Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives??? Forum

[vtoodler]

Where do law school professors at your typical law school lie on the political spectrum? I have always been under the impression that they tend to be more conservative.

[mallard]

I'm pretty sure you were under the wrong impression.

[CyLaw]

While I am sure there are professors that lie in all possible directions in the political spectrum, I always heard that as a group it tends to me more liberal than conservative. I thought conservative law professors where in the minority.

[Renzo]

As with all professors, there is a wide dispersal, but the mean is the left of center.

[vanwinkle]

Conventional wisdom seems to be that the law profession is overwhelmingly left-leaning, but of my professors my first semester, the only one that expressed any real political views at all was very hardcore conservative.

[pleasetryagain]

not specifically law profs but:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... Mar28.html

[Vincent Vega]

Liberals' self-perpetuation strategy is to drill ideology into the next generation by becoming professors.

[Space_Cowboy]

Liberals' self-perpetuation strategy is to drill ideology into the next generation by becoming professors.

I recommend taking off the tin foil hat.

[Vincent Vega]

I didn't say I wasn't a liberal.

[Space_Cowboy]

I didn't say I wasn't a liberal.

My sarcasm detector is filing miserably.....

[RVP11]

Conventional wisdom seems to be that the law profession is overwhelmingly left-leaning, but of my professors my first semester, the only one that expressed any real political views at all was very hardcore conservative.

IDK if that's really conventional wisdom. Other than legal academics and the plaintiff's bar, I can't think of any other left-leaning groups. Big firms and their lawyers certainly aren't.

[vanwinkle]

Conventional wisdom seems to be that the law profession is overwhelmingly left-leaning, but of my professors my first semester, the only one that expressed any real political views at all was very hardcore conservative.

IDK if that's really conventional wisdom. Other than legal academics and the plaintiff's bar, I can't think of any other left-leaning groups. Big firms and their lawyers certainly aren't.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventional_wisdom

[Space_Cowboy]

Conventional wisdom seems to be that the law profession is overwhelmingly left-leaning, but of my professors my first semester, the only one that expressed any real political views at all was very hardcore conservative.

IDK if that's really conventional wisdom. Other than legal academics and the plaintiff's bar, I can't think of any other left-leaning groups. Big firms and their lawyers certainly aren't.

I'm not sure about that. Either that or I work with a bizarre number of hippies for a big firm. Aren't there campaign contribution websites to do a quick check (not exactly lib/con, but D/R is close enough)?

[mallard]

Don't think biglaw attorneys tend to be particularly conservative.

[RVP11]

Conventional wisdom seems to be that the law profession is overwhelmingly left-leaning, but of my professors my first semester, the only one that expressed any real political views at all was very hardcore conservative.

IDK if that's really conventional wisdom. Other than legal academics and the plaintiff's bar, I can't think of any other left-leaning groups. Big firms and their lawyers certainly aren't.

I'm not sure about that. Either that or I work with a bizarre number of hippies for a big firm. Aren't there campaign contribution websites to do a quick check (not exactly lib/con, but D/R is close enough)?

Probably depends on the city. But your typical white shoe BigLaw firm is going to be right-leaning, I'd say.

I'm sure if you subtracted DC/NYC firms, you'd find that BigLaw = conservative, by and large.

[vanwinkle]

Don't think biglaw attorneys tend to be particularly conservative.

The few that make partner probably are, but they probably tend to be outnumbered by the liberal associates working for a few years to pay off their loans before going off to do what they really want to do.

[mallard]

I'm sure if you subtracted DC/NYC firms, you'd find that BigLaw = conservative, by and large.

I don't think this is the case. I'm pretty sure California biglaw is pretty liberal, and nothing suggests to me that Chicago biglaw is particularly conservative. Texas biglaw, sure.

[Space_Cowboy]

Conventional wisdom seems to be that the law profession is overwhelmingly left-leaning, but of my professors my first semester, the only one that expressed any real political views at all was very hardcore conservative.

IDK if that's really conventional wisdom. Other than legal academics and the plaintiff's bar, I can't think of any other left-leaning groups. Big firms and their lawyers certainly aren't.

I'm not sure about that. Either that or I work with a bizarre number of hippies for a big firm. Aren't there campaign contribution websites to do a quick check (not exactly lib/con, but D/R is close enough)?

Probably depends on the city. But your typical white shoe BigLaw firm is going to be right-leaning, I'd say.

I'm sure if you subtracted DC/NYC firms, you'd find that BigLaw = conservative, by and large.

Any reason for believing this? Aside from the fact that they make tons of coin.

[RVP11]

Any reason for believing this? Aside from the fact that they make tons of coin.

Three cities I've actually done political research within. Full disclosure: they're all western (non-CA) cities. All had overwhelmingly conservative law firms.

And out of my hometown's 15 big firms, I remember discovering that the members of 14 of them were giving an overwhelming majority of their financial support to Republican candidates.

Maybe it'd be better to make an exception for major markets.

[Space_Cowboy]

Any reason for believing this? Aside from the fact that they make tons of coin.

Three cities I've actually done political research within. Full disclosure: they're all western (non-CA) cities. All had overwhelmingly conservative law firms.

And out of my hometown's 15 big firms, I remember discovering that the members of 14 of them were giving an overwhelming majority of their financial support to Republican candidates.

Maybe it'd be better to make an exception for major markets.

Can you out the three states?

[mallard]

But an overwhelming amount of biglaw is in major markets.

[Oban]

Big law in Seattle is definitely liberal. I'd wager that most biglaw firms in major market lean liberal and often have a healthy pro bono group. Despite convential wisdom. Making bank =/= Conservatttive.

[drsomebody]

In my admittedly limited experience I've found that law professors are, on average, considerably more conservative than other members of the professoriate (humanities, social sciences, and hard sciences).

By conservative I don't necessarily mean Republican. There are very few Republican academics of any sort. There are all sorts of systemic reasons for this, but "liberal bias" in hiring and tenure plays only a very small role.

[02082010]

Academics, lawyers, other professionals, smart people in general = liberal.

/thread.

[RVP11]

Academics, lawyers, other professionals, smart people in general = liberal.

/thread.

But people with $$$, in general = conservative.

I'd be shocked to find that BigLaw partners, nationwide, are left-leaning.