There are many different things to consider when viewing the statistics of who composes the legal field in the United States. Many recent events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have also had an impact on the composition of the legal field. Today I will be analyzing and presenting statistics on what affects the makeup of the legal field using statistics provided by the American Bar Association.
It is important to consider that these statistics may not be exact since only 21 out of the 50 states report ethnicity and race information. That being said, the American Bar Association is the best place to gather all this information since they are the ones administering the bar exam. The bar exam is an exam that all lawyers are required to take and pass in order to become licensed attorneys. It only makes sense that since they administer the exam the American Bar Association has the most access to this type of data.
In general, there is usually one lawyer per 1000 people in the United States. This statistic can be inaccurate in various parts of the country and even within the same state. There are states with a large number of lawyers per 1000 people and some that have less than one lawyer per 1000 people. When analyzing this statistic, it makes sense since many lawyers live in cities and are drawn to all the job opportunities cities have to offer. It also explains why many of the more rural states and counties of the country have fewer lawyers per 1000 people.
It is well known that going to law school is very expensive and that most students will graduate from law school with a large sum of debt. The average national law school graduate debt back in 2016 was $145,000. This can affect the composition of the legal field because certain races and ethnicities may be impacted more than others when it comes to debt. For example, 71% of Hispanic lawyers admitted to postponing or not buying a house because of their law school debt. Compared to 52% of White lawyers choosing to postpone or not buy a home because of their debt. It is statistics like these that can discourage people from certain demographics from pursuing a legal career.
The average amount of cumulative debt for a law school student varies greatly by race and ethnicity. It seems that on average law school graduates that are part of minority groups in the United States will graduate with a larger sum of debt. Back in 2016, a white law school graduate would have a cumulative debt of $100,510 on average meanwhile, a black law school graduate was expected to graduate with $198,760 of cumulative debt. The amount of debt that a student graduates with may deter people from specific demographics from attending law school and becoming an attorney: which then results in less representation of some races and ethnicities in the legal field.
After analyzing some of the contributing factors that affect who is more or less likely to want to become an attorney, now it's time to analyze the makeup of the legal field. Around 63% of lawyers identify as male and 37% of lawyers identify as female in 2020. There has been a 6% increase in female lawyers in the past ten years. The representation of Hispanic, African American, Asian, and Native Americans has grown around 3% in the past ten years as well.
These statistics do not mean that the representation of these minorities is an even ratio. For example, only 5% of attorneys in the United States identify as African American, but 13.4% of the U.S. population is African American. There is a lack of representation of minorities composing the legal field.
By Elidia Magaña
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