"It's The Law"

[unixronin]

Some points to ponder about the practice of law in the United States:

• The United States has more lawyers than any other nation in history, more than any other nation in the world; according to some sources, more than all other nations in the world combined.
• There are about 40,000 law firms in the United States.  About 2,000 of them have more than ten lawyers.
• Coincidentally, about 40,000 new lawyers graduate and enter law practice in the United States every year.
• In 1973, about ten US corporations had legal departments with more than 100 lawyers.  By 1990, there were 250.  By 2000, there were over 500.  Some of those corporations now have over a thousand lawyers.
• There are 35% more lawyers in the United States than there are doctors.  It has been suggested that this is because there's more money in suing a doctor than in being one.

Comments

[fatcook.livejournal.com]

And 30 to 40 percent of those are underemployed. Which means they are looking for things to do; like lawsuits.
Did you know that the biggest growth industry in the law world is protecting clients from other lawyers?

[fruitylips.livejournal.com]

I hate to intrude with reality, but according to the Labor Dept, the unemployment rate among lawyers in 2003 was 1.2%, sharply up from 0.8% in 2002 and 0.6% in 1999. I supposed it could be up 20x in the last few years, but I doubt it.

(I would believe that the rate of people who graduate from law school who aren't working as lawyers is 30-40%, however. This is a common path for people who want to get into activism, lobbying and politics.)

I would fully expect the number of lawyers employed by large companies to expand as the companies grow and the economy expands. When I was working on Albuquerque back in the early 90s, one of the big complaints we ran into trying to do business was a lack of lawyers around to do contracts and the like.

Similarly, with productivity rising massively in the last 50 years leading to economic growth that has far outstripped population growth, I'd expect there to be more lawyers than doctors.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I hate to intrude with reality, but according to the Labor Dept, the unemployment rate among lawyers in 2003 was 1.2%, sharply up from 0.8% in 2002 and 0.6% in 1999.

She said "underemployed", not "unemployed".