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.

In 2023, the majority of attorneys working for Kirkland & Ellis in the United States were white. The next most represented race were Asians, with almost 800 fewer attorneys in the firm’s workforce. The race with the least amount of representation were native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders, with a total of three people from this race working as an attorney for Kirkland & Ellis in 2023. Kirkland & Ellis remained one of the largest law firms in the world going by both number of attorneys and revenue. Specialized law services Since the founding of the law firm in 1909, Kirkland & Ellis have prided themselves on personalized services to its clients and dealing with intellectual property matters, restructurings, white collar and government disputes, and several other areas of BigLaw. Lawyers working for Kirkland & Ellis are therefore allowed to charge premium prices for their services, making their lawyers some of the most well paid in the United States. Notable alumni Kirkland & Ellis have had several significant public figures working for their law firm including William Barr who was the United States Attorney General under Donald Trump, and Brett Kavanaugh who was controversially appointed as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, splitting American public opinion as to whether he was an appropriate figure to be representing the United States on a juridical level.

In 2023, the vast majority of equity partners working for Kirkland & Ellis in the United States were white men. The next most represented race was Asian, with over 800 fewer attorneys working for Kirkland & Ellis. The group with the least amount of representation were Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders, with one woman in total from these racial groups represented in equity partner positions at Kirkland & Ellis.

As of April 8, 24.4 percent of special agents in the FBI were female in 2024, compared to 75.6 percent who were male. However, more women than men held careers in the FBI as professional staff or intelligence analysts. In that year, 45.9 percent of the entire FBI workforce was female. The FBI The FBI is the United States government agency that deals with national security and law enforcement. As the principal agency that deals with law enforcement, it is primarily focused on domestic issues. The FBI focuses on protecting the United States from terrorist attacks, protecting civil rights, and protecting the United States from foreign espionage and cyber-attacks. The FBI is broken down into six branches, each lead by an executive director. FBI findings As one of the most important agencies in the United States, it was estimated that the FBI spent over 8.9 billion U.S. dollars on all programs in 2020. With the goal to protect Americans domestically, it sees all different types of crime. In 2023, assault and drug and narcotic offenses were the leading reasons for arrest by the FBI. Furthermore, hate crimes have been on the rise lately in the United States, with race, ethnicity, and/or ancestry being the leading reason for hate crime arrests nationwide.