Chicago Lawyers: Social Structure of the Bar

The legal profession has grown immensely in size, diversity, and influence but some lawyers clearly have more influence than others. What determines the systematic allocation of status, power and economic reward among lawyers? What kind of social structure organizes lawyers’ roles in the bar and in the larger community? As John P. Heinz and Edward O. Laumann demonstrate, the legal profession is stratified primarily by the character of the clients served, not by the type of legal service rendered. Using data from extensive personal interviews with nearly 800 Chicago lawyers, the authors show that lawyers who serve one type of client seldom serve the other. Furthermore, lawyers’ political, ethno-religious and social ties are very likely to correspond to those of their clients, and the distribution of prestige among lawyers reflects the dichotomy of client types. This volume raises questions about law and the nature of professionalism, questions addressed in the provocative and far-ranging final chapter. This work was originally published in 1983 and has been substantially revised to better serve students and laypersons alike. It offers a sophisticated and comprehensive analysis of lawyers’ professional lives.