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Accounts of law schools often report that women find law school a hostile atmosphere, although most studies do not compare male and female reactions. In this study of thirtyseven students at an elite law school, the author finds that the impact of a "women's" voice on professional knowledge is more complicated than a strict dichotomy between male and female reasoning proposes. While the process of "'learning to think like a lawyer" retains traditionally male attributes, women students clearly learn this cognitive style competently. Many women do find the law school experience distancing and problematic, and are more likely to point out the inadequacies of legal thinking. Men, though far from universally positive about law school experiences, are more likely to describe the process as a game or a puzzle. Men and women's reactions are not essentialized, however; a few women thrive on the masculine style, while some men clearly do not like it.In this article, I compare women's and men's voices in assimilating the styles of analysis and discourse of law ("thinking like a lawyer"). Though I examine overall experiences in school,

Studies of 20th‐century ethnic immigrant groups to the United States profile religion as a key factor in their assimilation into U.S. culture. Religious institutions provided immigrants and families with a safe haven where they could hold on to their ethnic identity, even as they and their children were mainstreamed into the larger culture. Changes in immigration law since 1965 have complicated somewhat the relationship between religion and assimilation. The variety of religious forms now present in the United States and the diversity of immigrants create new options as they seek to adapt to U.S. life. We look at the absence of religion as one of those options. The nonreligious paths chosen by some Latinos in Richmond, Virginia have implications for the way they become part of the community, especially in comparison to those who remain members of their religion of origin or who convert to U.S. faiths.

Despite professional nonns of being socially responsible and providing service to the underprivileged, the attitudes of law students toward ethical duties and public service bear similarities to those of business students. Using data from multiple interviews with luw and business school students at one university, 1 find that these attitudes develop in response to the expectations of peers and professors during school experiences. Ethics courses are marginalized by the schools, and courses focus on such pragmatic issues as the professional code of conduct (law school) or how the appearance of social responsibility affects the bottom line (business school). Provided with little guidance on what they might do when they encounter real ethical dilemmas, students karn vocabularies of motive concerning how lawyers and managers should balance profits, cany out responsibilities to various stakeholders, and weigh ethical concerns, and they then moderate their own expressions of extreme self-interest or self-sacrifice. Both groups learn to maintain social responsibilities only within reason, emphasizing the separation of work from personal convictions. These elements have implications for the perfonnuwe of public service in their future careers, as well as for a scholarly understanding of professionalism.Arguments that law has become too commercial, has abandoned "principle for profit," and has become therefore less professional are not new.They do seem to have become more pronounced, however, both within the Debra Schleef is a lecturer in the