There are approximately 1.3 million lawyers in the United States. What are they all for?
Appearing on a recent panel discussion hosted by the the AALS Section on Professional Responsibility, Professor Bill Henderson shared a chart depicting the size of the U.S. legal market, breaking it down by type of client. This chart provides estimates of 2014 receipts going to legal services providers of all kinds, with calculations derived from U.S. Census Bureau data:
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Check out Professor Henderson’s post over at the Legal Whiteboard for analysis of the implications of this data for the current state of the legal supply chain. For the Biglaw side of the industry, his conclusion is gloomy: “It may take a generation for the law school–law firm–legal department supply chain to come into a reasonable alignment. Right now, it’s broken.”
Size of the US Legal Market by Type of Client [The Legal Whiteboard]