Are lawyers mostly liberal or conservative?

Answer 1

Politically, it depends upon the person. Temperamentally, they are a very conservative people: meaning they do not like change or innovation. The U.S. Supreme Court, for example, has always been the most conservative branch of the federal government. The only real exception to this was the Warren (1953-1969) and Burger (1969-1986) courts.

I also read a book once about medieval European universities, and the author, Hastings Rashdall, when speaking about the law school at the University of Bologna, mentioned the "instinctive conservatism" of the legal profession. The author was an English academic writing in the late 19th century, and this remark totally resonated with me in 21st century America. So there must be something to this idea.

I'm not sure exactly why this is, but I think it's because laws are always changing, and they don't want to deal with the change. It seems like a justifiable reason to me.

Answer

The legal profession overall is perceived to be more conservative. However, that general profile may be misleading because there are so many areas of law that attract certain types of individuals and many degrees of liberal and conservative. It typically depends on what type of law they practice.

Corporate lawyers would certainly tend to be very conservative. After all, their job is to protect big business from taxes, government interference, their own employees and lawsuits. Any entity that advocates for corporations must have a very conservative slant. Prosecutors tend to be very conservative. A conservative administration will appoint conservative Supreme Court justices and federal judges to prevent the laws from being changed to be made more liberal.

Defense lawyers are predominantly liberal. They are the ones who argue constitutional law the most and try to obtain broad and more liberal interpretations that expand rights. Conservatives do not like tort law, they hate people who sue corporations that injure people and doctors who make mistakes that cause death or injuries. So, perhaps some trial lawyers are more liberal, looking out for the rights of citizens to be compensated for their damages and suing insurance companies that won't pay.

Regarding changes in the law, depending on the particular case, both conservative and liberal lawyers at times do want to be able to depend on unchanging laws so they and their clients know what to expect in a legal action. Some lawyers are often trying to change the law, especially criminal law. We have a great body of case law (much of which has been codified through the ages) that is always expanding the law. Law school professors are likely more liberal thinking. Liberal lawyers are social minded- think ACLU and other types of advocacy law.