Clarification, 7/1/13, 1:30 p.m. EDT: Due to errors in National Conference of Bar Examiners data, the original version of this article reported a higher number of bar admits for Nevada than the State Bar of Nevada reported. The two tables below have been revised to include the correct information, as have statements related to Nevada's ratio of bar admits to job openings. Additionally, for reasons explained more fully in paragraph 7 below, the average annual job openings data may overestimate of the state of Mississippi's law graduate and lawyer surplus. We hope that this clears up any confusion that may have occurred.
In June 2011 both the legal and mainstream media covered Economic Modeling Specialists Inc.'s release of a table showing the attorney surplus in each of the country's 50 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico for 2009. I'd posted a near-identical analysis on my blog three months earlier after comparing the number of graduates from ABA–accredited law schools to the number of lawyer jobs created by growth and replacement in each state in 2009.
While the results of the two analyses were similar, EMSI and I had different purposes in producing them. My goal was only to calculate the surplus of ABA law school graduates over lawyer job openings because my research tends to focus more on the value of legal education and excessive student loan debt, which makes non–ABA and foreign law school graduates less relevant to me. EMSI, on the other hand, was more interested in the lawyer surplus itself.
