Law360, Los Angeles (June 9, 2016, 7:55 PM EDT) -- A new study exploring whether women are targets of more severe punishment than men following ethics violations at work found that female attorneys were more than twice as likely to be disbarred than males, despite having identical ethics infractions.

The study, which analyzed nearly 500 disciplinary proceedings in 33 states from 2008 in which lawyers violated the American Bar Association's ethical rules, found that women were disbarred 35 percent of the time while men were disbarred 17 percent of the time in cases where the ethical violations were the same.

Released earlier this month by researchers at Vanderbilt University, the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern University, the study posited that women are stereotyped as being more ethical than men so when they commit ethics violations, the punishment tends to be harsher.

The researchers conducted experiments in which participants were told of a hypothetical situation of either a male or female committing an ethics violation and asked the subjects to assign an appropriate punishment. When the hypothetical person was listed as male, the subjects gave him an average jail sentence of 83 days, compared with a 133-day sentence for a hypothetical female.

"Our results suggest that people have a particularly adverse reaction to women who violate ethical expectations and suggest that people have higher ethical expectations of women compared with men," one of the study's co-authors, Mary-Hunter McDonnell of Penn's Wharton School of Business, told Law360 on Thursday. "So when women do commit ethical violations, it violates our expectations, which makes it especially punitive."

McDonnell, who has a Ph.D. in management and a law degree from Harvard University, spearheaded the portion of the study focusing on attorney discipline and was surprised by the magnitude of the discrepancies.

"We found that women are significantly more likely than men to be punished to a higher degree," she said. "Where a woman might be suspended, a man is more likely to be put on probation. Looking at the data and just modeling for disbarment, we found women are more than twice as likely to be disbarred as men for the exact same offense."

One mitigating factor that leveled the playing field for women in disciplinary proceedings was when there were an almost equal number of female disciplinary panel members, the study found.

When 44 percent of the panelists were women, the likelihood for disbarment was the same across genders, according to the study. However, McDonnell noted that on average, just one in four disciplinary panelists were women.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5531180&forum_id=2Reputation#47682139)

I mean we probably have it I just don’t know the pass word and would have to send an email asking like an idiot. I’m not really a rules guy per semom thst stuff I just ask when I need something and some exceptions are made for me on minor matters given that I approach the retard horizon

On the article itself I don’t think you can take two violations of the same rule and say they are equal. It’s professional ethics so no two violations are “identical” in all contexts.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5531180&forum_id=2Reputation#47682239)

I’d be the chill guy. Like when I was a moot court judge and the poor 1ls were in tears after the nerds ripped into them. I was nice to them. Comforted them. Massaged their backs. … you know.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5531180&forum_id=2Reputation#47682282)

I did a lawyer advertising subcommittee thing once a few years ago and i could get the sandwich I wanted if i told the secretary beforehand what i wanted.

I got a thermos out of participating in a lawyer referral committee for 6 mos. I still have that.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5531180&forum_id=2Reputation#47682292)