Program on the Legal Profession
Harvard Law School
23 Everett Street #G-24
Cambridge, MA 02138

Narrative

Gabriele Plickert is a Research Fellow with the Program and a Research Social Scientist at the American Bar Foundation (ABF). She earned her PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto. Gabriele’s current scholarship focuses on the career trajectories of legal professionals. Her academic training and research on life course trajectories include micro- (i.e., work-life balance, mental and physical health) and macro- (i.e., political economy, organizations) level changes.

During her residence as a Research Fellow, Gabriele is serving as principal investigator (with David Wilkins) on the Harvard Law School Career Study which surveys the professional lives of members of selected classes between 1960 and 2000. The study examines legal careers at various life stages, and investigates how personal and professional patterns vary for women and men. At the American Bar Foundation (ABF), Gabriele is a co-principal investigator (with John Hagan and Patricia Parker) on a comparative study of early post-law school careers in U.S. and German cities. This comparative research seeks to mark out a parallel international track of joint study that will expand our understanding of lawyers’ lives in an era of globalized social and economic relations.

Education

PhD, University of Toronto, 2008

MA, Wichita State University, 1997

BA, Wichita State University, 1996

BA, Free University Berlin, 1995

Publications

Does the Golden Rule, Rule? Edited by R. Hsung, N. Lin and R. Breiger in Contexts of Social Capital: Social Networks in Communities, Markets and Organizations. (pp.49-71), 2008. UK: Routledge (with Rochelle R. Côté and Barry Wellman).

How Knowledge is Power: Explaining the Association between Education and the Sense of Control (with Scott Schieman). Social Forces 87:153-83, 2008.

It's Not Who You Know, It’s How You Know Them: Who Exchanges What With Whom? (with Rochelle R. Côté and Barry Wellman). Social Networks 29: 405-429, 2007.

Functional Limitations and Changes in Psychological Distress among Older Adults: A Multi-Hierarchy Stratification Perspective (with Schott Schieman). Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences 62: 36-42, 2007.

Presentations

Searching for Evidence of an ‘Opt-Out’ Revolution among Women Lawyers: What is the Evidence after Seven Years?
(with Joyce Sterling)
May, 2009
Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association
Denver

Lawyers and the Negotiated Settlements of Later Life
(with John Hagan)
May, 2009
Presented at After the JD, an International Conference on Research on Legal Careers in Transition
Harvard Law School

Searching for the Meaning of “Opt-Out” Among Women Lawyers: What is the Picture after the Seventh Year of Practice?
(with Joyce Sterling)
May, 2009
After the JD: An International Conference on Research on Legal Careers in Transition
Harvard Law School

Job Satisfaction and Mental Health: Trajectories of Female and Male Lawyers
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Harvard Law School

Race and National Identy
July, 2007
Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association
Berlin

The Status-Contingent Effects of Economic and Health Related Stressors on Changes in the Sense of Mastry among Older Adults
April, 2007
Annual Meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society
Chicago