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This dissertation examines the emergence and development of the Russian advokatura (legal profession) between 1864 and 1905. Unlike past historical works, which have concentrated on the activities of a few prominent defence attorneys in the major political trials, this dissertation focuses on the advokaturas development as an independent, self-governing, profession. Such an approach reveals that contrary to received wisdom, the advokatura's professional evolution was a long, arduous, complicated process, by no means complete at the time of its premature demise. The Russian advokatura traces its origins back to the Judicial Reforms of 1864; prior to that time, Russia's legal practitioners existed as an amorphous mass, where virtually every citizen had the right to act as an attorney. The Judicial Reforms created a new, western-style advocate - the sworn attorney and his assistant, the attorney-in-training - as well as a new, autonomous institution - the regional Bar Council - which was to supervise the professional activities of a given region's sworn attorneys. Yet as this dissertation shows, the Judicial Reforms did more than simply introduce a modern advokatura to Russia; these reforms also represented a critical experiment with Russia's existing social structure, an unprecedented, largely unpremeditated attempt by the autocracy to take the western image of a 'liberal' profession and somehow adapt it to Russia's existing hierarchical soslovie (estate) system. For political and social reasons, however, the advokatura quickly proved incongruous with Russia's traditional soslovie order; as a result, the autocracy introduced a series of counter-reforms in 1874 which sharply restricted the professional development of the sworn attorneys and attempted to transform the existing advokatura into a more conventional soslovie. At approximately the same time, the autocracy created yet another branch of the Russian legal profession - the private attorneys. Therefore, during the course of its lifetime, the Russian advokatura consisted of multiple sections - sworn attorneys, private attorneys, attorneys-in-training - plus the descendants of the pre-reform legal practitioners, commonly known after 1864 as underground advocates. Each of the above subdivisions will be examined in this dissertation in order to gain a greater appreciation of the advokatura's overall professional development as well as the numerous obstacles that were placed in its path. At the same time, this dissertation will also examine the advokatura's impact on Russia's emerging legal culture as well as its attempts to gain more political influence. Such an analysis reveals that despite some significant gains, Russia's entire legal system - not just the advokatura - was seriously undermined and devalued by its incompatibility with the political and social order, constructed by the autocracy.

This paper takes the view that the substance of that knowledge and information is to be found with the very women we are concerned with. It seeks to investigate this by eliciting the experiences of women who have entered the profession, specifically the advocate’s profession, more commonly known as the Bar. Closer scrutiny of women in the profession in this way will determine whether and to what extent patriarchal normative attitudes still operative in the legal profession.

Although lawyers as a group represent some of the wealthiest and most politically powerful professionals in the United States, within the profession there is a significant amount of inequality. In spite of the divisions that exist within the profession, our understanding of the sources of inequality among attorneys remains limited. This project seeks to address this limitation by investigating how human, cultural, and social capital, along with demographic characteristics, are associated with the development of inequality among a cohort of recent law school graduates as they proceed through the first decade of legal practice. Specifically, using a dataset entitled After the JD: A Longitudinal Study of Careers in Transition, the project examines the relationships between recently minted lawyers' various forms of capital and positive career outcomes during three time periods: the law school-to-work transition, the first two years of legal practice, and the time period where private law firm associates compete to become partners. Findings indicate that each form of capital plays important roles throughout the first decade of practice. During the law school-to-work transition, interpersonal and organizational connections, along with human capital in the form of educational credentials, are associated with gaining employment in prestigious, high paying private law firms. Similarly, during the first few years of practice, connections formed with peers, professional groups, mentors, supervisors, and employers contribute to satisfying work environments. The models show, however, that access to these professional connections, depend on the gender, race, and sexual orientation of the individual lawyers in question, and that, in general, minority groups are at a disadvantage when it comes to the formation and maintenance of these types of professional ties. Finally, the findings also demonstrate that human, social, and cultural capital remain important predictors of career success during the transition to partnership in private firms.

This thesis examines the role of the legal profession in Upper Canada from 1791 to 1867. In particular it focuses on whether or not the legal profession became the elite that they were set up to be. It examines the reasons behind choosing the legal profession as the elite. Between the creation of Upper Canada and Confederation there were several political and economic changes and I examine how these changes impacted the legal profession and the role that they had to play in the legal profession. I argue that while the legal profession failed to become the aristocratic elite that the early Upper Canadian leaders hoped for, it did become distinctively Upper Canadian.

This thesis examines the role of the legal profession in Upper Canada from 1791 to 1867. In particular it focuses on whether or not the legal profession became the elite that they were set up to be. It examines the reasons behind choosing the legal profession as the elite. Between the creation of Upper Canada and Confederation there were several political and economic changes and I examine how these changes impacted the legal profession and the role that they had to play in the legal profession. I argue that while the legal profession failed to become the aristocratic elite that the early Upper Canadian leaders hoped for, it did become distinctively Upper Canadian.

In 1819, Ferdinand VII ordered the creation of two Colegios de Abogados in Cuba to prevent the expansion of the number of legal professionals, as well as the unauthorized practice of law. The strategy, however, failed, and lawyers increasingly became a force of political and social change in the island, being mostly inspired by the debates about the implementation of liberal agendas in and out of Cuba. Some Colegios de Abogados eventually became centers of anti-Spanish conspiracy and lawyers even led recurrent uprisings for Cuban independence. Ideas of reform among Cuban lawyers, however, were diverse, and different interpretations of liberalism surfaced, especially under the influence of other movements such as annexationism and autonomism. This variety of ideas encountered one another at the Constitutional Convention of 1901, where self-proclaimed liberal delegates still questioned, for example, free education and universal suffrage, which made evident the many shades that liberalism still had in Cuba at this time. This study takes legal professionals to be a strategic window to approach and explain key social, political and intellectual transformations in nineteenth century Cuba, while unveiling the leading role lawyers themselves played in those processes. Relying on personal and professional documentation, correspondence and job applications, the dissertation recreates lawyers’ political, intellectual and social positions, and shows how they had a decisive participation in historical change in late colonial Cuba. Their ideas survived in periodical publications, newspapers, and political writings that they established or where they participated, as well as in legislations that they enacted, applied or commented on. Being the most influential professional group of the period under study, lawyers represent a perfect tool to understand the end of Spanish times in Cuba and its transit, under the flags of liberalism, to an independent republic.

Writing Women into the Law in Queensland consists, as well as an exegesis, of profiles of seven significant women in the law in Queensland which have been published in A Woman's Place: 100 years of women lawyers edited by Susan Purdon and Aladin Rahemtula and published by the Supreme Court of Queensland Library in November 2005. Those women are Leneen Forde, Chancellor of Griffith University and former Governor of Queensland; Kate Holmes, Justice of the Supreme Court and now of the Court of Appeal; Leanne Clare, the first female Director of Public Prosecutions; Barbara Newton, the first female Public Defender; Carmel MacDonald, President of the Aboriginal Land Tribunals and the first female law lecturer in Queensland; Fleur Kingham, formerly Deputy President of the land and Resources Tribunal and now Judge of the District Court and Catherine Pirie, the first Magistrate of Torres Strait descent. The accompanying exegesis investigates the development of the creative work out of the tensions between the aims of the work, its political context, the multiple positions of the biographer, and the collaborative and collective nature of the enterprise.

The objective of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of the development of professional judgement during the two year work-based pre-admission training period (PEAT 2) required of Scottish solicitors so as to identify a model that allows them to respond to the changes the UK legal services sector is experiencing. The methodology adopted throughout reflects an emphasis on researching knowledge in the context of its application (Flyvbjerg 2001). Professional judgement is described as the ‘heart of professional practice’ (Fish and Coles 1998) and is therefore selected to provide a holistic method of evaluation. The UK legal profession is fragmenting in its response to market pressures, including the introduction of external regulation and ‘alternative business structures’ under the Legal Services Act 2007 and increased globalisation, specialisation and commoditisation. It is therefore important to identify the traditional method used by Scottish solicitors to develop their judgement as there is a risk that what was previously implicit and assumed in this ‘community of practice’ (Wenger 1998) becomes dissipated. As a result, the relevance and application of judgement is considered in the context of professional practice and solicitors in particular. The effect of external influences are interpreted, including in relation to the job of a solicitor, the future development of judgement and implications for legal education. The research method adopted enables confidential data to be obtained about the development of professional judgement and the PEAT 2 processes through completion of semi-structured interviews with a number of Scottish law firms, the Law Society of Scotland and related regulatory organisations, supplemented with Scottish trainee focus groups and comparative data from illustrative law firms and regulators in England and Wales. This allows 10 detailed case studies of law firms to be developed and analysed using Eraut’s (2007) model of early career learning and Fuller and Unwin’s (2003) model of expansive and restrictive apprenticeships as well as providing commentary from experienced solicitors and regulatory sources on the development of professional judgement. This allows 10 detailed case studies of law firms to be developed and analysed using Eraut’s (2007) model of early career learning and Fuller and Unwin’s (2003) model of expansive and restrictive apprenticeships as well as providing commentary from experienced solicitors and regulatory sources on the development of professional judgement. This data enables an analysis of the effectiveness of the current Scottish pre-admission training processes and the identification of methods used to develop the judgement of novices. Findings indicate that elements of the formal requirements of PEAT 2 are limiting the experiential and reflective learning of trainees and, in the wider context of work-based learning, that professional judgement is developed through exposure to reflective practice in a ‘community’ that provides an expansive apprenticeship and establishes parameters of acceptable choices. Recommendations include adjustments to pre-admission legal training and the introduction of a specialist qualification, accredited by the Law Society of Scotland.

With the increasing feminization of the legal profession in the United States over the last half century, past research has documented the prevalence and transformation of gender inequality in law firms. However, relatively little is known about gender inequality in small, conservative legal markets like Utah. This thesis examines data from the 2008-2009 Utah Attorney Advancement and Retention Survey. The analyses indicate that relative to their male colleagues, women earned less in 2007 and are less likely to procure higher quality job assignments than their peers. The most promising explanations for these disparities include employment sector, gender and motherhood statuses, and year of bar admittance. Contrary to the results of past work, analyses find little or no effect for several traditional predictors of gender gaps including marital status, mentoring, tokenism, firm size, and hours billed. Open-ended responses reveal that while overt discrimination exists to some degree in Utah firms, most inequitable treatment has taken on subtle forms such as exclusion from the "good old boys" network, perpetuation of traditional gender roles and stereotypes, and differential opportunity paths and structures.