Fiona Kay: Law Firm Culture, Cultivation of Legal Talent, and Mobility Routes out of Firms

Please join the Legal Professions Research Group to hear a presentation by Fiona Kay on law firm culture and lawyers' exit routes from the profession.

Abstract

A growing body of research suggests that contemporary law firms face challenges with the retention of legal talent – especially women and racialized lawyers. Yet, we know little about the conditions that prompt lawyers to leave law firms or where they go after leaving. I draw on data from a twenty-seven-year longitudinal survey of Canadian lawyers. Using piecewise exponential survival models, I examine organizational, cultural, and individual factors that may encourage mobility from law firms. The study reveals a pervasive gender difference that is not explained by human capital, organizational characteristics, or individual traits. Results also demonstrate the importance of social capital and firm culture – specifically, the presence of workplace policies of flexible scheduling, lawyers’ sense of a good match with their firm, their satisfaction with status rewards, and finally, the role of mentors – in shaping the flow of legal talent from law firms to various job destinations.

About the Speaker

Fiona Kay is Professor of Sociology at Queen’s University, Canada. Her research interests include the sociology of law, work and occupations, and regulation of professions. She is presently engaged in a longitudinal study examining career pathways of lawyers in civil and common law jurisdictions of Canada. A second study, in collaboration with Elizabeth Gorman, focuses on retention and advancement of racial minorities in corporate U.S. law firms. A third project explores the work and regulation of paralegals with attention to issues of access to justice. She has authored numerous articles on gender and racial diversity in the legal profession, mentorship, professional development, job satisfaction, career mobility, earnings attainment, and attrition from the professions. Her articles have appeared in American Sociological Review, Law & Society Review, Social Problems, McGill Law Journal, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Queen’s Law Journal, Law & Social Inquiry, Law & Policy, Annual Review of Law & Social Sciences, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, Human Resources, Canadian Review of Sociology, and Advances in Life Course Research. She is co-author of Gender in Practice: A Study of Lawyers’ Lives (with John Hagan) and co-editor of Social Capital, Diversity, and the Welfare State (with Richard Johnston). Professor Kay has taught classes in research methods, criminology, sociology of law, and sociology of work classes at Queen’s University for over twenty years. In 2022 she was recipient of The Chancellor A. Charles Baillie Teaching Award at Queen’s University and in 2024 The Lorne Tepperman Outstanding Contribution to Teaching Award of the Canadian Sociology Association. In 2024, her article with Jean Wallace (2022) won top cited article in Canadian Review of Sociology and her article with Elizabeth Gorman (2024) won Best Paper Award in the Journal of Professions and Organizations.

How to Attend

This lecture will be held in Room 1.08 of the Liberty Building.