Early legal careers in comparative context: evidence from Canada and the United States

Abstract

This paper explores early careers by drawing on nationally representative surveys of lawyers’ early careers in Canada and the United States. It will examine the sorting of lawyers in sectors and settings as well as the mechanisms that are key to understanding this process. Prior research has pointed to the importance of law school credentials, race, gender and social class, which continue to be important lines of demarcation. The comparative lens provides the opportunity to better understand the ways in which these factors are contingent on national context, which, in turn, shapes the symbolic and cultural value of the forms of capital that can provide access to more prestigious, powerful and remunerative positions in the legal profession.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

[1] All Canadian provinces and territories are common law jurisdictions, except for Quebec, which is based on a civil law system. In all provinces save for Quebec, entry into the legal profession requires a law degree (JD or LLB), which is a graduate degree, see http://www.flsc.ca/en/nca/joining-canadas-legal-community/.

[2] The calculations are based on data provided by Michelson (2013): in the United States there are 1,040,000 lawyers per 2010 population of 309.3 million, resulting in 3.36 lawyers per 100,000. In Canada there are 86,227 lawyers per 2010 population of 34.01 million, resulting in 2.54 lawyers per 100,000.

[3] The lowest LSAT score among Canadian law schools reporting the median LSAT scores for admission is a 159 and the lowest reported GPA is a 3.46. See http://www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/lsat_profiles.php.

[4] Using 2013 data. In the US, see: http://www.lsac.org/lsacresources/data/lsac-volume-summary; in Canada, see: http://www.ouac.on.ca/statistics/law-school-application-statistics/.

[5] Ronit Dinovitzer as the principal investigator and Meghan Dawe as the lead research assistant.

[6] AAPOR Rate 4.

[7] The cooperation rate adjusts for both eligibility and whether sample members were ever contacted (AAPOR).

[8] Smaller markets include the city of St. Louis, Missouri; the states of Connecticut, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Indiana, Utah and Oregon; as well as New Jersey remainder and Florida remainder.

[9] This calculation is not shown in the table.

[10] Amounts are reported in Canadian dollars. Canadian respondents were asked to report their incomes for 2012. In 2012, the Canadian dollar fluctuated from a low of 0.9599 to a high of 1.0299 compared to the US dollar.

[11] One possible explanation for the increase in odds for third quarter graduates is that this category includes graduates from Alberta, which is a province that has a high proportion of large law firms.