Is it true that most lawyers tend to be liberal? If so, why is that? Has it always been that way?
I can’t find any statistics about this issue quickly. However, let me note one thing though. I believe that having more education means that one tends to be more liberal. Given that lawyers have more education than average, one would expect them to be more liberal than average. The real question should be whether lawyers are more liberal than one might expect them to be given their higher level of education.
Do you mean fiscally liberal or social liberal?
Well, I mean liberal in the very general since that people toss around without much regard for the details of someone’s actual personal philosophy or in the way that many people refer to themselves as liberal or conservative.
If I had to choose either fiscal or social liberal, it would probably be the latter.
I think it would be hard to justifiably state such a thing about such a varied profession. Many politicians are lawyers, and they obviously occupy both sides of the aisle. Corporate lawyers, IMHO, tend to be more fiscally conservative. Prosecutors tend to be tough on crime, and side with the government/LO more often, which could be considered conservative. Etc.
So, where does the idea that lawyers are generally liberal come from? That’s what I’m trying to figure out. It certainly holds great credence here in South Carolina.
Don’t lawyers donate disproportionately to Democrats?
What about the fact that our last two democratic presidents are lawyers? Did I not read that many in high ranking positions in the Obama administration (or was it Clinton) have law degrees while only one or two in the Bush administration did? Is that just something particular to these administrations or is it a normal difference between Republican and Democratic administrations?
This is not known to be generally true of all lawyers.
Trial lawyers donate disproportionately to Democratic candidates and the Democratic party. The American Trial Lawyers Association is known as one of the biggest Democratic supporters.
The A.T.L.A.'s principal policy opponent, the American Medical Association, is known (or has been known, anyway) to donate primarily to the Republican party.
It really depends on where they choose to locate and practice. Lawyers tend (generally) to reflect the political profiles of the communities where they practice. There are LOTS of conservative, Republican attorneys locally.
Perhaps there’s an ethnic-religious backdrop to this belief.
This is what I came in to say. We have a plethora of Republican attorneys here, even in the Trial Lawyers Association.
It’s pretty much limited to the trial lawyers. Tort plaintiffs and criminal defendants benefit from socially liberal policies or policy targets like unlimited punitive damages, environmental protection, decriminalization of drugs, prison reform, alternative sentencing, etc. Tax law and corporate law may have similar demographic correlations in the other direction, but I don’t think any other areas of law have such a direct connection to a coherent policy position.
Liberals are for more powerful government. Lawyers make their living steering people in their interactions with government. The more rules government makes the more valuable lawyers services are. It makes business sense for lawyers to support liberals.
What I’ve been told by People Who Know is that professors in law schools are mostly liberal, although whether that represents anything more than their own experience I have no idea.
Actually the opposite happens to be the case. (Although it’s possible that the correlation between income level and conservatism is really about income more than education.)
As ascenray says, it’s not “lawyers.” It’s what are referred to as “trial lawyers,” namely, that group of lawyers, often with small practices, who tend to represent individuals instead of those of us who toil for large institutions (whether we’re in firms, in-house counsel, or otherwise). I assume that the primary reason is that many in this group make their living by suing defendants who have, through carelessness, injured innocent people. Because the GOP and the conservative establishment spend a lot of time talking about how these victims should be thrown under the bus and the offending businesses should be let off the hook for all or most of the damage they cause, it’s obvious where the trial lawyers’ bread is buttered.
–Cliffy
I’m a bit offended by the “they know what side their bread is buttered on” approach to the political inclinations of lawyers. It seem to me that the inclinations that drive a lawyer to be a public defender, or a plaintiffs personal injury trial lawyer, or a take-no-prisoners prosecutor or a job as house counsel for a big business, or as mouthpiece for the mob probably reflect the individuals politics and world view a lot more that the job shapes the politics.
That is not to say that we don’t all know a few sanctimonious SOBs who consult the Almighty on all big decisions and find that the Almighty agrees with them. There are a fair number of flat-out mercenaries out there who are for rent to the highest bidder.
Cite?
To be honest, I didn’t even know conservatives were a thing anymore. I certainly didn’t meet any in college or law school. Maybe a libertarian scattered here and there, but other than that I thought conservatives went the way of other mid-90s sensations like grunge music and AOL.
What exactly are they teaching people in college these days?
Seriously, I would be surprised if someone somewhere did not keep this statistic god knows every election they drag some real winners out of the record books, I think I saw on espn last election that right handed third basemen vote republican 66.4% of the time with runners in scoring position.
I can’t find another one broken out by specific education level, but basically the only ‘bracket’ of education where Democrats have a higher level is at the Ph.D level. All others tend pretty heavily toward Republican.
It puts a grain of truth in to the stereo type of the ‘elite’ liberal, the highly educated, opinionated professor who thinks he knows best for the unwashed masses.
Social sciences PhDs tend to the Left, and that is where you are more likely to find the “we know what is good for you” folks. Business School is usually to the Right, and they are of the “leave us alone to help others make lots of money”. Engineering is a bit more in the middle “I just want to play with my toys.” Medicine goes both ways as well, depending on the level of bleeding heart vs. money making incentive. These are simplistic characterizations, of course.
Using CNN.com Election 2004 as a quick proxy, I don’t think you could say the numbers for people with just a bachelor’s tends “pretty heavily” Republican, although the GOP has the edge in that subset. This isn’t surprising–in this day and age, having only a bachelor’s degree is basically like just getting a GED.