| After the JD (AJD) is the first empirical study of a nationally representative cohort of new lawyers. The study is the product of a unique and productive collaboration between academics from a number of research institutions, including Harvard Law School, the American Bar Foundation, and University of Denver, and organizations such as the National Association of Law Placement and its Foundation, the Law School Admission Council, the Access Group, and the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Designed as a longitudinal study of lawyer careers, AJD is tracking the professional lives of more than 4,500 lawyers during their first ten years after law school.
The first wave of the study surveyed respondents admitted to the bar in 2000 and in practice for two to three years. Sample members were surveyed by mail questionnaire in May 2002, with a 71% response rate. Drawing on these rich data, we released a 96 page report in 2004 providing important benchmark data on lawyer careers for researchers, legal professionals, educators and policymakers. Members of the AJD Executive Coordinating Committee (ECC) have also authored several published and forthcoming articles in scholarly journals drawing on data from Wave I to explore issues such as lawyer satisfaction, the role of law school debt in structuring career choices, the evolving role of “urban” law schools (i.e., law schools located in major urban areas but not ranked in the top tier), and a comparison of the graduates of these urban schools working in large law firms with their counterparts from schools ranked in the top tier. In addition, ECC members have given dozens of presentations to a wide range of audiences – including academic conferences, bar groups, law firms, and law students – in order to build interest in and awareness of the study and to disseminate its findings.
The Center continues to play an important role in the AJD Project. Professors Wilkins and Nelson continued to mine the data from the first round of surveys and to draw additional conclusions about the profession from it. Forthcoming publications based on data from Wave I include a revision of the initial preliminary report that includes weighted data. The “public use” version of data from Wave I (including weights) now has been made available.
In addition to continuing to analyze the data from Wave I, Professors Nelson and Wilkins also completed work on survey design and data collection for Wave II. These questionnaires were sent into the field in May 2007, and researchers on the AJD project soon will begin conducting telephone interviews with respondents. We anticipate that raw data collection will be completed by early 2008.
More information on the After the JD project is available here. |
