Raphael Bohne
Research expert covering professional services
Legal services industry in the U.S. - statistics & facts
Many of the world's largest law firms are headquartered in the United States - including Latham & Watkins, Kirkland & Ellis, and Baker McKenzie. With the United States remaining as the country with the largest gross domestic product (GDP) worldwide, and one of the countries with the largest number of prisoners per 100,000 of the national population, there is considerable legal work to be covered in the North American country. As a result of this, the leading law firms in the United States by gross revenue have become hugely popular and profitable enterprises, repeatedly reporting billions of dollars in turnover.
With the legal services industry showing few signs of slowing down in the United States, both in terms of turnover and employment figures, household expenditure on legal services has naturally increased at the same time. Since 2018, the average annual expenditure on legal fees per consumer unit in the United States increased by over 40 U.S. dollars, indicating an ever expanding market in a country with over one million lawyers.
High employment and flourishing law graduates
With legal services in the United States being such a profitable and widely used industry, employment figures in the country have remained consistently high. Since 2013, the number of employees in legal occupations in the United States has increased annually, and totaled 1.24 million in 2023. The majority of employees in legal occupations in the United States by category were lawyers, with legal support workers second in the list. The share of unemployed law graduates in the United States have also been decreasing annually since 2013, perhaps signaling the ever-increasing demand for legal services.Law firms behind in the diversity stakes
Women have remained as significantly underrepresented in executive and leadership positions within the legal profession. In 2023, women made up almost 40 percent of the share of lawyers in the United States by gender. The employee gender distribution at law firms in the United States has shown that women made up just over a quarter of partners, and, in contrast, over half of non-traditional track/staff attorneys. Furthermore, the share of non-white equity partners at law firms in the United States was extremely low, although these figures have shown slight signs of improvement over the last few years.With the legal services industry showing few signs of slowing down in the United States, both in terms of turnover and employment figures, household expenditure on legal services has naturally increased at the same time. Since 2018, the average annual expenditure on legal fees per consumer unit in the United States increased by over 40 U.S. dollars, indicating an ever expanding market in a country with over one million lawyers.
