., and Magrass, Yale. Power in the Highest Degree. Professionals and the Rise of a New Mandarin Order. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Dejours, Christophe. “La fatigue d’être soi : revers de l’èmancipation ou signe d’aliènation?” In Vivre fatiguè. Revue Française de Psychosomatique, numèro special, 27–36. Paris: PUF, 2004.Google Scholar
Dejours, Christophe. “Aliénation et clinique du travail.” Actuel Marx 2006/1, no. 39 (2006): 123–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dezalay, Yves, and Garth, Bryant G., eds. Lawyers and the Rule of Law in an Era of Globalization. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, and Garth, Bryant G.. “Lawyer Satisfaction in the Process of Structuring Legal Careers.” Law and Society Review 41, no. 1 (2007): 1–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, Garth, Bryant G., and Sterling, Joyce S.. “Buyers’ Remorse? An Empirical Assessment of the Desirability of a Lawyer Career.” Journal of Legal Education 63, no. 2 (2013): 211–34.Google Scholar
Epstein, Cynthia Fuchs, Sauté, Robert, Oglensky, Bonnie, and Gever, Martha. “Glass Ceilings and Open Doors: Women’s Advancement in the Legal Profession.” Fordham Law Review 64, no. 2 (1995): 291–447.Google Scholar
Faulconbridge, James R., and Muzio, Daniel. “Professions in a Globalizing World: Towards a Transnational Sociology of the Professions.” International Sociology 27, no. 1 (2012): 136–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fligstein, Neil, and Shin, Taek-Jin. “The Shareholder Value Society: A Review of the Changes in Working Conditions and Inequality in the United States, 1976 to 2000.” In Social Inequality, 401–32. Edited by Neckerman, Kathryn N.. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004.Google Scholar
Flood, John A.What Do Lawyers Do? An Ethnography of a Corporate Law Firm. New Orleans: Quid Pro Books, 2013.Google Scholar
Fraser, Jill Andresky. White-Collar Sweatshop: The Deterioration of Work and Its Rewards in Corporate America. New York: Norton, 2001.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc, and Palay, Thomas. Tournament of Lawyers: The Transformation of the Big Law Firm. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Garth, Bryant G., and Sterling, Joyce S.. “Exploring Inequality in the Corporate Law Firm Apprenticeship: Doing the Time, Finding the Love.” The Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 22 (2009): 1361–94.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books, 1959.Google Scholar
Haber, Stéphane. L’aliénation. Vie sociale et expérience de la dépossession. Paris: Puf, Actuel Marx Confrontation, 2007.Google Scholar
Haber, Stéphane. “Expérience du travail, expérience de l’aliénation.” Cités 2008/3, no. 35 (2008): 45–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagan, John, and Kay, Fiona. Gender in Practice: A Study of Lawyers’ Lives. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Hagan, John, and Kay, Fiona. “The Masculine Mystique: Living Large from Law School to Later Life.” Canadian Journal of Law and Society 25, no. 2 (2010): 195–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halbesleben, Jonathon R. B., and Clark, Sara K.. “The Experience of Alienation among Temporary Workers in High-Skill Jobs: A Qualitative Analysis of Temporary Firefighters.” Journal of Managerial Issues 22, no. 4 (2010): 531–45.Google Scholar
Heinz, John P., Nelson, Robert L., Sandefur, Rebecca L., and Laumann, Edward O.. Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Arlie Russell. The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. New York: Metropolitan Books, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, Everett C. The Sociological Eye: Selected Papers. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1971.Google Scholar
Kalleberg, Arne L. “Globalization and Precarious Work.” Contemporary Sociology 42, no. 5 (2013): 700–06.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kanter, Rosabeth Moss.Men and Women of the Corporation. New York: Basic Books, 1977.Google Scholar
Karasek, Robert, and Theorell, Tores. Healthy Work: Stress, Productivity and the Reconstruction of Working Life. New York: Basic Books (1990).Google Scholar
Karpik, Lucien. Les Avocats: Entre l'État, le public et le marché (XIIIe-XXe siècle). Paris: Gallimard, 1999.Google Scholar
Kay, Fiona M., Alarie, Stacey, and Adjei, Jones. “Leaving Private Practice: How Organizational Context, Time Pressures, and Structural Inflexibilities Shape Departures from Private Law Practice. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 20, no. 2 (2013): 1223–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, Fiona M., Alarie, Stacey, and Adjei, Jones. “Undermining Gender Equality: Female Attrition from Private Law Practice.” Law and Society Review 50, no. 3 (2016): 766–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kumra, Savita. “Gendered Construction of Merit.” In The Oxford Handbook of Gender in Organizations. Edited by Kumra, Savita, Simpson, Ruth, and Burke, Ronald J., 269–91. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Lallement, Michel. Le travail. Une sociologie contemporaine. Paris: Gallimard, Folio Essais, 2007.Google Scholar
Lamont, Michèle, and Swidler, Ann. “Methodological Pluralism and the Possibilities and Limits of Interviewing.” Qualitative Sociology 37, no. 2 (2014): 153–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marx, Karl. Manuscrits de 1844. Paris: Éditions sociales, 1972 [1844].Google Scholar
Miller, Claire Cain, and Alderman, Liz. “Why US Women Lawyers Are Leaving Jobs Behind.” New York Times, December 12, 2014, available at https://Labor.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/upshot/us-employment-women-not-working.html.Google Scholar
Miller, George A. “Professionals in Bureaucracy: Alienation among Industrial Scientists and Engineers.” American Sociological Review 32, no. 5 (1967): 755–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, C. Wright. White Collar: The American Middle Classes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 2002 [1951].Google Scholar
Nelson, Robert L.Partners with Power: The Social Transformation of the Large Law Firm. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Plickert, Gabriele, and Hagan, John L.. “Professional Work and the Timing of Family Formation among Young Lawyers in US and German Cities.” International Journal of the Legal Profession 18, no. 3 (2011): 237–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plickert, Gabriele, Kay, Fiona, and Hagan, John L.. “Depressive Symptoms and the Salience of Job Satisfaction over the Life Course of Professionals.” Advances in Life Course Research 31 (2017): 22–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, Jackie Krasas. (1995). “Just a Temp. Experience and Structure of Alienation in Temporary Clerical Employment.” Work and Occupations 22, no. 2 (1995): 137–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roscigno, Vincent J., Lopez, Steven H., and Hodson, Randy. “Supervisory Bullying, Status Inequalities and Organizational Context.” Social Forces 87 (2009): 1561–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, Robert. “‘Proletarianizing’ Lives: Researching Careers.” Law and Society Review 33, no. 3 (2009): 703–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schieman, Scott, Whiteston, Yuko Kurashina, and Gundy, Karen Van. “The Nature of Work and the Stress of Higher Status.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 47, no. 3 (2006): 242–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schultz, Ulrike, and Shaw, Gisela, eds. Women in the World’s Legal Professions. Oxford: Hart, 2003.Google Scholar
Seeman, Melvin. “On the Meaning of Alienation.” American Sociological Review 24, no. 6 (1959): 783–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seeman, Melvin. “Alienation Studies.” Annual Review of Sociology 1 (1975): 91–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seron, Carroll, and Ferris, Kerry. “Negotiating Professionalism: The Gendered Social Capital of Flexible Time.” Work and Occupations 22 (1995): 22–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shantz, Amanda, Alfes, Kerstin, Bailey, Catherine, and Soane, Emma. “Drivers and Outcomes of Work Alienation: Reviving a Concept.” Journal of Management Inquiry. 24, no. 4 (2015): 382–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snorradóttir, Ásta, Tomasson, Kristinn, Vilhjálmsson, Rúnar, and Rafnsdóttir, Guðbjörg Linda. “The Health and Well-Being of Bankers Following Downsizing: A Comparison of Stayers and Leavers.” Work, Employment and Society 29, no. 5 (2015): 738–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sommerlad, Hilary. “Women Solicitors in a Fractured Profession: Intersections of Gender and Professionalism in England and Wales.” International Journal of the Legal Profession 9, no. 3 (2002): 213–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sommerlad, Hilary. “‘A Pit to Put Women in’: Professionalism, Work Intensification, Sexualisation and Work-Life Balance in the Legal Profession in England and Wales.” International Journal of the Legal Profession 23, no. 1 (2016): 61–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sterling, Joyce S., and Reichman, Nancy. “So You Want to Be a Lawyer? The Quest for Professional Status in a Changing Legal World.” Fordham Law Review 78 (2010): 2289–314.Google Scholar
Strathern, Marilyn, ed. Audit Cultures: Anthropological Studies in Accountability, Ethics, and the Academy. London: Routledge, 2000.Google Scholar
Thornton, Margaret. “Squeezing the Life Out of Lawyers: Legal Practice in the Market Embrace.” Griffith Law Review 25, no. 4 (2016a): 471–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thornton, Margaret. “Work/Life or Work/Work? Corporate Legal Practice in the Twenty-First Century.” International Journal of the Legal Profession 23, no. 1 (2016b): 13–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, Jean E., and Kay, Fiona. “Tokenism, Organizational Segregation, and Coworker Relations in Law Firms.” Social Problems 59, no. 3 (2012): 389–410.Google Scholar
Walsh, Janet. “Gender, the Work-Life Interface and Wellbeing: A Study of Hospital Doctors.” Gender, Work and Organization 20, no. 4 (2013): 439–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheatley, Daniel. “Autonomy in Paid Work and Employee Subjective Well-Being.” Work and Occupations 44 (2017): 296–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkins, David B., and Gulati, Mitu. “Reconceiving the Tournament of Lawyers: Tracking, Seeding and Information Control in the Internal Labor Markets of Elite Law Firms.” Virginia Law Review 84, no. 8 (1998): 1581–681.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuill, Chris. “Forgetting and Remembering Alienation Theory.” History of the Human Sciences 24, no. 2 (2011): 103–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zou, Min. “Gender, Work Orientations and Job Satisfaction.” Work, Employment and Society 29, no. 1 (2015): 3–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Boni-Le Goff et al. supplementary material

Table S1
Download Boni-Le Goff et al. supplementary material(File)
File 55.3 KB