Employment
Lawyers held about 735,000 jobs in 2004. Approximately 3 out of 4 lawyers
practiced privately, either as partners in law firms or in solo practices.
Most salaried lawyers held positions in government or with corporations or
nonprofit organizations. The greatest number of lawyers working in
government were employed at the local level. In the Federal Government,
lawyers work for many different agencies, but are concentrated in the
Departments of Justice, Treasury, and Defense. Many salaried lawyers working
outside of government are employed as house counsel by public utilities,
banks, insurance companies, real estate agencies, manufacturing firms, and
other business firms and nonprofit organizations. Some also have part-time
independent practices, while others work part time as lawyers and full time
in another occupation.
Job Outlook
Employment of lawyers is expected to grow about as fast as average for all
occupations through 2014, primarily as a result of growth in the
population and in the general level of business activities. Job growth
among lawyers also will result from increasing demand for legal services
in such areas as health care, intellectual property, venture capital,
energy, elder, antitrust, and environmental law. In addition, the wider
availability and affordability of legal clinics should result in
increased use of legal services by middle-income people. However, growth
in demand for lawyers will be limited as businesses, in an effort to
reduce costs, increasingly use large accounting firms and paralegals to
perform some of the same functions that lawyers do. For example,
accounting firms may provide employee-benefit counseling, process
documents, or handle various other services previously performed by a
law firm. Also, mediation and dispute resolution increasingly are being
used as alternatives to litigation.
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