The Gazette 1984

GA Z E T TE

APRIL. 1984

A Profile of Lawyer Lifestyles

by Rosslyn S. Smith (Reprinted from the American Bar Association Journal)

D ID you ever wonder if you're earning as much as other lawyers? When you worked on a Saturday, were you curious if other lawyers put in that much time? The ABA Journal wondered too, and for the first time ever developed a profile of what it's like to work as a lawyer. Some highlights of the survey are: • As a group, ABA lawyers work very hard. Four of five work more than 40 hours a week, and more than eight of 10 work at least one Saturday a month, almost 30 percent work every Saturday. • Most lawyers have an office practice. The average lawyer member works 47 hours a week but spends less than 1.25 hours a week in court. • Despite the long hours and career pressures, 89 percent said they are happy with their career choice. These findings are just the highlights of a survey conducted by the ABA Journal in May 1983, based on questionnaires sent to two random samples of 2,000 ABA members. One sample received questions on time management, and the other on their attitudes about the profession. Both samples answered the same basic core of questions on age, income and type of practice; 895 responded to the time management survey, 841 to the attitude survey. The profile drawn from this survey shows that, in general, ABA lawyers are young professionals making a go of relatively small practices. If they don't actually feel prosperous, they are generally optimistic about their financial future. They were drawn to the practice of law because they felt it would be a fulfilling use of their talents, and they liked the nature of the work. But their basic value orientation is to family and friends. This in turn creates a conflict, for while most of them are happy in their career choice, they are vexed that the heavy d ema nds on their time keep them from their families. This conflict is illustrated by the particularly high percentage of young lawyers who are uncertain whether they would chose law a second time. It is an open question whether this conflict is strong enough to cause these lawyers to switch careers or to force changes in the way law is now practiced. A youthful profession The practice of law may be old and steeped in tradition, but the practitioners are on the average surprisingly young. The median age for men in the sample is.37 years and for women, 31. Only 15 percent are over 50. The median age of lawyers began d r opp i ng in the 1970s, reflecting the huge numb er of new law school graduates in that decade. Of the lawyers surveyed, 87 percent were male and 13 percent female. The number of women in the profession has grown rapidly and will continue to do so, in view of

the fact tht 37 percent of all students in law school are women. Although the ABA is often associated with large law firms with c o r p o r a te clients, its memb e rs are predominately in general practice in small to medium- sized law firms. Of the respondents, 72 percent are in private practice, 11 percent in corporate law departments and 6 percent work as government lawyers, including prosecutors. The remaining 10 percent are judges, teachers or pursue non-legal careers. While 6 percent of members are over 65, only 1 percent of the more than 1,700 respondents considered themselves retired from practice. With all that has been written about the increasing specialization of the profession, it should be noted that 44 percent of those surveyed indicated they were in general practice. Twenty-two percent concentrated in corporate law, 11 percent in tax and 9 percent in real estate. One in every four checked off more than one area of concentra- tion of practice. Lawyers live close to their work. Amo ng the commuters, 39 percent spent less than 15 minutes getting to work, 31 percent spent 16 to 30 minutes and 14 percent spent 31 to 45 minutes. Lawyers prefer to drive: 71 percent c ommu te by private car, as opposed to only 7 percent who take a bus, 5 percent who ride a train and 5 percent who take a subway. Tod a y 's lawyers have joined the c ompu t er age. The figures from the lifestyle surveys correspond to another survey taken by the ABA Journal in J a nu a ry 1983, which found that 70 percent of all law offices in the country had at least one data or word processing terminal. This earlier survey also found that 47 percent of ABA members were considering the purchase of a computer for business or home use in the near future. Even very small law firms have computerized. The results show that law firms own a computer terminal when their size reaches four or more lawyers. Financial rewards Not surprisingly, the income of lawyers increases as they grow older, with ma x imum earnings arriving between 51 and 55. There is an interesting large j ump in income that occurs a r ound age 40; because election to partnerhsip usually takes place in a lawyer's mid to late 30s, this sudden income boost is readily explained. When broken down according to gender, the survey results showed a large gap in income between men and women, with women lawyers earning considerably less. This difference can be explained by the fact that women are relative newcomers to the profession and that women lawyers tend to be younger and less experienced than male lawyers. Women also are more likely to work in govern- ment or corporate law departments where the t op salaries are consistently less than the top salaries in private 81