Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar - Softcover

Heinz, John P. P.; Nelson, Robert L.; Sandefur, Rebecca L.; Laumann, Edward O.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226325407 ISBN 13: 9780226325408

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2005

Synopsis

Over the past several decades, the number of lawyers in large cities has doubled, women have entered the bar at an unprecedented rate, and the scale of firms has greatly expanded. This immense growth has transformed the nature and social structure of the legal profession. In the most comprehensive analysis of the urban bar to date, Urban Lawyers presents a compelling portrait of how these changes continue to shape the field of law today.

Drawing on extensive interviews with Chicago lawyers, the authors demonstrate how developments in the profession have affected virtually every aspect of the work and careers of urban lawyers-their relationships with clients, job tenure and satisfaction, income, social and political values, networks of professional connections, and patterns of participation in the broader community. Yet despite the dramatic changes, much remains the same. Stratification of income and power based on gender, race, and religious background, for instance, still maintains inequality within the bar.

The authors of Urban Lawyers conclude that organizational priorities will likely determine the future direction of the legal profession. And with this landmark study as their guide, readers will be able to make their own informed predictions.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert L. Nelson is professor of sociology and law at Northwestern University and the MacCrate Research Chair at the American Bar Foundation. He is the coauthor, most recently, of Urban Lawyers.

Review:

"With this twenty-year update, the best snapshot of American lawyers has become a major motion picture. It is theoretically trenchant, methodologically highly sophisticated, and scrupulously careful.  Essential reading for anyone interested in seeking to understand the future of the legal profession from a close reading of its immediate past."
--Richard L. Abel, editor of Lawyers: A CriticalReader
(Richard L. Abel)

"Urban Lawyers is essential for anyone seeking to understand how the American legal profession reached where it is today and to predict where it may be in years to come. From a cautiously scrutinized empirical base of research data and interviews of Chicago lawyers, these accomplished researchers have compiled an authentic overview of the urban bar in the United States." (Robert MacCrate, former president of the American Bar Association)

"An original, provocative study of how the law profession has changed over the past thirty years. The authors argue that this transformation has been driven largely by changes in corporate clients, who over time have grown bigger and have shifted away from manufacturing toward financial and service industries. Lawyers are now more likely to develop specialties and to work in large law firms--trends that have altered their legal work, compensation, and stratification in dramatic ways. Urban Lawyers shows that professions are dynamic institutions that can be changed as their economic and organizational environments are transformed." (Neil Fligstein, University of California, Berkeley)

"This landmark study of Chicago lawyers documents dramatic changes over two decades: increasing diversity in both social origins and practice settings, accompanied by rising specialization, declining autonomy, and reduced professional authority and integration. Centering attention on the rising influence of large law organizations in shaping legal careers and practice patterns, Urban Lawyers engages the attention of readers interested in modern organizations and professions as well as in the evolution of contemporary legal practice." (Peter Marsden, Harvard University)

"Almost a quarter century ago, John Heinz and Edward Laumann set a new standard for the scientific analysis of major social institutions with their landmark study of the Chicago bar. Urban Lawyers will be indispensable for anyone interested in the legal profession and for scholars throughout the social sciences engaged in the study of how institutions-and the networks, firms, and professions they comprise-evolve over time." (Paul DiMaggio, Princeton University)

“The empirical data presented in Urban Lawyers provides readers with a clear-eyed picture of the changes that are reshaping the legal profession. . . . Urban Lawyers offers powerful stuff, especially for law students anxious about entering an increasingly difficult marketplace. In a truly important and memorable study, the volume provides a precise and nuanced assessment of the modern legal profession, in all its empirical complexity.” (William Henderson Legal Affairs)

"Like its predecessor, Urban Lawyers is an excellent and important book. The authors have gathered a vast amount of high-quality data and have painstakingly analyzed it from a variety of angles. The result is a detailed and wide-ranging map of the legal profession during a period of transition. The book will be of great interest to scholars of the legal profession and of the professions more generally. Indeed, it will serve as an indispensable reference point for future research in these areas." (Elizabeth H. Gorman AJS)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0226325407
• ISBN 13: 9780226325408
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352