From Public Service to Service Industry : The Impact of Socialisation and Work on the Motivation and Values of Lawyers

This paper explores the mismatch between expectations and legal careers described by writers such as Kronman, Simon and Rhode. It reports qualitative research into fifteen entrants' experience of training, qualifying and practising as solicitors in England and Wales. Participants in a wide range of law firms explain their early reasons for choosing a career in law, their reactions to experience and their changes in motivation throughout the process. They describe an often frustrating search for meaning in the rhetoric of professionalism and, particularly, its promise of control, autonomy and altruism