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Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 12:01 am
by 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.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 12:03 am
by mallard
I'm pretty sure you were under the wrong impression.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 12:06 am
by 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.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:06 am
by Renzo
As with all professors, there is a wide dispersal, but the mean is the left of center.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:11 am
by 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.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:13 am
by pleasetryagain
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:20 am
by Vincent Vega
Liberals' self-perpetuation strategy is to drill ideology into the next generation by becoming professors.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:22 am
by Space_Cowboy
Halibut6 wrote:Liberals' self-perpetuation strategy is to drill ideology into the next generation by becoming professors.
I recommend taking off the tin foil hat.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:24 am
by Vincent Vega

I didn't say I wasn't a liberal.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:25 am
by Space_Cowboy
Halibut6 wrote:
I didn't say I wasn't a liberal.
My sarcasm detector is filing miserably.....
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:32 am
by RVP11
vanwinkle wrote: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.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:33 am
by vanwinkle
JSUVA2012 wrote:vanwinkle wrote: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
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:38 am
by Space_Cowboy
JSUVA2012 wrote:vanwinkle wrote: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)?
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:47 am
by mallard
Don't think biglaw attorneys tend to be particularly conservative.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:48 am
by RVP11
Space_Cowboy wrote:JSUVA2012 wrote:vanwinkle wrote: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.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:49 am
by vanwinkle
mallard wrote: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.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:51 am
by mallard
JSUVA2012 wrote: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.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:52 am
by Space_Cowboy
JSUVA2012 wrote:Space_Cowboy wrote:JSUVA2012 wrote:vanwinkle wrote: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.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:56 am
by RVP11
Space_Cowboy wrote:
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.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 2:00 am
by Space_Cowboy
JSUVA2012 wrote:Space_Cowboy wrote:
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?
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 2:01 am
by mallard
But an overwhelming amount of biglaw is in major markets.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 3:24 am
by 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.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 3:47 am
by 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.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 3:47 am
by 02082010
Academics, lawyers, other professionals, smart people in general = liberal.
/thread.
Re: Law School Professors: Liberals or Conservatives???
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 1:22 pm
by RVP11
hopefulundergrad wrote: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.