Since writing the post about Lawyer Personality, I've learned a few things about the MBTI, so I thought it was time to share some more. I stumbled upon this publication (and the one before this one, The Lawyer Personality) and enjoyed reading them. ENTP is also traditionally said to be a fairly strong type of lawyer (because they like to argue and play at advocating for the devil), but probably more so in a sense where they redefine the law within their own framework of thinking. Conflicts at work occur when thinkers interact with sensitive people in a robotic way and with little emotion, and when thinkers want to make a quick and rational decision, while those who feel want a more personalized and consistent approach.
My reason for seeking “lawyer personality” is slightly different from the reasons you mentioned. But once I started working as a lawyer and over the years I began to appreciate how adequate my personal attributes were for the profession. Not surprisingly, a successful legal seller is a “sociable person”, an extrovert who thrives on social exchange. Jennifer loves helping lawyers with the less common types of MBTI discover that they have incredible and valuable skills just because of who they really are.
Job satisfaction depends on many, many factors besides personality, office culture, alignment with values, and work-life balance, to name a few. Thinking lawyers are logical and distant, they prevent their personal preferences from influencing their decision, and they follow the rules. This personality type can be found in a public interest law firm, a non-profit organization, a government regulatory body, or anywhere where there is a commitment to serve a greater good. When standardized personality tests are administered to lawyers, the results tend to be very different from those given by the general public.
I tried the INFP and was considering enacting laws, given that just about everything else is a bad personality combination or is paid for with peanuts. My mother tried for years to become a lawyer, not because she particularly valued her career, but because she thought she had the personality for it. According to Richard, ISTJs are the most common personality type among lawyers, but that is probably due more to their general prevalence in the general population (between 12 and 16%) than to their special attraction to the legal profession. One of these types (called INTJ) reportedly occurs five times more frequently among lawyers than among the general population.
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