Professor Fiona Kay visits the School of Law and the Legal Professions Research Group
Fiona Kay visited the School on 8-9 October and gave two presentations on the complexities within the legal profession.
The School of Law welcomed Fiona Kay, leading socio-legal scholar and Professor of Sociology at Queen’s University, Canada, on 8 and 9 October, 2024. Her visit is part of a series of events hosted by the Legal Professions Research Group, aimed at advancing discussions on legal careers and the dynamics of law firm culture.
Professor Hilary Sommerlad, Director of the Legal Professions Research Group, said,
We’re honoured to welcome Fiona Kay to the School of Law. Her influential work, especially her 1997 book Gender in Practice: A Study of Lawyers’ Lives, has significantly shaped our understanding of the legal profession, addressing both gender and the structural organisation of law practice.
Professor Kay's first presentation, titled ‘Longitudinal Mixed Methods Research in the Study of the Careers of Professionals’, took place on 8 October. Introduced by the School of Law’s Jose Pina Sanchez, Professor of Quantitative Criminology and lead for the Social Research Methods Group, Professor Kay discussed the methodologies employed in her nearly three-decade-long study of lawyers in Canada. The research involved surveying 1,500 lawyers at six-year intervals and conducting in-depth interviews with 100 lawyers across three major cities.
Professor Kay highlighted the necessity of longitudinal research in capturing the complexities of legal careers, emphasizing how education, career trajectories, personal lives, and health intersect over time. She shared insights on achieving high response rates and developing panel data, illustrating how mixed methods enhance the richness of the findings. As she noted, “Longitudinal panel research is intensive and costly, yet it provides invaluable data that deepens our understanding of how life events shape professional trajectories”.
Talent retention and diversity
On 9 October, Professor Kay presented her second talk, ‘Law Firm Culture, Cultivation of Legal Talent, and Mobility Routes out of Firms’. This presentation addresses the pressing issue of talent retention within contemporary law firms, particularly among women and racialized lawyers. Drawing from a 27-year longitudinal survey, in this paper Professor Kay analyses the factors influencing lawyers' decisions to leave their firms and explores where they go after departure. Her research indicates that a pervasive gender difference in attrition rates cannot be solely explained by human capital or organisational characteristics. Instead, she emphasises the crucial role of social capital and firm culture in shaping mobility. Factors such as flexible scheduling, job satisfaction, and mentorship significantly influence lawyers' decisions to remain or leave their firms, although not always in ways that one might expect. “Understanding these dynamics is essential for addressing the challenges law firms face in retaining diverse talent,” she explained.
Throughout both presentations, Professor Kay examined the evolution of law firm culture, noting the historical shift from collegiality to competition, particularly since the 1980s. Her research references sociologists John Hagan and Emmanuel Lazega, whose work explores social capital and the internal structures of law firms, providing a deeper context for understanding today’s legal environments.
Professor Fiona Kay’s groundbreaking research continues to influence how we understand and address the complexities within the legal profession, making her insights invaluable for shaping the future of legal careers. We are very grateful to her for making the time to travel to Leeds and being part of the Legal Professions Research Group global scholars’ network.
