Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T22:46:07.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Law School Climates: Job Satisfaction Among Tenured US Law Professors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Abstract

In this article, we combine quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate why post-tenure law professors of color and women professors within the US legal academy are differentially dissatisfied with their work lives. Previous social science research has indicated lingering difficulties for professionals from traditionally marginalized groups as they advance to higher levels. Post-tenure law professors have been understudied relative to similar senior-level professionals. Mixed methods allow us to isolate institutional structure and implicit cultural bias as key mediators of this dissatisfaction, converging on issues of respect, voice, and collegiality as crucial. We use the example of the legal academy to show how empirical research can shed important light on the realities of legal professionals—here, the faculty who are training the next generation of US attorneys. Following in the new legal realist tradition, we demonstrate the power of mixed empirical methodologies for grasping social realities pertinent to law.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2018 

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

American Association of Law Schools. The Racial Gap in the Promotion to Tenure of Law Professors: Report of the Committee on the Recruitment and Retention of Minority Law Teachers. Washington, DC: American Association of Law Schools, 2005.Google Scholar
Arnold, Noelle Witherspoon, Crawford, Emily R., and Khalifa, Muhammad. “Psychological Heuristics and Faculty of Color: Racial Battle Fatigue and Tenure/Promotion.” Journal of Higher Education 87, no. 6 (2016): 890919.Google Scholar
Bahktin, M. M. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Barnes, Katherine, and Mertz, Elizabeth. “Is it Fair? Law Professors' Perceptions of Tenure.” Journal of Legal Education 61, no. 4 (2012): 511–39.Google Scholar
Barnes, Mario.Empirical Methods and Critical Race Theory: A Discourse on Possibilities for a Hybrid Methodology.” Wisconsin Law Review 2016:443–76.Google Scholar
Benjamin, G. Andrew, Sales, Bruce, and Darling, Elaine. “Comprehensive Lawyer Assistance Programs: Justification and Model.” Law and Psychology Review 16 (1992): 113–36.Google Scholar
Bilimoria, Diana, Perry, Susan, Liang, Xianfen, Stoller, Eleanor, Higgins, Patricia, and Taylor, Cyrus. “How Do Female and Male Faculty Members Construct Job Satisfaction? The Role of Perceived Institutional Leadership and Mentoring and Their Mediating Processes.” Journal of Technology Transfer 31 (2006): 355–65.Google Scholar
Borthwick, Robert J., and Schau, Jordan R.Gatekeepers of the Profession: An Empirical Profile of the Nation's Law Professors.” University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 25 (1991): 191237.Google Scholar
Broido, Ellen M., Brown, Kirsten R., Stygles, Katherine N., and Bronkema, Ryan H.Responding to Gendered Dynamics—Experiences of Women Working Over 25 Years at One University.” Journal of Higher Education 86, no. 4 (2015): 595627.Google Scholar
Callister, Ronda Roberts.The Impact of Gender and Department Climate on Job Satisfaction and Intentions to Quit for Faculty in Science and Engineering Fields.” Journal of Technology Transfer 31, no. 3 (2006): 367–75.Google Scholar
Carbado, Devon, and Roithmayr, Daria. “Critical Race Theory Meets Social Science.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 10 (2014): 149–67.Google Scholar
Chambliss, Elizabeth.It's Not About Us: Beyond the Job Market Critique of U.S. Law Schools.” Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 26, no. 3 (2013): 423–33.Google Scholar
Chused, Richard.The Hiring and Retention of Minorities and Women on American Law School Faculties.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 137 (1988): 537–69.Google Scholar
Collins, Randall. The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change. Cambridge, MA: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Cownie, Fiona. “Legal Education and the Legal Academy.” In The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Legal Research, edited by Cane, Peter and Kritzer, Herbert, 854–72. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé.Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6 (1991): 1241–99.Google Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé.Foreword: Toward a Race‐Conscious Pedagogy in Legal Education.” Southern California Review of Law and Women's Studies 4 (1994): 3352.Google Scholar
Crosby, Faye. Relative Deprivation and Working Women. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Dagan, Hanoch.The Realistic Conception of Law.” University of Toronto Law Journal 57 (2007): 607–60.Google Scholar
Daicoff, Susan.Lawyer, Know Thyself: A Review of Empirical Research on Attorney Attributes Bearing on Professionalism.” American University Law Review 46 (1997): 13371427.Google Scholar
Dau‐Schmidt, Kenneth G., Galanter, Marc, Mukhopadhaya, Kaushik, and Hull, Kathleen. “Men and Women of the Bar: The Impact of Gender on Legal Careers.” Michigan Journal of Gender and Law 16 (2000): 49145.Google Scholar
Dau‐Schmidt, Kenneth G., and Mukhopadhaya, Kaushik. “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 (1999): 342–66.Google Scholar
Delgado, Richard, and Bell, Derrick. “Minority Law Professors Lives: The Bell‐Delgado Survey.” Harvard Civil Rights—Civil Liberties Review 24 (1989): 349–92.Google Scholar
Delgado, Richard, and Jean, Stefancic, eds. The Derrick Bell Reader. New York: New York University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Deo, Meera.Looking Forward to Diversity in Legal Academia.” Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law and Justice 29, no. 2 (2014): 352–87.Google Scholar
Deo, Meera.The Ugly Truth About Legal Academia.” Brooklyn Law Review 80 (2015): 9431014.Google Scholar
Diamond, Shari.Empirical Marine Life in Legal Waters: Clams, Dolphins, and Plankton.” University of Illinois Law Review 2002:803–18.Google Scholar
Diestel, Stefan, Wegge, Jürgen, and Schmidt, Klaus‐Helmut. “The Impact of Social Context on the Relationship Between Individual Job Satisfaction and Absenteeism: The Roles of Different Foci of Job Satisfaction and Work‐Unit Absenteeism.” Academy of Management Journal 57, no. 2 (2013): 353–82.Google Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, and Garth, Bryant G.Lawyer Satisfaction in the Process of Structuring Legal Careers.” Law and Society Review 41 (2007): 150.Google Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, Garth, Bryant G., Plickert, Gabriele, Sandefur, Rebecca, Sterling, Joyce, and Wilkins, David. After the JD III: Third Results from a National Study of Legal Careers. Chicago, IL: American Bar Foundation and NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education, 2014.Google Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, Garth, Bryant G., Sander, Richard, Sterling, Joyce, and Wilder, Gitz Z. After the JD: First Results of a National Study of Legal Careers. Chicago, IL: American Bar Foundation and NALP Foundation for Law Career and Research and Education, 2004.Google Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, Garth, Bryant G., and Sterling, Joyce. “Buyers' Remorse? An Empirical Assessment of the Desirability of a Legal Career.” Journal of Legal Education 63 (2013): 211–34.Google Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, and Hagan, John. “Hierarchical Structure and Gender Dissimilarity in American Legal Labor Markets.” Social Forces 92, no. 3 (2014): 929–55.Google Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, Nelson, Robert L., and Plickert, Gabriele. After the JD II: Second Results from a National Study of Legal Careers. Chicago: American Bar Foundation and NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education, 2009.Google Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit, Reichman, Nancy, and Sterling, Joyce. “The Differential Valuation of Women's Work: A New Look at the Gender Gap in Lawyers' Incomes.” Social Forces 88 (2009): 819–54.Google Scholar
DuBois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Vintage Books, [1903] 1990.Google Scholar
Eagan, M. Kevin Jr., and Garvey, Jason C.Stressing Out—Connecting Race, Gender, and Stress with Faculty Productivity.” Journal of Higher Education 86, no. 6 (2015): 923–54.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, Theodore.The Origins, Nature, and Promise of Empirical Legal Studies and a Response to Concerns.” University of Illinois Law Review 2011:1713–38.Google Scholar
Ellemers, Naomi.Women at Work: How Organizational Features Impact Career Development.” Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1,no.1 (2014): 4654.Google Scholar
Erlanger, Howard, Garth, Bryant, Larson, Jane, Mertz, Elizabeth, Nourse, Victoria, and Wilkins, David. “Foreword: Is It Time for a New Legal Realism?Wisconsin Law Review 2005:335–63.Google Scholar
Ford, William.The Law and Science of Video Game Violence: What Was Lost in Translation?Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal 31 (2013): 297356.Google Scholar
Ford, William. “The Law and Science of Video Game Violence: Who Lost More in Translation?” In Translating the Social World for Law: Linguistic Tools for a New Legal Realism, edited by Mertz, Elizabeth, Ford, William K., and Matoesian, Gregory M., 107–68. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Fortney, Susan.Taking Empirical Research Seriously.” Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics 22 (2009): 1473–83.Google Scholar
Fossum, Donna.Law Professors: A Profile of the Teaching Branch of the Legal Profession.” American Bar Foundation Research Journal 1980:501–54.Google Scholar
Fossum, Donna.Law and the Sexual Integration of Institutions: The Case of American Law Schools.” ALSA Forum VII 1983:222–50.Google Scholar
Garth, Bryant.Strategic Research in Law & Society.” Florida State Law Review 18 (1990): 5768.Google Scholar
Garth, Bryant.Introduction: Taking New Legal Realism to Transnational Issues and Institutions.” Law and Social Inquiry 31, no. 4 (2006): 939–45.Google Scholar
George, Tracey, Gulati, Mitu, and McGinley, Ann. “The New Old Legal Realism.” Northwestern University Law Review 105 (2011): 689735.Google Scholar
Gulati, Mitu, and Nielsen, Laura Beth. “Introduction: A New Legal Realist Perspective on Employment Discrimination.” Law and Social Inquiry 31, no. 4 (2006): 797800.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez y Muhs, Gabriella, Niemann, Yolanda Flores, González, Carmen G., and Harris, Angela P., eds. Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia. Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Hagan, John, and Kay, Fiona. Gender in Practice: A Study of Lawyers' Lives. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Hagedorn, Linda Serra.Wage Equity and Female Faculty Job Satisfaction: The Role of Wage Differentials in a Job Satisfaction Causal Model.” Research in Higher Education 37, no. 5 (1996): 569–98.Google Scholar
Hagedorn, Linda Serra.Conceptualizing Faculty Job Satisfaction: Components, Theories, and Outcomes.” New Directions for Institutional Research: Special Issue on What Contributes to Job Satisfaction Among Faculty and Staff 105 (2000): 520.Google Scholar
Harris, Angela, and González, Carmen. “Introduction.” In Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia, edited by Gutiérrez y Muhs, Gabriella, Niemann, Yolanda Flores, González, Carmen G., and Harris, Angela P., 114. Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Harrison, Mary Ellen W.Report of the Alabama State Bar Quality of Life Survey.” Alabama Lawyer 67, no. 5 (2006): 369–70.Google Scholar
Headworth, Spencer, and Robert, Nelson. “Introduction.” In Diversity in Practice: Race, Gender, and Class in Legal and Professional Careers, edited by Headworth, Spencer, Nelson, Robert, Dinovitzer, Ronit, and Wilkins, David, 133. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Heinz, John P., Nelson, Robert, Sandefur, Rebecca, and Laumann, Edward. Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Hull, Kathleen.Cross‐Examining the Myth of Lawyers' Misery.” Vanderbilt Law Review 52, no. 4 (1999a): 971–83.Google Scholar
Hull, Kathleen.The Paradox of the Contented Female Lawyer.” Law and Society Review 33 (1999b): 687702.Google Scholar
Kalleberg, Arne.Work Values and Job Rewards: A Theory of Job Satisfaction.” American Sociological Review 42, no. 1 (1977): 124–43.Google Scholar
Kay, Fiona, and Wallace, Jean. “Mentors as Social Capital: Gender, Mentors, and Career Rewards in Law Practice.” Sociological Inquiry 79 (2009): 418–52.Google Scholar
Kay, Herma Hill.The Future of Women Law Professors.” Iowa Law Review 77 (1991): 518.Google Scholar
Krieger, Lawrence, and Sheldon, Kennon. “What Makes Lawyers Happy? A Data‐Driven Prescription to Redefine Professional Success.” George Washington Law Review 83 (2015): 554627.Google Scholar
Krieger, Linda Hamilton, and Fiske, Susan T.Behavior Realism in Employment Discrimination Law: Implicit Bias and Disparate Treatment.” California Law Review 94 (2006): 9971062.Google Scholar
Laden, Berta Vigil, and Hagedorn, Linda Serra. “Job Satisfaction Among Faculty of Color in Academe: Individual Survivors or Institutional Transformers?New Directions for Institutional Research 105 (2000): 5766.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Janet H., Celis, Sergio, and Ott, Molly. “Is the Tenure Process Fair?: What Faculty Think.” Journal of Higher Education 85, no. 2 (2014): 155–92.Google Scholar
Lempert, Richard O., Chambers, David L., and Adams, Terry K.Michigan's Minority Graduates in Practice: The River Runs Through Law School.” Law and Social Inquiry 25, no. 2 (2000): 395505.Google Scholar
Liu, Dong, Mitchell, Terence R., Lee, Thomas W., Holtom, Brooks C., and Hinkin, Timothy R.When Employees Are Out of Step with Coworkers: How Job Satisfaction Trajectory and Dispersion Influence Individual‐ and Unit‐Level Voluntary Turnover.” Academy of Management Journal 55, no. 6 (2012): 1360–80.Google Scholar
Macaulay, Stewart.The New Versus the Old Legal Realism: ‘Things Ain't What They Used to Be.’” Wisconsin Law Review 2005:365403.Google Scholar
Macaulay, Stewart.Contracts, New Legal Realism, and Improving the Navigation of the Yellow Submarine.” Tulane Law Review 80 (2006): 1161–96.Google Scholar
Macaulay, Stewart, Friedman, Lawrence M., and Mertz, Elizabeth. Law in Action: A Socio‐Legal Reader. New York: Foundation Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Macaulay, Stewart, and Mertz, Elizabeth. “New Legal Realism and the Empirical Turn in Law.” In Introduction to Law & Social Theory, edited by Banakar, Reza and Travers, Max, 195210. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2013.Google Scholar
Mathews, K. R. Perspectives on Midcareer Faculty and Advice for Supporting Them. Cambridge, MA: Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, 2014.Google Scholar
Matsuda, Mari.When the First Quail Calls: Multiple Consciousness as Jurisprudential Method.” Women's Rights Law Reporter 11 (1989): 710.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael. “Preface to the New Legal Realism, Volume I and II.” In The New Legal Realism: Translating Law‐and‐Society for Today's Legal Practice, edited by Macaulay, Stewart, Mertz, Elizabeth, and Mitchell, Thomas W., xiiixxi. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
McDonald, Michael M., and Westphal, James D.Access Denied: Low Mentoring of Women and Minority First‐Time Directors and Its Negative Effects on Appointments to Additional Boards.” Academy of Management Journal 56 (2013): 1169–98.Google Scholar
Menkel‐Meadow, Carrie.Exploring a Research Agenda of the Feminization of the Legal Profession: Theories of Gender and Social Change.” Law and Social Inquiry 14 (1989): 289319.Google Scholar
Merritt, Deborah Jones.Research and Teaching on Law Faculties: An Empirical Examination.” Chicago‐Kent Law Review 73, no. 3 (1998): 765821.Google Scholar
Merritt, Deborah Jones.Are Women Stuck on the Academic Ladder? An Empirical Perspective.” UCLA Women's Law Review 10 (2000): 241–57.Google Scholar
Merritt, Deborah Jones, and Reskin, Barbara. “The Double Minority: Empirical Evidence of a Double Standard in Law School Hiring of Minority Women.” Southern California Law Review 65 (1992): 22992359.Google Scholar
Merritt, Deborah Jones, Reskin, Barbara, and Fondell, Michelle. “Family, Place, and Career: The Gender Paradox in Law School Hiring.” Wisconsin Law Review 1993:395463.Google Scholar
Mertz, Elizabeth. “Introduction: New Legal Realism: Law and Social Science in the New Millennium.” In The New Legal Realism: Translating Law‐and‐Society for Today's Legal Practice, edited by Macaulay, Stewart, Mertz, Elizabeth, and Mitchell, Thomas W., 125. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Mertz, Elizabeth, and Barnes, Katherine. “Combining Methods for a New Synthesis in Law and Empirical Research.” In The New Legal Realism: Translating Law‐and‐Society for Today's Legal Practice, edited by Macaulay, Stewart, Mertz, Elizabeth, and Mitchell, Thomas W., 180200. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Mertz, Elizabeth, Ford, William, and Matoesian, Gregory, eds. Translating the Social World for Law: Linguistic Tools for a New Legal Realism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Mertz, Elizabeth, Tung, Frances, Barnes, Katherine, Njogu, Wamucii, Heiler, Molly, and Martin, Joanne. “After Tenure: Post‐Tenure Law Professors in the United States” [project report]. Chicago, IL: American Bar Foundation, 2011. http://www.americanbarfoundation.org/publications/367.Google Scholar
Miles, Thomas, and Sunstein, Cass. “The New Legal Realism.” University of Chicago Law Review 75, no. 2 (2008): 831–51.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Thomas.Destabilizing the Normalization of Rural Black Land Loss: A Critical Role for Legal Empiricism.” Wisconsin Law Review 2005, no. 2: 557615.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Thomas. “New Legal Realism and Inequality.” In The New Legal Realism: Translating Law‐and‐Society for Today's Legal Practice, edited by Macaulay, Stewart, Mertz, Elizabeth, and Mitchell, Thomas W., 203–22. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Monahan, John, and Swanson, Jeffrey. “Lawyers at Mid‐Career: A 20‐Year Longitudinal Study of Job and Life Satisfaction.” Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 6, no. 3 (2009): 451–83.Google Scholar
Montoya, Margaret.Máscaras, Trenzas, y Greñas: Un/Masking the Self While Un/Braiding Latina Stories and Legal Discourse.” Harvard Women's Law Journal 17 (1994): 185220.Google Scholar
Mueller, Charles, and Wallace, Jean. “Justice and the Paradox of the Contented Female Worker.” Social Psychology Quarterly 59 (1996): 338–49.Google Scholar
Nishii, Lisa.The Benefits of Climate for Inclusion for Gender‐Diverse Groups.” Academy of Management Journal 56, no. 6 (2013): 1754–74.Google Scholar
Nourse, Victoria, and Shaffer, Gregory. “Varieties of New Legal Realism: Can a New World Order Prompt a New Legal Theory?Cornell Law Review 95 (2009): 61137.Google Scholar
Obasogie, Osagie.Foreword: Critical Race Theory and Empirical Methods.” UC Irvine Law Review 3 (2013): 183–86.Google Scholar
O'Meara, KerryAnn t, and Stromquist, Nelly. “Faculty Peer Networks: Role and Relevance in Advancing Agency and Gender Equity.” Gender and Education 27, no. 3 (2015), 338–58.Google Scholar
Organ, Jerome.What Do We Know About the Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction of Lawyers? A Meta‐Analysis of Research on Lawyer Satisfaction and Well‐Being.” University of St. Thomas Law Journal 9, no. 2 (2011): 225–74.Google Scholar
Parks, Gregory.Toward a Critical Race Realism.” Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy 17, no. 3 (2008): 683745.Google Scholar
Payne‐Pikus, Monique R., Hagan, John, and Nelson, Robert L.Experiencing Discrimination: Race and Retention in America's Largest Law Firms.” Law and Society Review 44, no. 3–4 (2010): 553–84.Google Scholar
Reichman, Nancy, and Sterling, Joyce. “Sticky Floors, Broken Steps and Concrete Ceilings in Legal Careers.” Texas Journal of Women and Law 14 (2004): 2776.Google Scholar
Reskin, Barbara.Including Mechanisms in Our Models of Ascriptive Inequality.” American Sociological Review 68, no. 1 (2003): 121.Google Scholar
Richard, Lawrence R.Psychological Type and Job Satisfaction Among Practicing Lawyers the United States.” Capital University Law Review 29 (2002): 9791078.Google Scholar
Rosser, Vicki J.Faculty Members' Intentions to Leave: A National Study on Their Worklife and Satisfaction.” Research in Higher Education 45 (2004): 285309.Google Scholar
Schlitz, Patrick.On Being a Happy, Healthy, and Ethical Member of an Unhappy, Unhealthy, and Unethical Profession.” American University Law Review 52 (1999): 871951.Google Scholar
Sousa‐Poza, Alfonso, and Sousa‐Poza, Andrés. “Well‐Being at Work: A Cross‐National Analysis of the Levels and Determinants of Job Satisfaction.” Journal of Socio‐Economics 29, no. 6 (2000): 517–38.Google Scholar
Sterling, Joyce, and Nancy, Reichman.Navigating the Gap: Reflections on 20 Years Researching Gender Disparities in the Legal Profession.” Florida International Law Review 8, no. 2 (2013): 515–39.Google Scholar
Suchman, Mark, and Mertz, Elizabeth. “Toward a New Legal Empiricism: Empirical Legal Studies and the New Legal Realism.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 6 (2010): 555–79.Google Scholar
Tamanaha, Brian Z. Failing Law Schools. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Veenhoven, Ruut.Developments in Satisfaction Research.” Social Indicators Research 37, no. 1 (1996): 146.Google Scholar
Victorino, Christine A., Nylund‐Gibson, Karen, and Conley, Sharon. “Campus Racial Climate: A Litmus Test for Faculty Satisfaction at Four‐Year Colleges and Universities.” Journal of Higher Education 84, no. 6 (2013): 769805.Google Scholar
Wilkins, David, and Gulati, Mitu. “Why Are There So Few Black Lawyers in Corporate Law Firms? An Institutional Analysis.” California Law Review 84 (1996): 493625.Google Scholar
Williams, Patricia. The Alchemy of Race and Rights: Diary of a Law Professor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Barnes and Mertz supplementary material

Appendices

Download Barnes and Mertz supplementary material(File)
File 68.8 KB