The Career Trajectories of Urban Law Graduates Ronit Dinovitzer Department of Sociology University of Toronto

After the JD Study Nationally representative sample of lawyers in the US who began practice in the year 2000 Longitudinal design (contacts in 2002, 2007, 2010) Mail Questionnaires and telephone interviews with nonrespondents (fielded in May 2002) 71% response rate of those who were located (n=4500) In depth, face to face interviews with a subsample of respondents Comparison to lawyers in the general population: Racial composition of young lawyers in the 2000 Census (AJD 5.6% Black vs. 6.1% in Census data) Distribution of lawyers across firms, government, and business employers (AJD 70% in private firms vs. 68% Census data) Gender composition (AJD 46.2% female vs. 46.0% ABA)

Table 1. Key Statistics for Measures of the Lawyer Sorting Process Top 10 Top Top Top Tier 3Tier 4 Father Occupational Prestige (mean) (range 16-90) Father with at least some graduate education68%54% 42%33%34% Percent living in Major Metro area after graduation 77%59%48%32%35%19% More likely (p<.05) than other groups to report having considered a career in … Invest. banking community organizing -- starting a business Rating of why chose sector (mean scale 1-7) Work/Life Balance

Table 1. Key Statistics for Measures of the Lawyer Sorting Process Top 10 Top Top Top Tier 3Tier 4 Received two or more offers in private sector76%62%54%45%44%40% Received no offers in private sector6%10%13%19% 17% Percent working in Solo or Small firms (2-20 lawyers)3%15%21%31%40%47% Percent working in firms of 100+ lawyers66%51%39%21%13%7%

Table 1. Key Statistics for Measures of the Lawyer Sorting Process Top 10 Top Top Top Tier 3Tier 4 Salary (mean)$122,000$104,000$91,000$77,000$67,000$69,000 Income of the 25 th percentile$93,000$65,000$55,000$49,000$47,000$45,000 Debt Load (of those reporting any debt)85k73k67k66k74k75k Hours worked per week (mean) Total n of tier

Rearranging the hierarchy The “urban” law schools Definition: urban settings, ranked Socio-historical role YMCA, night law schools, Catholic law schools Access mission: Alfred Reed (1931)  “the mission of an evening or part-time law school is to enable young men and women, who cannot afford to attend a better school, to prepare themselves for legal practice.” Immigrants, working-class Placements

Urban law schools Changes over time Current patterns by race and immigrant status  Almost 25% of top ten graduates report both parents born outside of US vs. 11% at urban law schools  Top ten schools also have the highest percentage of African American students (8%) vs. 5% at urban law schools Tuition: Capital law school 27k, Golden Gate Law School 29k, Northeastern 35k

1) Growth in the profession 2) Growth of large law firms:  [L]aw firms in the Am Law 200 … now require about 10,000 new associates each year out of about 40,000 graduates coming from all of the nation’s approximately 200 law schools combined.  Ward Bower, Consultant at Altman Weill Where do urban law graduates work? Focus on the large law firm The intersection of two trends…

Table 1. Demographic characteristics by law school type Urban Law School with PT program Urban Law School with FT program Catholic Law School (excluding non urban) Independent Law School (excluding non urban) Elite top 10 Elite top 31 Black5%6%4% 8%6% Hispanic5%4%5%4%3% Asian7%3%6% 12%9% White79%82%83% 74%78% Other4% 2%3%2%3%

Gender, Age, and Family Elite top 31 Elite top 10 Indepen dent Law School (excludi ng non urban) Catholic Law School (excludi ng non urban) Urban Law School with FT progra m Urban Law School with PT program Table 1 (cont’d). Demographic characteristics by type of law school 26%13%37%25%34%32% Have Kids 53%43%56% 60%59% Married 11%8%36%24%17%29% Over 36 years old 44%45%50%51%45%48% Female

Where do Urban Graduates work? Focus on all urban law school graduates compared to elite law school graduates Focus on large law firms (defined as >100 lawyers in the entire firm)

Practice Settings: Urban Law SchoolElite - Top % of Grads Solo5.9%1.8% Private firm %11.2% Private firm %10.8% Private firm %11.7% Private firm %11.4% Private firm %28.6% Federal Government4.0%5.7% State Government13.5%5.0% Legal services or PD2.6%2.8% Public Int, Non Profit or Education2.6%5.0% Professional Service/Fortune %3.1% Other Business4.7%2.9% 17.3%51.7%

Which Urban Graduates go to Large Firms? Focus on comparing urban graduates in large law firms with those working in other settings Compare urban graduates in large law firms with elite law school graduates in large law firms

A. Credentials Urban Graduates Works in a Large FirmNot in a Large Firm *Was on the General Law Review 45.5%16.1% *Law school GPA

Elite Graduates Works in a Large FirmNot in a Large Firm *Was on the General Law Review 26.70%15.40% *Law school GPA [mean] Elite graduates’ credentials

C. Other “Credentials” Urban Graduates Works in a Large FirmNot in a large firm % of Grads *Married (at time of survey)64.1%56.9% *Age at graduation (mean) *Undergraduate Science Training17.1%9.6% *Intended to Practice Law85.7%81.9% Undergraduate GPA (mean)3.37

Logistic Regression predicting the likelihood of working in a large firm by Law School Type (unweighted) Model 2 Exp(B) Law School Type (excluded category is Urban Ranked Tier 4) Urban Ranked *** Urban Ranked *** Urban Ranked Tier * Elite Top *** Elite Top Ten 17.14*** Non Urban Law School 2.48** Controlling For …. (see next slide)

Logistic Regression predicting the likelihood of working in a large firm (unweighted) (Continued from previous slide) Model 2 Exp(B) Male1.08 Age > White1.12 Has Children0.70* Is Married1.32* Father's Occupation1.00 Lawyers in Family0.92 Large Metro Area2.35*** Small Metro Area2.28*** Science Undergraduate1.62** Intended to Practice Law1.31 Served on Law Review1.97*** Law School GPA11.27*** Nagelkerke R Square0.372

Do the same factors that matter for Urban graduates matter for Elite graduates? Subsamples: Regression of Factors For Large Firm Jobs Urban Exp (B) Elite Exp (B) Z Tests (for diff in coeff) Male Age > * White Has Children Is Married Fathers Occupation Lawyers in Family Large Metro Area2.12***3.94***-1.87 Smaller Metro Area1.74*2.35**-0.79 Science Undergraduate2.19*** Intended to Practice Law Law Review1.96*** Law School GPA17.84***6.75***1.991 Nagelkerke R Square

Working in the large law firm Compare the experience of urban law graduates with elite law graduates working in large law firms

Urban total: 80.4%

Speculating about Ontario (with Gillian Hadfield) LSAT scores above 160 University of Toronto: 83% Western: 27% Osgoode Hall 24%, etc Undergraduate GPA above 3.67 University of Toronto Over 50% Osgoode 39%, Ottawa 19%, Western 15%, etc Percent working in large (51+) firms (source OLSAS & MIF graduates): University of Toronto 49% Osgoode 26% Windsor 17%