The ABA’s 2024 Profile of the Legal Profession reveals that women continue to make a substantial mark in the legal profession. For the first time, a majority of law firm associates and more than 4 in 10 of the nation’s lawyers are women. This year’s report covers five areas: lawyer demographics, lawyer wages, judges, legal education and women in the profession. The statistics are drawn from authoritative sources within the ABA and from courts, government agencies and nonprofit groups.
Read - SummaryOver the last decade, the legal profession has shifted from a male majority to a female majority. Today, most law school students are women, most federal government lawyers are women and most law firm associates are women. There are 484 female federal judges and roughly half-a-million female lawyers. Despite these shifts, women remain a minority in the higher echelons of the profession.
Read - NowThere are more than 1.3 million lawyers in the United States, according to the ABA National Lawyer Population Survey, a tally of lawyers in every U.S. state and territory. Over the past decade, the number of lawyers nationwide has grown, but that growth has slowed in recent years. Find out who and where these lawyers are.
Lawyers are among the highest-paid people in the United States. The average lawyer wage shot up 19.2% over the two years from 2021-2023 — the biggest two-year leap this century, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The peak year for law school applicants was 2004, when more than 100,000 people applied to ABA-accredited law schools. In 2023, U.S. law school enrollment remained essentially flat after a small dip in 2022. This chapter examines law student demographics, bar passage rates, employment after graduation and more.
The United States has more than 1,400 Article III federal judges. While they are overwhelmingly male and white, the diversity of the federal bench has been changing in recent years.
The ABA has been counting the number of resident active lawyers in the U.S. since 1878. The data is collected from state licensing bodies (mandatory bars and non-bar licensing entities) who are asked to respond to a series of questions on lawyer count, demographics and licensing fees.
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