National Survey of Lawyers' Career Satisfaction, Wave I, 1984, and Wave II, 1990

The purpose of this data collection was to assess career satisfaction among young lawyers throughout the United States. The questionnaire was designed to include as many factors as possible that might reasonably affect job satisfaction. The 1984 survey solicited information on lawyers' job descriptions, educational background, psychological characteristics, and basic demographics. Other questions pertained to job setting, substantive law areas of the respondent, geographical area in which the law firm was located, time spent each day on certain projects, and job stress. The 1990 survey posed questions identical to those in the 1984 survey, and added items covering part-time work, referral plans, sexual harassment in the workplace, gender and racial biases, reasons for changing jobs, drug use, disabilities, law school activities, and weighted job satisfaction scales.