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Book part
Publication date: 2 September 2009

Ethan Michelson

In China's urban context of labor retrenchment, women are faring poorly relative to their male counterparts. Is the same true in China's incipient, dynamic, and expanding legal…

Abstract

In China's urban context of labor retrenchment, women are faring poorly relative to their male counterparts. Is the same true in China's incipient, dynamic, and expanding legal profession? Findings from four sources of quantitative data suggest that gender inequality in China's private and highly market-driven legal profession is a microcosm of larger patterns of female disadvantage in China's evolving urban labor market. Although employment opportunities for women lawyers have greatly expanded quantitatively, their careers are qualitatively less successful than those of their male counterparts in terms of both income and partnership status. In the Chinese bar, women's significantly shorter career trajectories are perhaps the most important cause of their lower incomes and slimmer chances of becoming a law firm partner. Future research must identify the causes of this significant career longevity gap between men and women in the Chinese legal profession.

Details

Work and Organizationsin China Afterthirty Years of Transition
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-730-7

Book part
Publication date: 21 June 2005

Orit Kamir

Anatomy of a Murder, a beloved, highly influential, seemingly liberal 1959 classic law-film seems to appropriate some of the fading western genre’s features and social functions…

Abstract

Anatomy of a Murder, a beloved, highly influential, seemingly liberal 1959 classic law-film seems to appropriate some of the fading western genre’s features and social functions, intertwining the professional-plot western formula with a hero-lawyer variation on the classic western hero character, America’s 19th century archetypal True Man. In so doing, Anatomy revives the western genre’s honor code, embracing it into the hero-lawyer law-film. Concurrently, it accommodates the development of cinematic imagery of the emerging, professional elite groups, offering the public the notion of the professional super-lawyer, integrating legal professionalism with natural justice. In the course of establishing its Herculean lawyer, the film constitutes its female protagonist as a potential threat, subjecting her to a cinematic judgment of her sexual character and reinforcing the honor-based notion of woman’s sexual-guilt.

Details

Studies in Law, Politics and Society
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-327-3

Book part
Publication date: 8 April 2013

Debra Schleef

Purpose – In this chapter, I examine critically the assumption in the literature that many lawyers decide to leave the practice of law, and especially large law firms, due to…

Abstract

Purpose – In this chapter, I examine critically the assumption in the literature that many lawyers decide to leave the practice of law, and especially large law firms, due to lawyer dissatisfaction. I take a macro focus on employee flows and networks at large law firms, particularly at the elite level.Methodology/approach – I use a large archival data set of alumni data, internal memos, and newsletters from the 1930s through the 1990s from four large New York City corporate law firms. I perform statistical analysis of 2800 cases. I also include qualitative analysis of the newsletters and firm records of comings and goings. I analyze lawyer migration as a mobility project of lawyers in conjunction with Domhoff#x02019;s class-domination theory to explain the interconnectedness of the corporate community, policy networks, governmental positions, the federal judiciary, and high-powered private lawyers.Findings – I explore the various ways that lawyer migration benefits the original firm by creating or strengthening relationships with other large law firms, corporate clients, and governmental organizations. It is clear that most lawyer departures are not meant to signal negative outcomes. Elite lawyers in large firms make both corporate and political connections through their migration, connections that have important repercussions not only for the lawyers but from their original firms.Originality/value of chapter – A fundamental question for sociological analyses of elite professions, and a more practical concern in the field of legal studies, is why do so many lawyers decide to leave the practice of law? The focus of these accounts, both journalistic and academic, is on the fact that lawyers leave – and, in particular, that they leave the practice of law entirely. The explanatory variable, in many cases, is some variation on individual lawyer dissatisfaction. Instead, I show that most lawyer departures are not meant to signal negative outcomes. Lawyer migration benefits the original firm by creating or strengthening relationships with other large law firms, corporate clients, and governmental organizations.

Details

Networks, Work and Inequality
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-539-5

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Legal Professions: Work, Structure and Organization
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76230-800-2

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1987

Teresa Donati Marciano

This article focuses on a group of women attorneys launched on careers that are interrupted for shorter or longer periods by the birth of children. Small samples are used for…

Abstract

This article focuses on a group of women attorneys launched on careers that are interrupted for shorter or longer periods by the birth of children. Small samples are used for illustration but studied in depth they provide a micro‐level view of employment patterns that are reported in aggregate statistics or the macro level. This article adds gender to the matrix of employment patterns and professional careers. Voluntary underemployment, negotiated for women attorneys, may be a strategy to cope with high demands and limited structural accommodations to those demands.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 7 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 September 2021

The authors wanted to find out if women in-house lawyers were treated more equitably than their counterparts in law firms and, therefore, reached higher ranks more often.

Abstract

Purpose

The authors wanted to find out if women in-house lawyers were treated more equitably than their counterparts in law firms and, therefore, reached higher ranks more often.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors examined 10 years of data about public companies in the ExecuComp dataset. The information includes name, age, gender, job category and numerous compensation measures. Public companies must report their top five earners. The authors narrowed their focus to 2,154 lawyers of whom 1,851 were men and 303 were women.

Findings

Analysis supported hypothesis 1, showing women are underrepresented in senior legal roles in large corporations. Hypothesis 2, however, was not supported. It was expected that women would be more likely to hold senior positions in female-dominated industries, but this was not the case. Finally, hypothesis 3 was not supported either. It suggested in-house women counsel would earn comparable compensation to their male counterparts. But analysis showed women earned 92.6pc of men earn and their bonuses were only 73.2pc of men’s.

Originality/value

The authors say the research has important practical lessons for companies. Many of the remedies for gender disparities in law firms apply also to in-house counsel, they say. A primary mechanism is to integrate more women into senior leadership positions. This will tend to lead to reductions in compensation disparities, as well as greater accountability and transparency.

Details

Human Resource Management International Digest , vol. 29 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0967-0734

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2001

Terese Ching and Brian H. Kleiner

Suggests that the practice of law is one of the most regressive profesions in breaking down the white male‐dominated stereotype. State that the hiring practice does not reflect…

796

Abstract

Suggests that the practice of law is one of the most regressive profesions in breaking down the white male‐dominated stereotype. State that the hiring practice does not reflect the demographics of law school graduates and that women and minorities often leave the career in the first three years. Explores the current level of discrimination and harassment as well as the steps the legal community has taken to reduce future occurrences. Examines the areas of illegal bias involving race, gender, age and sexual orientation.

Details

Equal Opportunities International, vol. 20 no. 5/6/7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0261-0159

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 August 2013

Cynthia Forson

Employing a feminist relational lens, the purpose of this paper is to explore the work-life balance experiences of black migrant women entrepreneurs, examining the relationship…

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Abstract

Purpose

Employing a feminist relational lens, the purpose of this paper is to explore the work-life balance experiences of black migrant women entrepreneurs, examining the relationship between macro, meso and micro levels of business activity. The paper examines the obstacles raised and opportunities enabled by the confrontation and negotiation between the private and public space.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative methods are used and the paper draws on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 29 black women business owners in the legal and black hairdressing sectors in London. The analysis of the paper is informed by a relational approach that recognises the embedded nature of business activity in differing levels of social action.

Findings

The analysis reveals that ability of the women in the study to manage their work-life balance was shaped by power relations and social interactions between and within cultural, structural and agentic dimensions of small business ownership.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the literature on business and entrepreneurial behaviour of women by embedding work-life balance experiences of black migrant women in context of relations between and within macro, meso and micro levels. It conceptualises the behaviour of the women in the study in terms of confrontations, negotiations and dialogue between notions of motherhood, femininity, family and entrepreneurship at the societal, institutional and individual levels. In so doing the paper expands the literature on minority entrepreneurship and underscores the interconnected nature of these three levels to produce unique experiences for individual migrant women.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, vol. 19 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Legal Professions: Work, Structure and Organization
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76230-800-2

Case study
Publication date: 29 January 2024

Doris Rajakumari John

The data for the case is a mix of both primary and secondary data, from the following sources: – personal interviews with the protagonist, Sofana Dahlan; – Tashkeil website; …

Abstract

Research methodology

The data for the case is a mix of both primary and secondary data, from the following sources: – personal interviews with the protagonist, Sofana Dahlan; – Tashkeil website; – official documents provided by the company: ■ “Tashkeil – Corporate Brief,” ■ “Saudi National Creative Initiative – Activities Report 2016”; and ■ “Tashkeil Global Company”. – published media sources.

Case overview/synopsis

The case outlines the story of Sofana Dahlan (Sofana) (she/her), a social entrepreneur and one of the first few women lawyers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She established Tashkeil as a social enterprise, helping creative entrepreneurs (creatives) with strategic, operational and legal inputs, thus enabling the creative industry in different parts of the Arab world, focussing on Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Her story can be used to inspire students on how a female entrepreneur fought against an extremely restrictive social and cultural environment and achieved her goals. It helps them to understand the challenges faced by women in the context of the Arab world and the key attributes required for them to succeed as an entrepreneur, especially in the context of certain social and cultural barriers. It also helps to understand the importance of resilience in entrepreneurs and to discuss how entrepreneurs can become more resilient.

Complexity academic level

The case can be used mainly in undergraduate Business Management Programs in courses such as Entrepreneurship, with specific reference to Women Entrepreneurship. The case would be a good fit for courses on Social Entrepreneurship and Creative Businesses.

Details

The CASE Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 1544-9106

Keywords

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