Lawyer Statistics That Might Surprise You

40 Lawyer Statistics + Facts That Might Surprise You

Lawyer statistics ranging from demographics to legal technology to future trends are collected in this comprehensive look at legal facts by Rev.

Jake Gibbs

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Tech Writer

July 8, 2025

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Statistics aren’t the first thing you think about when working in the legal industry, but having a strong understanding of lawyer statistics in 2025 can help you better understand any aspect of the job, whether you’re a lawyer, a law firm manager, or a law student.

Knowing that the average lawyer salary keeps rising, for instance, can help you plan your own career or your firm’s hiring policy for the coming years. Knowing facts about lawyers and general law data can help guide your career or your firm in the direction you need to go.

Let’s take a look at some important lawyer statistics and get a better lay of the legal landscape.

General Lawyer Statistics

There are a lot of lawyers in the United States, but is that number growing or decreasing? Are annual salaries syncing up with those numbers? Here are some general lawyer labor statistics that help answer these questions:

Lawyers held about 859,000 jobs in 2023. (2)
The average lawyer wage increased nearly 20% from 2021 to 2023. (1)
The median annual wage for lawyers was $151,160 in 2024. (2)
There were 39,665 first-year law students enrolled in college in 2024. (3)
California led the nation in first-year law students with 4,175 enrollees. (4)
There’s an expected 5% growth in employment opportunities in the next decade. (2)

A graphic showing a bar graph of lawyer wages increasing 20% from 2021 to 2023. The title reads “How Much Do Lawyers Make?”

Lawyer Demographic Facts

If you’re wondering what percent of lawyers are female or other facts about lawyers and their demographics, you’re in the right place. Though there are still more male lawyers in the United States than female lawyers, the gap shrinks just a little every year. Let’s dig into some general lawyer demographics.

Of the 1.3 million lawyers in the U.S., 58.32% are male, while 41.24% identify as female. (5)
7% of American lawyers are Asian, while 6% are Hispanic, 5% are African-American, 4% are multiracial, and 1% are Native American. (5)
The state with the most lawyers is New York, with 187,656 lawyers, while California is second with 175,883 lawyers. (5)
29% of all lawyers in 2023 were 35 to 44 years old, the largest age group. (2)
The smallest age group for lawyers in 2023 was 20 to 24 years old, at just 0.3%. (2)>
4,774 lawyersidentified as LGBTQ in 2023. (5)

A graphic showing a snapshot of the average lawyer with a picture of a white man in a suit with bar graphs and pie charts around him.

Lawyer Workload + Burnout Stats

It’s well-documented that the legal industry is a high-stress profession. Though hourly rates can be lucrative, many of the hours spent toiling away aren’t even billable. It can be frustrating for many lawyers.

Here are some law data points about stress, workload, and burnout for legal professionals.

Nearly 80% of legal professionals have experienced feelings of burnout at least "sometimes" in the past year. (18)
About 60% of legal professionals have seriously considered leaving their current role, or the profession altogether, due to work-related stress or burnout. (18)
65% of law students said student loan debt made them feel anxious or stressed. (6)
In a 2023 report, 67% of female lawyers reported moderate or severe stress, compared with 49% of male lawyers. (6)
39% of lawyers reported “often working long hours” while just 4% said they worked a consistent, standard schedule. (6)
Lawyers aged 25–34 felt “burned out” 58% of the time. (7)
Lawyers aged 65+ reported burnout only 23% of the time. (7)
Lawyers took an average of nine days off during Q3 and Q4 of 2023. (7)
75% said that they worked at least half of their days off. (7)
45% of lawyers reported an inability to disconnect from work. (7)
14% of billable hours never get invoiced by lawyers. (9)
11% of bills never get paid by clients. (9)

A graphic showing two circular charts that explain how stress is gendered, and that female lawyers are more stressed than male lawyers.

The data isn’t lying, either. Just listen to what Robert Southwell, Criminal Defense Lawyer at Southwell Law has to say about burnout and how he combats it.

“Burnout is absolutely real in this field. I'd say it hit me around my fourth year of practice. That's pretty typical from what I've seen. For me, it was the combination of dealing with too many cases at the same time and just never being able to disconnect from work that really got to me,” explains Southwell.

“What helps me manage it now is setting really clear boundaries about when I'm available and actually sticking to them. I also take on only the number of cases I know I can handle without getting overwhelmed. I take regular breaks during the day and clear my head either by having lunch with a friend or by taking a few steps around the office.”

Law Firm Data

With nearly half a million law firms in the United States, attorneys have plenty of options for employment. But how do these firms break down? How big is the average firm? Here are some law firm statistics, including how many law firms in the U.S. are solo or small, how many have suffered security breaches, and more.

There are more than 463,000 law firms in the U.S. in 2025, up from 456,400 in 2024. (10)
40% of all law firms are solo practices, while 75% of firms employ six or fewer attorneys. (11)
In April 2025, the unemployment rate for lawyers was 1%. (13)
The unemployment rate for male lawyers was 1.1%, while it was 3.0% for women in April 2025. (13)
Kirkland & Ellis was the law firm with the highest gross revenue in 2024 at $8.8 billion. Latham & Watkins was second at $7 billion. (15)
29% of firms have suffered a security breach. (14)

A graphic showing two pie charts with the title “Are Law Firms Stronger Together?”

Legal Tech Facts

Like it has in virtually every industry, tech has transformed—and continues to transform—the way the legal industry operates. From automated calendar software and AI legal transcription to full-time AI assistants and digital court reporters, lawyers and law firms are constantly gaining new tools that make their jobs easier. Plus, firms that use AI to attract talent seem to be growing by the day.

But technology is a slippery slope. With information being almost entirely digital and AI becoming more prevalent every day, online security is always a concern. Here are some lawyer statistics about technology and its use in law firms.

80% of law firms in 2023 reported having policies governing the use of technology, but that number was down from 89% in 2022. (14)
55% of firms reported enforcing a policy regarding email usage. (14)
A policy regarding internet usage was reported by 51% of firms. (14)
Brainstorming (58%), drafting correspondence (55%), and general research (46%) were the top uses for AI reported by law firms in 2023. (16)
42% of lawyers who used AI reported using it every day. (16)
77% of lawyers who used AI said it increased their productivity. (16)
Cyber Insurance rose nearly 40% in 2023. (14)
54% of legal professionals using AI felt a reduction in work-related stress or burnout. (18)
11% of legal professionals estimate potential financial gains of $100,000 or more annually due to AI use. (18)

A graphic showing three bar charts with the title “Legal AI Integration Is a Priority.”

Although transcription might not be in the top three AI uses for law firms at the moment, that doesn’t mean it’s not a tool with a lot of value. Don’t believe us? Take Jeffrey Reisman’s (a lawyer at Jeffrey Reisman) word for it:

“Transcription is extremely valuable, particularly in litigation and high-level transactional practice. For instance, in one malpractice case, having full transcripts of the expert witnesses' interviews allowed me to pick up a key contradiction in their testimony while preparing for depositions. It's much more efficient to scan a written transcript than to re-listen to hours of tape,” said Reisman.

“Transcripts also help with creating precise motions, especially when citing prior statements or supporting a timeline of events. In high-stakes cases, I’ll even have focus groups transcribed to analyze how mock jurors react to arguments. It’s all about gaining clarity, spotting patterns, and strengthening your position with the most accurate record possible.”

Stats on the Future of the Legal Industry

You can make a case that the legal industry is changing more rapidly than most. AI brings new wrinkles seemingly everyday: it makes the day-to-day job easier, but also adds new legal challenges, like IP rights, for lawyers to tackle. Outsourcing or automating mundane tasks is more realistic than ever before, but there are risks with both. How does the industry feel about near-constant change? Here are some stats regarding law industry trends.

87% of lawyers say that adapting to and implementing new technology is the top priority in the industry. (17)
77% of lawyers said that pressure to reduce costs was a major priority. (17)
There’s expected to be an increase of 44,200 legal jobs by 2033. (2)
The main areas of growth in the legal industry are predicted to be cybersecurity, cannabis, labor, and elder law. (12)
91% of general counsels reported they would outsource future legal matters to a “flexible legal talent provider” as opposed to a more traditional law firm. (8)

A graphic showing a line chart with the title “Things are looking bright for future lawyers” and that legal jobs are expected to increase by 44,200 jobs by 2033.

The Fact Is That Rev Help Lawyers

One fact that’s irrefutable is that Rev helps make legal work more efficient, streamlined, and secure. Our transcription services make every meeting, interview, and deposition more efficient, while our AI assistant can handle those non-billable tasks that make the job tedious. And as a pioneer in the AI industry, we’re on top of data security, offering industry-leading compliance and practices.

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Want to dive deeper into the data? Check out our post on criminal justice statistics.