Statistics
In 2016, the State of Tennessee had eighteen thousand two hundred eighty-eight (18,288) active and resident lawyers. This number ONLY includes attorneys who are currently practicing law and have an active law license. For perspective, that is the highest number of active licensed attorneys in Tennessee history.
In 2014, based upon the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the State Government Labor Department, only seven thousand nine hundred ninety (7,990) of those lawyers with an active law license were employed. To put that number into context, Tennessee ranks forty-nine (49) out of fifty (50) states for attorney employment percentage.
What makes those numbers even scarier is that in 2014 Tennessee had the highest number of excess attorneys per capita in the country (trailing only Alaska). There were seventeen thousand two hundred three (17,203) active and resident lawyers, leaving Tennessee with nine thousand two hundred thirteen (9,213) excess lawyers. So, how did we get here?
In 1990 the State of Tennessee had less than ten thousand (10,000) resident attorneys with an active law license. The state had three (3) law schools, and each year would only add approximately four hundred (400) attorneys to its rolls. In 1990 a Tennessee law school graduate, who successfully passed the Bar exam, had over a ninety-five percent (95%) chance of landing a job in the State of Tennessee. Fast forward to today. The State of Tennessee has doubled its number of law schools, and the number of annual graduates; however, job prospects are at an all-time low.
Two factors have played a significant part in creating the excess number of attorneys over the past thirty (30) years. The first occurred when the Workmen’s Compensation laws were overhauled. Conservative estimates revealed that almost twenty percent (20%) of all practicing lawyers were affected when Workmen’s Compensation claims went from being litigated in State Court to being handled administratively. Almost overnight, over two thousand (2,000) lawyers was dumped into the legal market.
The second major change occurred when the economy fell. Large law firms merged with other law firms, and medium-sized law firms went out of business, which changed the long legal model established for employment.
Currently, Tennessee has the highest number of solo practitioners, or attorneys practicing in an association, than at any point during the past fifty (50) years.
Gone are the days when a lawyer could retire from his or her firm, and pass their ownership interests down to the young lawyers whose careers were just beginning.
Tennessee is now faced with the dual crisis of hundreds of law students being licensed each year, with no jobs to fill, and thousands of solo practitioners with no one to pass their practice to. This is why Lawyers Incorporated was formed.
In 2013 Lawyers Incorporated was designed to help solo practitioners, and lawyers who practice in an association, with succession planning, while simultaneously providing job prospects for the thousands of lawyers currently unemployed, and the hundreds of lawyers who pass the Bar each year with no job prospects.
Lawyers Incorporated was formed with you in mind.