Hostname: page-component-669899f699-2mbcq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-04T03:21:51.093Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Intraprofessional Competition and Earnings Inequalities Across a Professional Chasm: The Case of the Legal Profession in Québec, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Fiona M. Kay
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Intraprofessional rivalry has a long history. This article examines earnings disparities as a dimension of intraprofessional competition among avocats and notaires in the civil law system of Québec, Canada. Drawing on two large-scale surveys and in-depth interviews with legal professionals, I examine three competing perspectives of earnings inequalities: human capital, social-symbolic capital, and organizational-structural explanations. Through this analysis I seek to examine whether similar causal processes shape earnings across the two spheres of legal practice in Québec. The findings of this study clearly demonstrate that these two professional groups are equipped with differential stocks of capital, and conversion rates differ drastically. Avocats receive greater exchange on their investments in human and social-symbolic capitals. These disparities are most pronounced in sectors of the profession where jurisdictional frictions abound: among notaires and avocats working as solo practitioners and in small firms within competitive urban contexts. The article concludes with a discussion of theoretical extensions and future directions for the study of legal professionals in civil law systems and blended jurisdictions.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , December 2009 , pp. 901 - 938
Copyright
© 2009 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

This research was supported by a research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (#816-96-0035) and was made possible by the generous cooperation of La Chambre des notaires du Québec and Le Barreau du Québec. Je voudrais remercier Carole Brosseau et André Turmel au Barreau du Québec et Josée Deschênes à La Chambre des notaires du Québec pour leur encouragement et assistance avec ce projet de recherche. Numerous colleagues offered valued advice and support throughout the project. I wish to thank Paul Bernard, Sophie Bourque, Joan Brockman, Réné Laperrière, Vilaysoun Loungnarath Jr., Patricia Parker, Vince Sacco, Luc Thériault, Claude Thomasset, Jean Wallace, and Deena White. Je voudrais aussi remercier le Centre de recherche en droit public, Faculté de droit, Université de Montréal, d'avoir fourni l'auteur avec un milieu encourageant de recherche productif pendant un congé sabbatique. I also acknowledge research assistance of Tara Carnochan and Katharine Zhang and translation services of Geneviève Proulx. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the guidance and insight offered by the Editor, Carroll Seron, and four anonymous reviewers at Law & Society Review. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of La Chambre des notaires du Québec or Le Barreau du Québec.

References

Abbott, Andrew (1981) “Status and Strain in the Professions,” 86 American J. of Sociology 819–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abbott, Andrew (1986) “Jurisdictional Conflicts: A New Approach to the Development of the Legal Professions,” 11 American Bar Foundation Research J. 187–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abbott, Andrew (1988) The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abbott, Andrew (2005) “Linked Ecologies: States and Universities as Environments for Professions,” 23 Sociological Theory 245–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abel, Richard (2003) English Lawyers Between Market and State: The Politics of Professionalism. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Aguilera, Michael, & Massey, Douglas (2003) “Social Capital and the Wages of Mexican Migrants: New Hypotheses and Tests,” 82 Social Forces 671–701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arthurs, Harry W., & Kreklewich, Robert (1996) “Law, Legal Institutions, and the Legal Profession in the New Economy,” 34 Osgoode Hall Law J. 1–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baron, James N., & Bielby, William T. (1984) “The Organization of Work in a Segmented Economy,” 49 American Sociological Rev. 454–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Gary S. (1994) Human Capital, 3d ed. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Beckman, Christine M., & Phillips, Damon J. (2005) “Interorganizational Determinants of Promotion: Client Leadership and the Attainment of Women Attorneys,” 70 American Sociological Rev. 678–701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1980) “The Artistocracy of Culture,” 2 Media, Culture and Society 225–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1984) Distinctions: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Trans. R. Nice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1985) “The Market of Symbolic Goods,” 14 Poetics 13–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1990) The Logic of Practice. Trans. R. Nice. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1997) “The Forms of Capital,” in Halsey, A. H. et al., eds., Education: Culture, Economy, Society. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Brierley, John E. C., & Macdonald, Roderick A. (1993) Quebec Civil Law: An Introduction to Quebec Private Law. Toronto: Edmond Montgomery Pubs. Ltd.Google Scholar
Brockman, Joan (1999) “‘A Cold Blooded Effort to Bolster Up the Legal Profession’: The Battle Between Lawyers and Notaries in British Columbia, 1871–1930,” 32 Social History 209–35.Google Scholar
Brown, Claire, & Jones, Liz (2004) “The Gender Structure of the Nursing Hierarchy: The Role of Human Capital,” 11 Gender, Work & Occupations 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bucher, Rue, & Strauss, Anselm (1966) “Professional Associations and the Process of Segmentation,” in Vollmer, H. M. & Mills, D. L., eds., Professionalization. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Burt, Ronald S. (2005) Brokerage and Closure: An Introduction to Social Capital. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Carlin, Jerome (1994) Lawyers on Their Own: A Study of Individual Practitioners in Chicago, 2d ed. San Francisco: Austin and Winfield.Google Scholar
Coleman, James S. (1988) “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital,” 94 American J. of Sociology 95–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dainow, Joseph (1967) “The Civil Law and the Common Law: Some Points of Comparison,” 15 American J. of Comparative Law 419–35.Google Scholar
Demers, Gilles (1985) “Une Loi Nouvelle pour un Notariat Moderne: Cours de Perfectionnement du Notariat,” 243 C.P. du Notariat 242–72.Google Scholar
Devine, Fiona, et al. (2000) “Professional Work and Professional Careers in Manchester's Business and Financial Sector,” 14 Work, Employment and Society 521–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dezalay, Yves, & Garth, Bryant G. (1996) Dealing in Virtue: International Commercial Arbitration and the Construction of a Transnational Legal Order. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul, & Mohr, John (1985) “Cultural Capital, Educational Attainment, and Marital Selection,” 90 American J. of Sociology 1231–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit (2006) “Social Capital and Constraints on Legal Careers,” 40 Law & Society Rev. 445–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinovitzer, Ronit et al. (2004) After the JD: First Results of a National Study of Legal Careers. Chicago: The NALP Foundation and American Bar Foundation.Google Scholar
Dixon, Jo, & Seron, Carroll (1995) “Stratification in the Legal Profession: Sex, Sector, and Salary,” 29 Law & Society Rev. 381–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eliadis, F. Pearl, & Allard, France (2004) “The Legal System in Québec,” in Gall, G., The Canadian Legal System, 5th ed. Scarborough, ON: Thomson Carswell.Google Scholar
Friedman, Lawrence M., & Pérez-Perdomo, Rogelio, eds. (2003) Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galanter, Marc, & Palay, Thomas (1991) Tournament of Lawyers: The Transformation of the Big Law Firm. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gall, Gerald (2004) The Canadian Legal System, 5th ed. Scarborough, ON: Thomson Carswell.Google Scholar
Gorman, Elizabeth H. (2005) “Gender Stereotypes, Same-Gender Preference, and Organizational Variation in the Hiring of Women: Evidence From Law Firms,” 70 American Sociological Rev. 702–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granovetter, Mark (1995) Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers, 2d ed. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagan, John, et al. (1999) “The Interest in Evil: Hierarchic Self-Interest and Right-Wing Extremism Among East and West German Youth,” 28 Social Science Research 162–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halliday, Terence C. (1987) Beyond Monopoly: Lawyers, State Crises and Professional Empowerment. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Heinz, John P., & Laumann, Edward O. (1982) Chicago Lawyers: The Social Structure of the Bar. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Heinz, John P, & Laumann, Edward O., et al. (1997) “The Constituencies of Elite Urban Lawyers,” 31 Law & Society Rev. 441–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heinz, John P., & Nelson, Robert L., et al. (2005) Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hodson, Randy, & Kaufman, Robert (1982) “Economic Dualism: A Critical Review,” 47 American Sociological Rev. 729–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howes, David (1987) “From Polyjurality to Monojurality: The Transformation of Quebec Law, 1875–1929,” 32 McGill Law J. 523–58.Google Scholar
Huffman, Matt L., & Cohen, Philip N. (2004) “Racial Wage Inequality: Job Segregation and Devaluation Across U. S. Labor Markets,” 109 American J. of Sociology 902–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jencks, Christopher, et al. (1988) “What Is a Good Job? A New Measure of Labor Market Success,” 93 American J. of Sociology 1322–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joppke, Christian (1986) “The Cultural Dimensions of Class Formation and Class Struggle: On the Social Theory of Pierre Bourdieu,” 31 Berkeley J. of Sociology 53–78.Google Scholar
Kalleberg, Arne L., et al. (2000) “Bad Jobs in America: Standard and Nonstandard Employment Relations and Job Quality in the United States,” 65 American Sociological Rev. 256–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karpik, Lucien (1999) French Lawyers: A Study in Collective Action 1274 to 1994. Trans. N. Scott. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Kay, Fiona M. (2009a) “Professional Monopolies and Divisive Practices in Law: ‘Les Femmes Juridiques’ in Civil Law Canada,” 4 The International J. of Law in Context 187–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, Fiona M. (2009b) “‘The First Legal Profession' of New France in Jeopardy or Revival?: History and Futures of the Quebec Notariat,” 16 International J. of the Legal Profession 1–32.Google Scholar
Kay, Fiona M., & Brockman, Joan (2000) “Barriers to Gender Equality in the Canadian Legal Establishment,” 8 Feminist Legal Studies 169–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, Fiona M., & Hagan, John (1995) “The Persistent Glass Ceiling: Gendered Inequalities in the Earnings of Lawyers,” 46 British J. of Sociology 279–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, Fiona M. (1998) “Raising the Bar: The Gender Stratification of Law-Firm Capital,” 63 American Sociological Rev. 728–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, Fiona M. (2003) “Building Trust: Social Capital, Distributive Justice, and Loyalty to the Firm,” 28 Law & Social Inquiry 483–519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, Fiona, et al. (2004) Diversity and Change: The Contemporary Legal Profession in Ontario. Toronto: The Law Society of Upper Canada.Google Scholar
Kennett, John (1973) “The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu,” 25 Education Rev. 237–49.Google Scholar
Kenney, Amanda (2004) “Medical Dominance and Power: A Rural Perspective,” 13 Health Sociology Rev. 158–65.Google Scholar
Kerr, Don, et al. (2006) “Marriage and Cohabitation: Demographic and Socioeconomic Differences in Quebec and Canada,” 33 Canadian Studies in Population 83–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimmel, Earl (1984) “The Notarial System and Its Impact in Canadian Law,” in Landry, R. & Caparros, E., eds., Essays on the Civil Codes of Québec and St. Lucia. Ottawa: Univ. of Ottawa Press.Google Scholar
La Chambre des Notaires du Québec (1972) Le Notariat Québecois Entre Hier et Demain. Montréal: Rapport final de la commission d'étude sur le notariat.Google Scholar
La Chambre des Notaires du Québec (1993) Le notaire un conseiller juridique. Montréal: La Chambre des Notaires du Québec.Google Scholar
Lambert, Jean (2008) “Notaires au Québec,” http://www.cdnq.org/en/notariesinQuebec/history/html (accessed 7 April 2008).Google Scholar
Lamont, Michele, & Lareau, Annette (1988) “Cultural Capital, Allusions, Gaps, and Glissandos in Recent Theoretical Developments,” 6 Sociological Theory 153–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, Magali Sarfatti (1977) The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeBourdais, Céline, & LaPierre-Adamcyk, Évelyne (2004) “Changes in Conjugal Life in Canada: Is Cohabitation Progressively Replacing Marriage? 66 J. of Marriage and Family 929–42.Google Scholar
Levenson, H. (1973) “Multidimensional Locus of Control in Psychiatric Patients,” 41 J. of Counselling and Clinical Psychology 397–404.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lin, Nan (2001) “Building a Network Theory of Social Capital,” in Lin, N. et al., eds., Social Capital: Theory and Research. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maclean's, (2001) “Ranking Canada's Law Schools,” http://www.oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2009/09/18/ranking-canada's-law-schools-2/ (accessed 16 Oct. 2009).Google Scholar
Moorhead, Richard, et al. (2003) “Contesting Professionalism: Legal Aid and Nonlawyers in England and Wales,” 37 Law & Society Rev. 765–808.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morier, Vincent (1997) “Ask a General Practitioner,” National (October) 48.Google Scholar
Morin, Michel (1998) “Les grandes dates de l'histoire du droit québécois, 1760–1867,” in Actes de la XIIIe Conférence des jurists de l'État. Cowansville, QU: Les Éditions Yvon Blais Inc.Google Scholar
Morrison, Alan D., & Wilhelm, William J. Jr. (2004) “Partnership Firms, Reputation, and Human Capital,” 94 American Economic Rev. 1682–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mueller, Charles W., & McDuff, Elaine M. (2002) “‘Good’ Jobs and ‘Bad’ Jobs: Differences in the Clergy Employment Relationship,” 44 Rev. of Religious Research 150–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nash, Roy (1990) “Bourdieu on Education and Social and Cultural Reproduction,” 11 British J. of Sociology of Education 431–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Robert L. (1988) Partners With Power: The Social Transformation of the Large Law Firm. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nnona, George C. (2006) “Situating Multidisciplinary Practice within Social History: A Systemic Analysis of Interprofessional Competition,” 80 St. John's Law Rev. 849–921.Google Scholar
Noreau, Pierre (1992) “Droit et sociologie: pour une appoche globale du droit – contribution à la definition du concept de droit préventif,” 94 Revue du Notariat 403–40.Google Scholar
Paternoster, Raymond, et al. (1998) “Using the Correct Statistical Test for the Equality of Regression Coefficients,” 36 Criminology 859–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paxton, Pamela (1999) “Is Social Capital Declining in the United States? A Multiple Indicator Assessment,” 105 American J. of Sociology 88–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollard, Michael, & Wu, Zheng (1998) “Divergence of Marriage Patterns in Quebec and Elsewhere in Canada,” 24 Population and Development Rev. 329–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, Lori L. (1998) “Devaluating Women and Minorities: The Effects of Race/Ethnic and Sex Composition of Occupations on Wage Levels,” 25 Work and Occupations 511–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robson, Karen, & Wallace, Jean E. (2001) “Gendered Inequalities in Earnings: A Study of Canadian Lawyers,” 38 Canadian Rev. of Sociology and Anthropology 75–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sagas, Michael, & Cunningham, George B. (2004) “Does Having ‘the Right Stuff’ Matter? Gender Differences in the Determinants of Career Success Among Intercollegiate Athletic Administrators,” 50 Sex Roles 411–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandefur, Rebecca L. (2001) “Work and Honor in the Law: Prestige and the Division of Lawyers' Labor,” 66 American Sociological Rev. 382–403.Google Scholar
Sandefur, Rebecca, & Laumann, Edward O. (1998) “A Paradigm for Social Capital,” 10 Rationality and Society 481–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seron, Carroll (1996) The Business of Practicing Law: The Work Lives of Solo and Small-Firm Attorneys. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Stager, David A. A., & Arthurs, Harry W. (1990) Lawyers in Canada. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Thomasset, Claude (2000) “Impacts des profiles professionnels sur la formation juridique au Québec: D'aujourd'hui à hier,” 30 Revue General de Droit 455–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Timmermans, Stefan (2002) “The Cause of Death vs. the Gift of Life: Boundary Maintenance and the Politics of Expertise in Death Investigation,” 24 Sociology of Health and Illness 550–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomaskovic-Devey, Donald, et al. (2005) “Race and the Accumulation of Human Capital Across the Career: A Theoretical Model and Fixed-Effects Application,” 111 American J. of Sociology 58–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vachon, André (1962) Histoire du Notariat Canadien 1621–1960. Québec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval.Google Scholar
Van Hoy, Jerry (1997) Franchise Law Firms and the Transformation of Personal Legal Services. Westport, CT: Quorum Books.Google Scholar
Wallace, Jean E. (2001) “The Benefits of Mentoring for Female Lawyers,” 58 J. of Vocational Behavior 366–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, Jean E., & Kay, Fiona M. (2009) “Are Small Firms More Beautiful or Is Bigger Better? A Study of Compensating Differentials and Law Firm Internal Labor Markets,” 50 Sociological Q. 475–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar