Legal Statistics for Lawyer’s Success in 2025

Lawyer statistics you should know in 2026

How many lawyers are practicing in the US?

As of 2025, there are more than 1.37 million lawyers in the United States, according to the latest ABA Profile of the Legal Profession. That’s a significant increase in lawyers in the US for the first time since 2020, increasing from 1.35 million in 2024.

Which states have the most lawyers?

According to this year’s National Lawyer Population Survey, New York has 190,015 lawyers, making it the state with the highest number of legal professionals. Along with California, which has 181,048 lawyers, these two states account for a quarter of all lawyers in the US.

If you’re practicing in these states, you’re likely feeling the intensity of the competition. Building a strong law firm brand can help you stand out. If you’re outside these areas, you might find opportunities to help close the access to justice gap and tap into local markets.

What’s the projected job growth for lawyers?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts a 4% growth in lawyer employment from 2024 to 2034. That’s in line with the average growth rate across all occupations.

How much do lawyers earn on average?

The average lawyer wage was $176,470, based on the ABA’s Profile of the Legal Profession. This figure excludes profits for law firm partners or shareholders. Between 2021 and 2023, average lawyer wages increased by 19.2%. 

While earnings vary by region and practice area, these statistics provide a useful benchmark for assessing your own earning potential.

Which states have the highest salaries?

In 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that three of the top 10 metro areas with the highest lawyer wages were in California—San Jose, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Two others were in the New York City metro area—New York and Bridgeport, Connecticut. The Washington, D.C., metro area also made the top 10.

What’s the average hourly rate for lawyers?

As reported in Clio’s Legal Trends Report, the average hourly billable rate for lawyers as of January 2025 was $349. 

Which practice area has the highest average hourly billing rate?

Different practice areas charge vastly different rates. The Legal Trends Report found that for law firms, bankruptcy was the practice area with the highest average hourly billing rate, with Intellectual Property close behind.

Are you a personal injury lawyer? Check this out: 2025 Personal Injury Law Statistics. We’ve also have 2025 Family Law Statistics so you can stay on top of what’s happening across multiple practice areas.

Which practice area has the lowest average hourly billing rate?

The practice area with the lowest average hourly billing rate for lawyers? Juvenile law.

Which lawyer is most in demand?

The most in-demand lawyers vary by industry and location, but some of the highest-demand fields include corporate law, intellectual property law, healthcare law, and technology law. Additionally, cybersecurity and data privacy lawyers are increasingly sought after due to rising digital threats and regulatory changes. Immigration and labor law also see high demand, especially in regions with evolving workforce policies.

For more lawyer statistics, check out our blog: Seven legal marketing statistics every attorney should know. 

Law firm security statistics

Which security tools are most commonly used in law firms?

The 2023 Cybersecurity TechReport from the ABA found that spam filters are the most commonly used security tool in law firms, with 80% of firms using them. Other common tools include software firewalls (76%), anti-spyware (71%), and mandatory passwords (70%).

How are firms preventing unauthorized access to data?

Nearly half (48%) of law firms use file encryption, while 42% now offer email encryption—indicating a growing focus on data protection.

What percentage of law firms have cyber liability insurance?

The 2023 Cybersecurity TechReport—the latest report on cybersecurity in the legal industry from the ABA—found that 40% of firms have cyber liability insurance, a decrease from 46% in 2022. This signals that managing cyber risks remains a challenge for law firms.

How many law firms have experienced a security breach?

In 2023, 29% of law firms reported a security breach (such as a lost or stolen device, hacker attack, or data breach)—up from 27% the previous year.

Law firm billing and payment statistics

Which billing methods do clients prefer?

According to Clio’s 2024 Legal Trends Report, 71% percent of clients would prefer to pay a flat fee for their entire case and 51% would prefer to pay a flat fee for individual activities within their case. The vast majority of law firms still bill on an hourly basis, but a growing number also offer flat fee services: According to the most recent Legal Trends Report, 59% of firms billed flat fees exclusively or in addition to offering an hourly rate in 2024.

What percentage of firms use flat fee billing?

Firms are billing 34% more of their cases on a flat fee basis compared to 2016. Legal professionals billing with flat fees are nearly twice as likely as those billing hourly to collect payments almost immediately. 

What are the average billable hours for attorneys in an 8-hour workday?

On average, lawyers bill just 2.6 hours (33%) of an 8-hour day, as revealed in the most recent Legal Trends Report.  This suggests that many lawyers either have fewer clients or struggle with inefficiencies in their firms that prevent them from billing more hours.

How much of their billed hours are lawyers collecting?

The Legal Trends Report highlights that lawyers collect 93% of their billed hours. This means they’re losing out on 7% of what they bill to clients. Finding a way to increase this rate could mean more potential revenue coming in for the hours already worked.

Use automation to increase efficiency at your law firm: Watch our on-demand webinar to learn more.

How much lawyer revenue remains unbilled and uncollected?

Lockup measures how long revenue remains either unbilled or uncollected in law firms. According to the most recent Legal Trends Report, total lockup has remained fairly flat for the last two years, meaning that the average law firm is carrying about 93 days worth of work that is either unbilled or unpaid at any given time. 

Law firm demographic statistics

How diverse are law firms in terms of gender and race?

According to the ABA, while the profession is making progress, there’s still work to be done. For the first time, a majority of law firm associates and more than four in ten of the country’s lawyers are women. In 2023, 28% of law firm partners were women—a figure that’s slowly increasing each year.

Additionally, the percentage of lawyers of color is growing. According to the survey, it nearly doubled in the past decade. In 2014, lawyers of color were 12% of the profession. In 2024, they make up 23% of the profession.

What does this lawyer statistic mean for your law firm? Diversity has many benefits: It brings diverse opinions, more creative innovations and stronger decision making. Building a diverse and inclusive law firm will strengthen your firm’s performance overall.

What is the gender balance at law schools?

ABA’s latest Profile of the Legal Profession found that women continue to outnumber men in law schools. For the sixth consecutive year, the majority of students pursuing a juris doctor degree were women, making up 56.2% of the student body.

Comparing this to the statistic above, there seems to be a disconnect between the number of women in law schools, and the number of women moving on to becoming legal practitioners. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) indicates that in the US, the top barriers women face in the workplace include getting a job and protecting women from violence. It’s worth examining how your law firm can foster a better environment for hiring more women and improving diversity.

Law firm AI statistics

What impact do new technologies have on firms?

Our latest Legal Trends Report found that growing law firms are 18% more likely to adopt key workflows such as electronic payments, online scheduling, and automated communications. What’s more, the report found that firms that invest consistently in technology sustain growth over five years, while firms with flat utilization rates see declining revenue per lawyer.

What impact do new technologies have on lawyers?

For this year’s Legal Trends Report, Clio worked with Neuro-Insight, one of the world’s leading neuroanalytics companies, to conduct an industry-first neurological study of legal professionals. The study found that overall cognitive load dropped by 25% when using Clio, meaning participants used less mental energy to complete their work, and showing that AI and legal technology are advancing the profession in measurable ways.

How is artificial intelligence (AI) affecting law firm growth?

Clio’s latest Legal Trends Report found that firms with wide AI adoption are nearly 3x more likely to report revenue growth compared to firms that have not adopted AI. 77% of firms that increased revenue with AI attributed it to improved operations such as document generation, workflow automation, and client communication.

How is AIchanging the legal profession?
Clio’s 2024 Legal Trends Report found that 74% percent of billable work that’s billed by the hour could be automated by generative AI. The areas with the highest automation potential include documentation, data collection, and analysis—tasks that make up around 66% of the typical law firm’s hourly work.

How many law firms are using AI?

When we asked in 2023, 19% of firms were using the technology in their practice. Fast forward to our 2024 Legal Trends Report, and that number skyrocketed to a whopping 79% of legal professionals now using AI in some capacity in their practice, with that number staying steady for 2025. Of that group, 25% have adopted legal AI widely or universally.

Are clients using AI for help with their legal problems?

More than half of consumers have or would consider using AI to answer their legal questions, according to the latest Legal Trends Report. 28% of consumers were directed by AI to contact their lawyer, but 12% were convinced their legal problems weren’t worth pursuing. 

Do clients want to work with firms that use AI?

While more and more clients are turning to AI for their legal problems, our most recent legal trends report found that these same consumers hold lawyers to a higher standard. For lawyers, disclosing AI use and distinguishing strong, legal-specific AI tools from generic solutions will be key.

Do lawyers use statistics?

All lawyers can benefit from reviewing certain statistics. Statistical data can help lawyers forecast and prepare for the future. Specifically, marketing and business statistics can complement your firm’s growth strategy by helping provide a fuller picture of the legal landscape.

How many law firms are in the United States?

According to Statista, in 2025, there were approximately 463,590 law firms in the United States.