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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Legal Education

2015

City University of New York (CUNY)

Articles 1 - 1 of 1

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Do Law School Outcomes Follow The Legal Myth Of Thirds?: An Analysis Of The After The J.D. Study, Michael W. Raphael, Tanesha A. Thomas Aug 2015

Do Law School Outcomes Follow The Legal Myth Of Thirds?: An Analysis Of The After The J.D. Study, Michael W. Raphael, Tanesha A. Thomas

Graduate Student Publications and Research

The legal myth of thirds is the belief that each graduating class of law students can be divided into thirds where the top third end up becoming law professors, the middle third become judges and the bottom third become lawyers. Such discourse is indicative of a meritocratic society and a 2014 survey done at a small New England law school found that 36.9% of respondents (N=92) have indeed heard that this was the case. The authors feel that the mere existence of such a rumor suggests that there is concern regarding intra-professional stratification. Using data from the American Bar Foundation’s …