Careers in a changing landscape : specialist behavior and lateral mobility within the legal profession
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The flattening of organizational hierarchies and the concomitant growth in flexible working practices have meant that increasing numbers of people pursue careers that are characterized by lateral labor markets. The structure of these lateral labor markets is often based upon specialist fields or practice areas. My research attempts to model the labor market structure of the legal profession in California and discern how it affects the careers of private practice lawyers. I find that, in general, the extent of specialization has increased for lawyers, regardless of firm size or position. In addition, my research indicates that the relationship between firm size and number of specialized fields is an inverted U-shape, with lawyers in large and small firms having fewer specialist fields than those in medium-sized firms. Moreover, in my analysis of changes in specialist behavior, I find that the patterns of lateral mobility between specialist fields are dependent on the size of the firm in which a lawyer works and the career stage he or she is in. My results on career outcomes indicate that early specialization predicts promotion to partner in large firms, but not in small firms. In sum, these findings suggest that specialization is having notable effects on the opportunity structures of the California bar.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Copyright date | 2011 |
| Publication date | 2010, c2011; 2010 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Parker, Andrew |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Sociology. |
| Primary advisor | Powell, Walter W |
| Thesis advisor | Powell, Walter W |
| Thesis advisor | Granovetter, Mark S |
| Thesis advisor | Sandefur, Rebecca, 1966- |
| Advisor | Granovetter, Mark S |
| Advisor | Sandefur, Rebecca, 1966- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Andrew Parker. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Sociology. |
| Thesis | Ph.D. Stanford University 2011 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2011 by Andrew Parker
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...