Studies
3 resultsAfter the JD, Wave 3: A Longitudinal Study of Careers in Transition, 2012-2013, United States
The After the JD (AJD) project is a longitudinal study that was designed to track the careers of a nationally representative cohort of lawyers admitted to the bar in the year 2000. This collection is the third wave of the After the JD Project. The first wave of the After the JD project (AJD1) [ICPSR 26302] provided a snapshot of the personal lives and careers of this cohort about three years after they began practicing law. The second wave of the After the JD project (AJD2) [ICPSR 33584] sought to illuminate the progression of lawyers' careers through roughly seven years in practice. The third wave (AJD3) continued to shed light on lawyers' 12-year professional and personal pathways. After 12 years, the AJD lawyers had a decade of work experience behind them, and the contours of their careers were more clearly shaped. Throughout their professional careers, these lawyers had experienced important transitions (such as promotion to partnership, marriage, and job changes), which were only in process by Wave 2. AJD3 marked a significant milestone, essential to assess the personal and career trajectories of this cohort of lawyers. AJD3 sought to locate and survey only individuals who had previously responded to either AJD1 or AJD2. Sample members who never responded to any survey wave were not located in AJD3. The AJD3 data collection started in May 2012 and was completed in early 2013. The dataset allowed for the analysis of a broad range of questions about the careers of lawyers and the social organization of the American legal profession. Topics covered include current professional employment, impact of economic downturn, type of work, clients, mentors, employment history, social, political, and community participation, and background and family information. Demographics include ethnicity, employment status, sexuality, marital status, age, and gender.
The After the JD project is designed to be a longitudinal study, seeking to follow a sample of approximately 10 percent of all the individuals who became lawyers in the year of 2000. This study aims to track the professional lives of more than 5,000 lawyers during their first 10 years after law school. Wave 1 of the After the JD study was launched in May 2002. The sample includes new lawyers from 18 legal markets -- ranging from the 4 largest markets (New York City, District of Columbia, Chicago, and Los Angeles) to 14 other areas consisting of small metropolitan areas to entire states. Some of the topics that the study seeks to examine are: (1) Demographic characteristics; (2) financing of legal education; (3) law school and the transition to practice; (4) practice settings within which lawyers work; (5) distribution of income across the profession; (6) dimensions of satisfaction; (7) mobility and turnover. Respondents were asked to give information concerning their employment status, job responsibilities, professional skills, job support, job satisfaction, and job discrimination. Information was sought about respondents' workplace characteristics, employment details, areas of practice, clientele, billing hours, job history, judicial clerkships, bar admission, alternate career considerations, and job offers. Opinions were collected about what respondents thought the most important factors were in obtaining a job offer and their first job, in determining which sector to begin their professional career, and in choosing an employer. Further questions asked about political participation and participation in social and community organizations. A number of questions were asked about respondents' undergraduate education, their transition to law school and decision to attend law school, their law school education and activities, their educational financing and debt, and their transition to their legal career. Demographic variables include sex, race, age, marital status, household makeup, personal income, household income, spouses' occupation, political party affiliation, parent's nationality, parent's education, parent's occupation when the respondent was in high school, and whether anyone in the respondent's family was a lawyer.
After the JD 2: A Longitudinal Study of Careers in Transition, 2007-2008, United States
The After the JD (AJD) project is a longitudinal study that is designed to track the careers of a nationally representative cohort of lawyers admitted to the bar in the year 2000. The first wave of the After the JD Study (AJD1) [ICPSR 26302] provided a snapshot of the personal lives and careers of this cohort about three years after they began practicing law. The second wave of the After the JD project (AJD2) seeks to illuminate the progression of lawyers' careers through roughly seven years in practice. The seventh year marks a crucial period in the careers of young lawyers. At the same time that they are facing important career decisions, these young lawyers are experiencing significant personal decisions about marriage and having children. AJD2 sought to locate and survey the entire original sample that was constructed in AJD1, even if a sample member had not been located or surveyed in AJD1. Only those individuals found to be ineligible for the study because they did not meet the required time period for obtaining their law degree and passing the bar were excluded. AJD2 obtained completed surveys of 3,705 eligible respondents, which includes 70.4 percent of the respondents to AJD1 (a group referred to as AJD1 Respondents) and 26.9 percent of those who were not surveyed in wave 1 (a group referred to as AJD1 Nonrespondents). The AJD2 data collection effort was launched in 2007 and completed in early 2008, with an overall response rate of 50.6 percent of eligible participants. As the legal profession has become more diverse in terms of entrants, it is critical to understand how women, men and women of color, individuals from less advantaged economic backgrounds, and other traditionally disadvantaged groups build careers. To examine the experiences of these groups at distinctive stages of their professional lives and to compare their career experiences to those of their peers, investigators were able to collect information about whether respondents' experiences were different from the outset or whether career trajectories diverge over time, what career strategies appear most successful for young lawyers, and whether these strategies vary by gender, race, and class; by legal market; by the selectivity of the law school from which lawyers graduate; or other dimensions. The AJD2 dataset allows for the analysis of a broad range of questions about the careers of lawyers and the social organization of the American legal profession. For example, some of the topics the study examines are: (1) demographic characteristics; (2) job mobility; (3) career satisfaction; (4) convergence/divergence in the career patterns of women and minorities; (5) indications of continuing inequality by gender; (6) family formation and the effects on professional careers; (7) career trajectories. AJD2 aims to provide a solid basis for future efforts to understand the changing character of legal careers. The final phase of the AJD2 data collection ended before the onslaught of the global financial crisis in the fall of 2008. Consequently, the data do not account for the profound effects of these turbulent events. The third wave of the study (AJD3) anticipates investigating these issues and many other similarly important transitions.