Interesting UVA School of Law Study

sallyawp · April 11, 2008, 8:33am

The University of Virginia School of Law has reported the results of a study that was undertaken to look at how its 1990 graduates have fared. I’ve attached some exerpts from the article on the UVA School of Law website below:

A glass-half-empty philosophy seems to pay off for law students, Professor John Monahan discovered to his surprise after a study nearly two decades ago.

In law school, it turns out, pessimists do better than optimists, Monahan told a crowd of more than 100 students, faculty, and former students Wednesday. I ultimately concluded that, in the law, the concept of pessimism might be better termed prudence.

Now, the same students from the Class of 1990 who sparked Monahans pessimism revelation are overwhelmingly satisfied with their lives, he said during UVA Lawyers at Mid-life: How Full the Glass?, a lecture marking his appointment as the John S. Shannon Distinguished Professor of Law.

During the lecture, Monahan presented detailed data based on a survey sent out to the Class of 1990, covering issues such as professional satisfaction, salary, and gender inequality.

The study lay dormant for the next 17 years until Monahan and Law School colleague Jody Kraus decided to teach a seminar called Legal Careers and Life Satisfaction. As he re-read the studys results, Monahan began wondering whether the members of the Class of 1990 were satisfied with their chosen careers and with their lives in general. 

To find out, he devised a questionnaire and sent it to the 360 living graduates of the class of 1990. Of those, 260 responded 155 men and 105 women for a response rate of 72 percent.

The vast majority responded positively: 86 percent are at least satisfied with their lives, with no significant difference between the genders, Monahan said. 

The results showed that 87 percent of the men and 79 percent of the women are currently married or partnered. Of the married female graduates, 77 percent have husbands who work fulltime. Of the married male graduates, 24 percent have wives who work fulltime. 

Among men and women with no children, 97 percent were employed fulltime. While that number remained fairly constant for the men, regardless of the number of children they had, it was not the same for women graduates. After one child, 70 percent of women remained employed fulltime. After two children, 66 percent remained employed fulltime. That number falls to 20 percent among women with three children, and none of the women with four or more children remained employed fulltime. 

Monahan found that 99 percent of the responding men are currently employed fulltime, as are 61 percent of the women. The median household income for the class of 1990 is now $250,000 per year. The bottom 25 percent of the class has a household income of $150,000 per year or less while the top 25 percent has household income of $450,000 per year or more. Of the 260 responding graduates, 15 have a household income of $1 million or more per year.

As they began their law careers Monahan found that 58 percent of the students started off in large law firms of more than 100 lawyers, 24 percent began in small firms of less than 100 lawyers, and 12 percent found other law jobs in areas such as business, finance, government, and public service.

Though men and women graduates work similar hours in all settings, compensation is considerably different, he said. He showed that of those who were employed fulltime, women make 88 percent of what men make in large firms, 90 percent of what men make in small firms, 75 percent of what men make in government, and 58 percent of what men make in business and financial firms.

[H]e was able to draw five conclusions:

 Graduates take many career paths. No single setting accounts for more than a quarter of graduates, and 85 percent of all graduates have changed jobs at least once. Half have changed jobs two or more times. One quarter of those currently working full-time are not working as lawyers at all.

 Gender differences are pervasive. Women graduates are less likely than men to be employed fulltime, which is entirely accounted for by having children at home. Women earn significantly less than men. 

 Large law firms could be a problem for many lawyers. While 58 percent start off in large law firms, half leave to go to another type of employer. The half who remain have lower job and life satisfaction than other lawyers. 

 Overall job satisfaction is high: 81 percent of graduates are satisfied with the decision to become a lawyer, 85 percent are satisfied with how well the Law School prepared them, and 93 percent are satisfied with how UVA benefitted their careers. There is no significant gender difference with job satisfaction. 

 Overall life satisfaction is high: 86 percent of graduates are at least satisfied with their lives, with no significant gender difference, despite differences in average salary.

Greybeard · April 12, 2008, 1:13pm

It’s an interesting study, but a little bit frustrating in some ways. Given the round numbers he gives for the median family income ($250K) and the bottom 25% ($150K or less), it looks like he had people select from broad income bands, which isn’t very precise.

And having them report family income, with a mixed sample of single, married, and partnered people, some in relationships where both members work full-time, some where one works full-time and one works part-time, gives you numbers that are very difficult to parse.

Ditto for the section on gender disparities. How much of the disparity is accounted for by periods of less than full-time employment due to child rearing? What does it mean that the disparity is largest in the public sector, and the smallest in small-firm settings? The notion that there would be more overt gender discrimination in the public sector than in the private sector is counter-intuitive, but the results of this study tell you little about that.

Other questions: how do the job-satisfaction and life-satisfaction results compare to people who didn’t go to law school? How do they compare to those who went to a school with lesser employment prospects than UVA? How would the 100 people who didn’t respond (a curiously round figure) have compared to those who did?

razorsharp · April 12, 2008, 2:01pm

Good post sallyawy.

It seems like the study should have addressed the law school graduate’s income and not household income. Household income could mean that UVA law grads marry well, not that they make a lot of money on their own.

I am surprised by the high response rate of 72 percent. It wish more studies had such high response rates.

sallyawp · April 12, 2008, 7:47pm

I agree that the response rate was quite impressive.

While the reported data is imperfect, this look back at the lives of some law school graduates gives at least some insights that don’t seem to be available elsewhere. I guess that we’ll have to take it for what it is.

Greybeard · April 12, 2008, 8:36pm

It was interesting as far as it went.

The ABA has commissioned a much more detailed study with 5,000 participants:

<a href=“http://www.nalpfoundation.org/webmodules/articles/articlefiles/87-After_JD_2004_web.pdf[/url]”>www.nalpfoundation.org/webmodules/articles/articlefiles/87-After_JD_2004_web.pdf</a>

They have planned it as a long-term longitudinal study. The first installment asks questions about everything from debt, to income, to job satisfaction four years out of law school.

Interesting UVA School of Law Study

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