[en] Excited states in ¹⁴⁷La, populated in spontaneous fission of ²⁵²Cf have been reinvestigated by means of γ spectroscopy, using high-fold γ coincidences measured with Gammasphere array of Ge detectors. The 229.5-keV level, which has been assigned spin-parity 9/2^- in a recent evaluation, is shown to have spin-parity 11/2^-. Consequently, the ground state has spin-parity 5/2⁺. Excited levels in ¹⁴⁷La have been arranged into a parity-doublet structure, showing that at medium excitation energy the ¹⁴⁷La nucleus may have octupole deformation. In conclusion, the B(E1) rates in ¹⁴⁷La, which are factor four lower than in ¹⁴⁵La, suggest that the electric dipole moment in ¹⁴⁷La is depresses by an extra mechanism, probably connected with the population of particular neutron orbitals.