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Socialization Effects of Professional School: The Law School Experience and Student Orientations to Public Interest Concerns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Howard S. Erlanger  and
Douglas A. Klegon
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Abstract

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While undergoing training in professional school, students are assumed to experience attitude change, internalizing the norms of their future profession. In law school this change is thought to be particularly conservative, reflecting a business orientation and a minimal concern with pro bono and social reform work. This paper examines these assumptions by presenting data from a panel study of students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. Although some changes in attitudes are found, they are much smaller than suggested by recent critical literature on legal education. These findings lead to the proposal of a research agenda that stresses the contribution of the job market as well as that of education in fostering a traditional orientation toward the role of lawyers and the law.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , Fall 1978 , pp. 11 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © 1978 Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

*

This study is part of the research program in legal education of the American Bar Foundation. Additional supportive services were financed by funds granted to the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin by the Office of Economic Opportunity pursuant to the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Responsibility for what follows remains with the authors.

We would like to thank Pramod Suratkar, Irene Rodgers, and Michael Soref for their research assistance, and Gerald Marwell for methodological advice. Of the many colleagues who commented on an earlier draft, we are especially indebted to those who prepared lengthy memos: Spencer Kimball, Richard Abel, Felice Levine, James Hedegard, Stewart Macaulay, David Trubek, Robert Stover, and Patricia Connelly. The assistance of Edith Wilimovsky was invaluable in preparation of final copy.

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