Statewide Bar Counsel Mike Bowler has many duties, including maintaining records on Connecticut-licensed lawyers. He shared the chart below with me the other day illustrating, like nothing I’ve seen before, how the bar is both shrinking and aging. These changes augur many challenges for bar regulators and presidents. There might also be a bit of a silver lining here too.

As you can see, the high point of the bell curve showing age distribution keeps moving to the right as the baby boom generation ages and is replaced by Gen Xers and millennials. It’s no surprise that the newest cohort is down considerably from previous years. As one assistant dean at UConn explained to me a few years ago, law students are smart. The recession, which began in December 2007 and ended in 2009, whacked legal hiring. Fewer college graduates made the economic choice to spend the considerable time and money required to get a license of diminished value with reduced odds of finding a job lucrative enough to make the investment worthwhile.

Active attorneys; 2013-17.