Middle Class Lawyers: The Transformation of Small Firm Practice (Law and Social Science): VPW

本项目着眼于小公司和独立法律从业人员的工作，因为他们面临着营销和宣传服务的新机会，采用创新方法使办公室电脑化，并对妇女进入劳动力市场作出反应。以各种复杂的方式，这些发展都抓住了20世纪后期的基本主题，并挑战了传统的专业实践。这些法律从业者描述和理解他们的生活方式、价值观、愿望、期望和承诺的方式为研究当代美国城市的经济、政治和社会价值观提供了一个切入点。这项工作解决了法律和社会科学中一个重要而很少研究的问题，即市场营销、技术和妇女参与法律劳动力的发展如何影响小型和单独执业的公司。它进一步推进了VPW项目的目标，即为女性提供通过研究提升她们在科学或工程领域的职业生涯的机会，并通过研究人员在主办校园中作为榜样的知名度来鼓励其他女性在这些领域追求职业。在这个项目中，有助于第二个目标的拟议活动包括：在社会学系教授研究生课程，并在法学院、社会学系和妇女研究中心举办研讨会。

This project looks at the work of small-firm and solo legal practitioners as they confront new opportunities to market and advertise services, incorporate innovative ways to computerize offices, and respond to the entry of women into the labor market. In various and complicated ways, each of these developments captures essential themes of the late twentieth century and challenges traditional professional practices. The ways in which these legal practitioners describe and understand their life-style, values, aspirations, expectations, and commitments provide an entry point for examining contemporary economic, political, and social values of urban America. This effort addresses a significant and little-studied issue in law and social science, how developments in marketing, technology, and the participation of women in the law labor force have affected small and solo practitioner firms. It furthers VPW program objectives to provide opportunities for women to advance their careers in science or engineering through research, and to encourage other women to pursue careers in these areas through the investigators' enhanced visibility as role models on the host campuses. In this project, the proposed activities which contribute to the second objective include: teaching a graduate course in the sociology department, and giving seminars at the law school, sociology department, and Center for the Study of Women.