Profiling the chief law school placement officer: Implications for student development specialists in professional school settings

Journal of College Student Development, Jan/Feb 1998 by Murray, Joseph L

To determine the extent to which legal education is associated with law school placement officers' job satisfaction, comparisons were drawn between law school graduates and nongraduates based on the frequency with which they cited five general factors as sources of job satisfaction, as well as the frequency with which they cited these same factors as sources of dissatisfaction. The five factors were: (a) work climate, (b) general nature of the work, (c) student interaction and concerns, (d) other constituencies and their concerns, and (e) specific work activities. Except where rendered inappropriate by the data, the Yates corrected chi-square statistic was used to test the significance of differences between the two groups based on each factor. The Yates corrected chi-square statistic was also used to test the significance of differences between law school graduates and nongraduates based on the frequency with which they cited four different types of qualifications (skills, experience, formal education, and personal qualities) as being important for law school placement officers.

Because characteristics of law schools might also account for differences in status between chief placement officers, variables associated with the status of the position (i.e., title, salary, position in the organizational hierarchy, and breadth of responsibility) were also examined in relation to institutional enrollment and control. The Yates corrected chi-square statistic was used to test the significance of differences between participants from different-sized law schools on the basis of title, salary, and immediate supervisor's title. The Pearson chi-square statistic was used to test the significance of relationships between the three categories of institutional control and the three measures of professional status. Analysis of variance was used to test the significance of differences in the number of functional areas outside of career planning and placement for which responsibility was held. The specific program used in this analysis was designed to accommodate unbalanced groupings of data (Wilkinson, 1989), and was therefore appropriate for the purpose of this study. Titles, salaries, and supervisors' titles were divided into the same categories used in drawing comparisons between law school graduates and nongraduates. Institutional enrollments were divided into two categories selected for maximum balance: (a) 600 or more students and (b) fewer than 600 students. The original categories of institutional control were maintained in all analyses.

RESULTS

Professional Backgrounds of Chief Law School Placement Officers

Analysis of the data pertaining to the professional backgrounds of the participants revealed a high level of diversity. The individuals surveyed were evenly divided between those holding the JD degree and those who had not completed law school, with 62 participants identifying themselves in each category (3 participants, who reported holding master's degrees but no bachelor's degrees, apparently reported only their highest degrees, and therefore were not assumed to be either law school graduates or nongraduates). Additional information about the participants' educational backgrounds is presented in Tables 1 and 2.