Lawyers in a Blocked Society. Career Expectations and Determinants of Professional Success in the Italian Legal Labour Market

Abstract

This article focuses on the changing conditions of Italian lawyers, starting from the widespread idea - here assumed as a general hypothesis - of the law profession that, in many cases, could be a way out for people with unfulfilled career expectations. In detail, a brief introduction situates the increase in the number of lawyers in the context of an economy with a low capacity to create high-education jobs, while the first section highlights the segmentation of the legal labour market. The second section then examines the relationship between initial career expectations and professional success, also paying attention to social origins as a determinant of success or failure. Furthermore, it attempts to typify and understand different choice patterns. For these purposes, the author presents selected findings of a study on lawyers based in Florence.