The moral judgment of attorneys: Employment in the public or the private sector and courses in legal ethics

The purpose of the study was to determine the level of moral judgment of a sample of attorneys, as assessed by the Defining Issues Test (DIT), and to ascertain differences, if any, in the level of moral judgment of these attorneys classified by each public versus private employment and number of ethics courses they completed. Hypotheses guiding the study posited that the mean DIT score (level of moral judgment) of the study sample of attorneys employed in the public sector would be significantly (p $\le$.05) higher than that of those employed in the private sector and that there would be a significant (p $\le$.05) positive relationship between the number of legal ethics courses completed and the level of moral judgment in the study sample of attorneys. Three hundred attorneys were selected for participation in the study: 150 were selected from a national directory of legal aid offices, and 150 were chosen from law firms that were listed as having the highest yearly gross revenues in the United States. Two instruments were employed to collect study data from the participants: the Defining Issues Test, a measure of moral judgment which presents hypothetical moral dilemmas, and the Socio-Demographic Questionnaire, an instrument which elicits biographical information. Useable study instruments from 119 subjects provided the data for statistical analysis. Study findings supported the conclusion that, in the study sample of attorneys, those working in the public sector had significantly higher moral judgment levels (i.e., mean P scores as measured by the DIT) than those working in the private sector. Study findings relating to legal ethics courses supported the conclusion that, for the study sample of attorneys, the number of legal ethics courses completed (one through four or more) had no significant effect on level of moral judgment, as measured by the DIT. Implications of the study include the necessity of reexamining the nature and number of ethics courses required by law schools and bar associations as well as investigating the moral factors which underlie employment circumstances among attorneys.