The New York Lawyer has provided a chart to show the distribution of lawyers throughout the various counties of the State of New York. The chart shows the ratio of lawyers to human beings. It explains a lot.
In Orleans County, there are 1461 people for every lawyer. In Hamilton County, there are a grand total of 14 lawyers. The local bar association has really boring parties.
In contrast, New York City has 94,270 lawyers, with Brooklyn leading the outerboro pack at 7,050. There are almost a million more people in Brooklyn than Manhattan.
The state capital, Albany, only has 4,317 lawyers, but the ratio of lawyers to people is 69/1. And you wonder why the government is a mess.
No county, however, compares with New York County when it comes to a lawyer to human being ratio of 21 to 1. For every 21 people in Manhattan, there is a lawyer. The ratio is even higher in saloons.
There are 77,952 lawyers in Manhattan (pre-Marc Dreier). It’s really just a tiny, little island, with a population of 1,620,867. All but three people there are Democrats. But throw a stone and chances are good that it will strike a lawyer.
For many lawyers, the “big fish in a small pond” aphorism applies. Not for lawyers in Manhattan. It’s not easy surviving, no less thriving, in an environment so lousy with lawyers. Hesitate and some other lawyer has just jumped your potential new client. Have your receptionist take a message and the next one (or 1000) will take the call.
To contrast the situation, Brooklyn is New York City’s most populace county, with 2,528,050 residents. It has just 7,050 lawyers, a mere tenth of that of its neighboring borough. And the Court Street lawyers are notorious for being vicious competitors.
If you are wondering whether to leave Podunk to make your bones in the Big Apple, show the world that you can rise to the top in the toughest legal market in the world, where almost everybody you meet is a lawyer, especially in saloons, you might want to study these numbers first.
Queens, by the way, has only 5,534 lawyers, diverse food choices and enough diners so that there’s always an available seat. Just think about it.
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Guess what about Orleans?
1. It’s a one-judge county.
2. Most of the residents qualify for assigned counsel.
3. Most AC he appoints from Rochester.
4. Those of us in OC or just across the other county lines may get assignments if we are very very docile oops agreeable. See #1.
5. He threw me off the list four years ago. See #1. He wrote me a letter. Come to think of it I should frame it.
On the other hand,
6. The OCBA dinner next week costs $25. Prime rib and open bar.
Big deal. They’re holding it at the Cracker Barrel.
Speaking of wondering why there are messes: Washington,D.C. has 13.5 times as many lawyers per capita as New York State. See the Avery Index of Lawyers per Capita by State. There’s one lawyer for every 36 residents of D.C., but a mere 1 lawyer for every 390 people in NYS.
If you think of D.C. as a County, it has almost twice as many lawyers per capita than Albany County, the seat of NYS Government.
p.s. On the other hand, North Dakota only has 1 lawyer for every 2272 residents. If you’d rather live in ND than NY or DC, please raise your hand.
But I hear that the ratio drops to 1 lawyer for every 391 people in DC when Congress isn’t in session.
You are so wrong. There are no franchises in Orleans.
My hand’s up; then again, I’ve lived in ND. It’s not quite Minnesota, but very few places are.
I think the DC numbers are deceptive because DC allows universal waiver. I think many lawyers, particularly those who come here after law school for a year or two to clerk or work at DOJ waive into DC, then move back to their home states and don’t practice here. I’d be interested in seeing the numbers of actively practicing DC lawyers vs. all admitted to the bar.
How would you define an “actively practicing DC lawyer”? You wouldn’t include agency or trade representative attorneys, would you? That would bring the numbers down to oh let’s see, a dozen. Maybe fewer!
There are 77,952 lawyers in Manhattan (pre-Marc Dreier).
Yeah, but only a small handful of bloggers.
And you’ve been trying to say there are too many already?
Whoa, I was there when O’Keeke came to town. Come to think of it, you were too. Now every lawyer has a blog. It’s just that nobody reads them after they’ve read yours.
His blog blinds people? I didn’t think it was that bad.
(Actually, I like it, but . . . )
Well, certainly there were a lot of aspiring bloggers. (Or at least those in need of 3 CLE credits.)
But there weren’t 70,000 people in the room.
He threw me off the list four years ago. See #1. He wrote me a letter. Come to think of it I should frame it.
Nah. Just put it up on the web.
That’s right.
I’ve only been in ND briefly, and it was work-related, Jdog. So, I can’t offer a well-reasoned explanation for keeping my hand down — but, my gut tells me to stick with DC or NY for now.
Carolyn, my impression is that the ABA numbers are looking at the primary residence or office of the lawyer, and not merely counting each bar membership. (Correction, if appropriate, requested.)
Back in the late ’70’s, I remember hearing that one in every 12 white males over 20 in Metro D.C. was a lawyer. That was one reason why every introduction to a new person those days provoked the response: “Not another one!!”
The reason that it’s there’s some fifty (or, as some would have it, fifty-seven) states is that different ones fit different people better. We wouldn’t all fit in Spearfish SD, frex, even though that is the perfect place to live.