"Pedagogical condescesion between teachers and students, which later becomes another form of professional hierarchy between senior and junior partners, and is also infected through gender, race, class and political divisions." This is offered forward by Kennedy and I think he does a good job in elequantly explaining the hierarchy of the law profession. When it comes to being a lawyer, whether in the beginning stages or after years of serving, there are always people above each other in the ladder of the law. Law students are the lowest on the totem pole, and once graduating are at the helm of all other lawyers. They are in constant competition with each other from competing to get into law schools, competing for the best grades and opportunities in law school, and then the fight continues once graduating for jobs and progression within firms, etc. The entire system fuels this competition that embodies the law profession.
The hierarchies of gender, race, class and politics come into play once graduating, especially. The class relationship starts earlier than most others these days due to the high cost of law school and the politics of gaining access to law schools. The hierarchies of gender and race play more of a role once in the work force. Whether discrimination should happen or not, it does and this affects the entire system. With the change in time and more acceptance throughout society, not just the workplace, these hierarchies are starting to break down and discrimination doesn't play as big of a role as it used to. More and more, all races, genders and classes are offered the same opportunities and hard work is creating the best lawyers.
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I agree. There has been a lot of discrimination in the law field, but slowly and surely it is starting to break. Women are actually becoming half of the student body at law schools and at some are the dominate gender. With this true I still believe that women struggle in the actual profession. Most males control some of the biggest law firms and males usually want other male as partners. Hopefully in the years to come men and women will truly be considered equal in the legal field.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned this earlier, but the reason discrimination is starting to go away is because people can't afford it anymore. If you're a racist partner at a law firm, you are probably an idiot since you'd prefer to hire an incompetent white guy over a well-qualified black guy. Congratulations, you just cost your firm money and clients. The business world doesn't have time for this kind of money-wasting, and we can read all the ethical implications into it that we want.
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