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John P. Heinz

John P. Heinz headshot

Research Professor

  • 750 N. Lake Shore Drive
  • 4th Floor
  • Chicago, IL 60611

Joint appointment

Owen L. Coon Professor Emeritus, Northwestern University School of Law

Education

LL.B, Yale Law School

Bio

For the past thirty years, Jack Heinz’s research has focused primarily on the social structure of the legal profession. This work applies sociological methods, often using quantitative…

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Research focus

The legal profession, especially its social structure and organization of work, and the roles of lawyers in politics. Some of this research uses network analysis to depict the interrelationships (or lack thereof) among varying kinds of lawyers.

Projects

Urban Lawyers: The New Social Structure of the Bar
Latest finding: Sep 24, 2008, with Robert L. Nelson, John P. Heinz, Robert L. Nelson, Rebecca L. Sandefur and Edward O. Laumann
Published by The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 2005 Over the past several decades, the number of lawyers in large cities has doubled, women have entered the bar at an…
Networks among Lawyers Active in National Policymaking
Latest finding: Jan 23, 2008
This project examines patterns of contact among lawyers active in organizations spanning the full ideological range of American domestic politics. Network analysis techniques enable us to examine…
Lawyers of the Right, Networks and Organization
Latest finding: Jan 23, 2008, with Anthony Paik , Ann Southworth
Lawyers for conservative and libertarian causes are active in organizing interest groups within the conservative coalition, and networks of relationships among those lawyers help to maintain and…

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Commentary

When Law Firms Fail

Jun 12, 2009

Professor John P. Heinz, "When Law Firms Fail" Suffolk University Law Review, forthcoming, 2009 Abstract: Large firms had, until last year, been advised to grow, enter new markets, and concentrate…

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Publications

When Law Firms Fail
Suffolk University Law Review, forthcoming
Interview “John Heinz and Edward Laumann and Chicago Lawyers”
Cambridge University Press
“The Scale of Justice: Observations on the Transformation of Urban Law Practice”
American Bar Association

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Presentations

The Characteristics and Roles of Lawyers Active in National Policymaking
Sep 2009 with A. Southworth & A. Paik
Evolution of Labor Markets, Types of Lawyers, and Practice Settings
May 2009
Reflections on 42 Years of Law Teaching
Oct 2007

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Professional Service & Recognition

  • Associate Editor, Law & Social Inquiry
  • Co-Chair, Evaluation of the Cook County Criminal Justice System
  • Member, Advisory Board, Children and Family Justice Center, Northwestern University
  • Member, Board of Directors, Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice