"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

[smandal.livejournal.com]

What fraction of US professionals are lawyers? How does this fraction compare to other industrialized countries? What is the relationship between having lawyers and economic growth, and growth in human development (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-being)?

I suspect that having lawyers is strongly correlated with economic growth among already-wealthy nations, and that the correlation to well-being is equivocal.