Work History Factors Affecting Lawyers’ Incomes: Firm Size, Clientele, and Legal Apprenticeship Cohort

Most of the previous surveys have been cross-sectional and did not track the same individuals. We accordingly conducted this survey of lawyers’ occupational careers to obtain retrospective work history data from a wide range of lawyers. The cross-sectional analysis of our survey data reveals that factors such as firm size and clientele relate to lawyers’ income. Analyses of longitudinal panel data show differences in how annual earnings vary by length of employment at a given office and legal apprenticeship cohort, while confirming the effects of gender, practice settings, and law school categories. The larger the firm, the greater the effect of seniority on income, albeit more for men than women. This gender impact also emerges in earnings growth per job change. More recently accredited lawyers also tend to earn less than lawyers in older legal apprenticeship cohorts regardless of experience and service. We must thus pay continuous attention to both gender and cohort differences, as well as the “Two Hemispheres” hypothesis of Chicago Lawyers with respect to existing income disparities among Japanese lawyers.