The graph illustrates the number of lawyers in the United States from 1990 to 2024. The x-axis represents the years, spanning from 1990 to 2024, while the y-axis indicates the annual number of lawyers. Over this 35-year period, the number of lawyers increases from 755,700 in 1990 to 1,322,649 in 2024. The data ranges from a low of 755,700 lawyers in 1990 to a high of 1,322,649 in 2024. Notable points include steady growth each decade, a slight decline from 1,352,070 in 2019 to 1,327,740 in 2020, and subsequent stabilization in the following years. The data shows a consistent upward trend in the number of lawyers, despite minor fluctuations in recent years. This information is presented in a line graph format, effectively highlighting the long-term growth and yearly variations in the legal profession across the United States.

The total number of lawyers in the United States has seen a steady increase over the last few years. In 2024, there were approximately **** million active lawyers. This total was slightly lower when compared to the previous year, and not much above the 2015 figure of *** million. Lawyers in the U.S. Unlike many other common law countries, the United States does not differentiate between lawyers who plead in court and those who do not. For example, in the United Kingdom the former are titled barristers and the latter solicitors. In the United States, however, terms such as lawyer and attorney can refer to either profession. Oversupply in the U.S. legal industry Despite continuous growth of the U.S. legal services market since the great recession, there is an oversupply of lawyers relative to the number of jobs. An overproduction of law graduates is one cause of this oversupply; consequently the number of law graduates shrunk in recent years. Increasing automation is another cause, with around half of law firms admitting to replacing human resources with technology in the last two years.

In 2023, approximately ** percent of lawyers in the United States were women. In 2022, the state with the highest employment in that occupation was California, followed by New York and Florida.

How has the number of lawyers in the U.S. changed over time?

Between 2007 and 2022, there was an overall increase in the number of practicing lawyers in the United States. In 2022, the number of lawyers in the United States was up almost *** percent from what it had been a decade ago. Conversely, the number of law school graduates has steadily declined since 2013. This suggests that although the demand for lawyers has continued to grow in the United States, there have been fewer graduates being produced by law schools in the country.

The U.S. legal services market

The largest segment of the U.S. legal services market in 2022 was spending on outside legal counsel. This segment contributed significantly more to the market than corporate legal departments for companies with over *********** U.S. dollars in revenue. In 2017, the United States held almost half of the global legal market.

In 2023, the state with the highest number of lawyers in the United States was California, with a figure of approximately ******. In the same year, roughly ****** lawyers were employed in the state of New York.

As of 2021, the law firm with the highest number of lawyers in the United States (U.S) was Kirkland & Ellis, with *****. Latham & Waktins and Morgan, Lewis followed, with ***** and ***** lawyers employed in the United States respectively.

Number of Businesses statistics on the Estate Lawyers & Attorneys industry in the US

In 2023, approximately 40 percent of lawyers in the United States were women. In 2022, the state with the highest employment in that occupation was California, followed by New York and Florida.

How has the number of lawyers in the U.S. changed over time?

Between 2007 and 2022, there was an overall increase in the number of practicing lawyers in the United States. In 2022, the number of lawyers in the United States was up almost ten percent from what it had been a decade ago. Conversely, the number of law school graduates has steadily declined since 2013. This suggests that although the demand for lawyers has continued to grow in the United States, there have been fewer graduates being produced by law schools in the country.

The U.S. legal services market

The largest segment of the U.S. legal services market in 2022 was spending on outside legal counsel. This segment contributed significantly more to the market than corporate legal departments for companies with over one billion U.S. dollars in revenue. In 2017, the United States held almost half of the global legal market.

Number of Businesses statistics on the Immigration Lawyers & Attorneys industry in the US

Market Size statistics on the Personal Injury Lawyers & Attorneys industry in the US

In 2023, the state with the highest number of lawyers in the Unites States was California with roughly ****** lawyers. The state with the second most numerous amount of lawyers was New York, with ***** lawyers fewer than California.

Number of Businesses statistics on the Corporate Law Firms industry in the US

The 2014 Survey of State Attorneys General (SAG) collected information on jurisdiction, sources and circumstances of case referrals, and the participation of attorneys general offices in federal or state white-collar crime task forces in 2014. White-collar crime was defined by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) as: "any violation of law committed through non-violent means, involving lies, omissions, deceit, misrepresentation, or violation of a position of trust, by an individual or organization for personal or organizational benefit." SAG sought to analyze how attorneys general offices as an organization in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories respond to white-collar offenses in their jurisdiction. BJS asked respondents to focus on the following criminal and civil offenses: bank fraud, consumer fraud, insurance fraud, medical fraud, securities fraud, tax fraud, environmental offenses, false claims and statements, illegal payments to governmental officials (giving or receiving), unfair trade practices, and workplace-related offenses (e.g., unsafe working conditions). Variables included whether or not offices handled criminal or civil cases in the above categories, estimated number of cases in each category, and what types of criminal or civil sanctions were imposed on white-collar offenders. Researchers also assessed collaboration with partners outside of state attorneys offices, whether cases were referred for federal or local prosecution, and what circumstances lead to referring cases to state regulatory agencies. The extent to which state attorneys offices maintain white-collar crime data was also recorded.

The past several decades have witnessed tremendous growth in the number of professional representatives in the Washington community. Despite a wealth of research that testifies to the importance of these experts in the legislative and executive branches, we know comparatively little regarding sophisticated representation in the judicial context. Is there an identifiable group of specialized representatives in the U.S. Supreme Court? Under the rubric of network theory, I examine the bar of the Court and the patterns of association within it. With survey data from lawyers who participated in Supreme Court litigation during the 1986 term, I develop a predictive model that suggests that the lawyers in the Court are a discrete collection of representatives, strongly anchored in Washington, DC. While many are connected through legal education, geography, and generational affinity, the core of that group--former law clerks to the justices, alumni of the Solicitor General's Office, and the lawyers of the leading law firms in Washington--are the prominent experts within that network.

In 2023, law firms in Nebraska had the highest professional utilization rate in the United States. In that year, non-lawyers in Colorado had the highest utilization rate amongst legal support staff and administrative staff. The utilization rate shows the difference between the number of billable hours worked and the number of hours in an eight-hour work day.

UniCourt provides legal data on law firms that’s been normalized by our AI and enriched with other public data sets to connect real-world law firms to their attorneys and clients, judges they’ve faced and types of litigation they’ve handled across practice areas and state and federal (PACER) courts.

AI Normalized Law Firms

• UniCourt’s AI locates and gathers variations of law firm names and spelling errors contained in court data and combines them with bar data, business data, and judge data to connect real-world law firms to their litigation. • Avoid bad data caused by frequent law firm name changes due to firm mergers, named partners leaving, and firms dissolving, leading to lost business and bad analytics. • UniCourt’s unique normalized IDs for law firms let you quickly search for and download all of the litigation involving the specific firms you’re interested in. • Uncover the associations and relationships between law firms, their lawyers, their clients, judges, and their top practice areas across different jurisdictions.

Using APIs to Dig Deeper

• See a full list of all of the businesses and individuals a law firm has represented as clients in litigation. • Easily vet the bench strength of law firms by looking at the volume and specific types of cases their lawyers have handled. • Drill down into a law firm’s experience to confirm which judges they’ve appeared before in court. • Identify which law firms and lawyers a particular firm has faced as opposing counsel, and the judgments they obtained.

Bulk Access to Law Firm Data

• UniCourt’s Law Firm Data API provides you with structured, cleaned, and organized legal data that you can easily connect to your case management systems, CRM, and other internal applications. • Get bulk access to law firm Secretary of State registration data and the names, emails, phone numbers, and physical addresses for all of a firm’s lawyers. • Use our APIs to create tailored legal marketing campaigns for law firms and their attorneys with the exact practice area expertise and the right geographic coverage you want to target. • Power your case research, business intelligence, and analytics with bulk access to litigation data for all the court cases a firm has handled and set up automated data feeds to find new cases they’re involved in.

Number of Businesses statistics on the Healthcare Lawyers & Attorneys industry in the US

The total number of lawyers working at the leading 100 law firms in the United States (U.S.) increased steadily between 2015 and 2020. In 2020, there was a combined total of ******* lawyers working at the 100 highest grossing U.S. law firms.

In 2021, Kirkland & Ellis was the highest grossing law firm in the world. The Chicago-based multinational generated a gross revenue of just over six billion U.S. dollars in the corresponding year. Latham & Watkins were the second highest grossing law firm in the same year, with a revenue that totaled approximately 5.5 billion U.S. dollars. A notable alumnus As well as generating the highest global revenue of all law firms in 2021, Kirkland & Ellis also had the highest number of lawyers in the United States in the same year. Many of these attorneys who worked for the firm follow the career paths of federal officials or judges, with Brett Kavanaugh being a prime example. Kavanaugh had the swing vote in the Supreme Court regarding Roe vs. Wade, and this has since made legal abortions difficult to obtain in many U.S. states. Pro-life or pro-choice has been a divisive issue in the United States and has still very much split public opinion over the last decade.
Legal services in the United States With many of the highest grossing law firms being based in the United States, the revenue created within the country has been substantial. In 2022, it was predicted that the industry revenue of legal services would be almost 350 billion U.S. dollars. Furthermore, lawyers earned a higher annual wage than any other legal occupation in 2021, making it an attractive job prospect in an already prosperous market.

Number of Businesses statistics on the Family Law & Divorce Lawyers industry in the US

Number of Businesses statistics on the Bankruptcy Lawyers & Attorneys industry in the US