Questions 1-5 Today.

     O.K., folks, time to go off topic and see how you attorney readers score.

     The November 2010 edition of the ABA Journal has a quiz developed by Professors Nancy Levit and Douglas Linder from the University of Missouri at Kansas City after interviewing more than 200 lawyers about professional happiness. What follows is the first five questions and answers in the quiz published in the November edition:

     1. The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago surveyed workers in 198 occupations, asking whether they were “very satisfied” with their careers. Among the professionals surveyed were lawyers, doctors, accountants, clergy and teachers. Which of the possibilities below is correct in order of reported satisfaction for these five occupations?

(A) Doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, clergy

(B) Clergy, teachers, doctors, lawyers, accountants

(C) Teachers, clergy, doctors, accountants, lawyers

(D) Lawyers, doctors, teachers, clergy, accountants

Correct answer: (B)

     2. U.S. News & World Report places American law school into four tiers, with the first-tier schools being the most highly ranked. Lawyers who report the highest levels of career satisfaction are graduates of law schools ranked in which of the following four tiers?

(A) Top tier

(B) Second tier

(C) Third tier

(D) Fourth tier

Correct answer: (D)

     3. Which one of the following factors in the work of a lawyer correlates least with higher reported levels of career satisfaction?

(A) The degree to which the lawyer sees his or her work as contributing to the betterment of society.

(B) The latitude the lawyer has to make key decisions about the shape of work products and services.

(C) The amount of creative challenge his or her work affords. [BLOG OBSERVATION--this question does use “his” or “her” rather than shark-like “its” pronouns; very non-leading in nature.]

(D)The frequency and quality of interactions in the lawyer’s work.

(E) The lawyer’s level of income.

Correct answer: (E) -- wow, now we know why “its” was not used.

     4. How many lawyers find their work to be intellectually stimulating?

(A) 80%

(B) 60%

(C) 40%

(D) 20%

Correct answer: (A)

     5. Which order below of types of law practice corresponds to how satisfied lawyers in each practice type say they are with their careers?

(A) Big firms, small firms and solo practice, public sector work

(B) Public sector work, small firms and solo practice, big firms

(C) Small firms and solo practice, public sector work, big firms

(D) Big firms, public sector work, small firms and solo practice

Correct answer: (B)

     Questions 5-10 will be in a post tomorrow. Pretty interesting, huh?