Moral Vision and Professional Decisions: The Changing Values of Women and Men Lawyers / Edition 1

by Rand Jack, Dana Crowley Jack

Overview

What does it mean today to "think like a lawyer"? Drawing on extensive interviews with men and women attorneys, the authors explore how moral reasoning affects lawyers' understanding of justice and their own role in promoting it. This examination of personal and institutional imperatives in the legal profession, illustrated with quotations from the lawyers themselves, raises questions that transcend traditional discussions of legal ethics. The authors examine: the relationship between gender and patterns of moral thinking; the ways that personal morality affects public and professional responsibility; the legal system's response to social changes in public ethics and in women's roles. For example, has the recent influx of women to the legal profession brought moral views that challenge the traditional defining characteristics of a lawyer's job? What happens when a lawyer's personal morality conflicts with the role demands of the profession? In conclusion the authors offer suggestions for constructive changes in legal education and the code of professional ethics to foster morally responsive democracy. All those concerned with moral reasoning, gender roles, and the evolution of the legal system will find this stimulating and timely reading.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521371612
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/28/1989
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	6.38(w) x 9.53(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Care and rights: two ways of perceiving the world; 2. The lawyer's role: partisanship, neutrality and moral distance; 3. Personal morality: the orientation of lawyers toward rights and care; 4. Personal morality and attorney role: changing perceptions of professional obligation; 5. Women lawyers: archetype and alternatives; 6. Toward a more morally responsive advocate; Appendices; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Moral Vision and Professional Decisions examines in fascinating detail how young men and women confront or ignore moral choices in their practice...Every first-year law student should be fascinated with this book; every practicing lawyer should read it to be reminded that following the letter of the law is only part of true morality" William D. Iverson, partner at Covington & Burling, Washington D.C.

"...links together an important debate within the field of moral development research as an emerging issue in the legal profession. The authors have managed to broaden gender differences in approaches to the legal profession without the strident finger wagging that has so often marred the analysis of gender issues. [They] have provided rich, intriguing, and accessible information that helps us see how lawyers' sense of compassion and caring clashes with the current role definitions of that profession." Larry Nucci, University of Illinois at Chicago

"A brilliantly conceived and executed study of morality orientations in the legal profession." Choice

"It cannot be read without causing readers to think and perhaps reevaluate personal morality. Moral Vision and Professional Decisions serves the profession well." Larry S. Stewart, Trial

"But at a time when many lawyers gain less and less satisfaction from their practice, the Jacks are right to argue that lawyers may be better lawyers and better people if they adopt a broader conception of morality." Kenneth Jost, ABA Journal

From the Publisher

To research this incisive study of ``lawyers' moral values and psychological development'' in light of potentially influential gender differences as law draws increasing numbers of women into its ranks, Rand Jack, an attorney, and his coauthor wife, a developmental psychologist, interviewed 36 lawyers practicing in Washington State. They raised such issues as ``How do attorneys reconcile personal values with the conflicting demands and obligations of their trade?'' and ``Do women bring a different point of view to the practice of law?'' They conclude that women lawyers often battle for ``women's causes'' and challenge their allegedly more aggressive and amoral male counterparts in a quest for sensitive, caring practice of their trade. The authors also discuss how lawyers of each gender cope with the gap between professional and personal morality, and suggest that the influx of female attorneys may help to bridge this gap. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Women lawyers tend to be oriented toward ``care,'' social order, and individual well being; men think more of ``rights.'' Justice and legal change need both. Or so the authors argue after interviewing 36 lawyers in a single county in the state of Washington. The results are what might be expected, although this county's remoteness, ethnic makeup, and local traditions--as well as the specific legal issues posed--may have affected the findings. Still, the social conditioning women experience does affect their legal practice. One way to cope with this is to make the profession more susceptible to feminine influence, an idea, however, that some may think is another way of ``using'' women. A thought-provoking book for laypeople and lawyers alike.-- Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa, Canada

Library Journal