Michigan Resident Lawyer Employment Data Series – Part 3 by Don LeDuc, Professor of Law, Cooley Law School
Annually, the State Bar of Michigan collects detailed data regarding its membership, focusing on active Michigan resident lawyers–a focus followed in the seven-part analysis in this series. The data is supplied by and used with the permission of the State Bar. My thanks to Kristen Sewell, the current Research and Analytics Director at the State Bar of Michigan and Anne Vrooman, recently retired from that position, for their work in gathering and providing this information. The data provides an opportunity to examine objectively both the changes from year-to-year and the implications of those changes.
Part 3 begins a look at lawyer numbers by county of residence. Chart 5 shows the relationship between active Michigan residents and lawyer populations by county (ranked by the number of county lawyers). This chart demonstrates the differential in lawyer representation in the state’s urban and rural areas. The tri-county Detroit area of southeast Michigan has slightly under 40% of the state’s population, but includes well over half of its lawyers. Michigan’s 10 largest counties, which have about 57% of the state’s population, are home to 83% of the state’s lawyers. The 20 largest counties–surrounding Michigan’s larger cities–have about 90% of the lawyers, leaving the other 63 counties with only 10%.
Of those remaining 63 counties, only eight have at least 100 lawyers and the highest of the eight has 160. Fifty-five counties have under 100 lawyers. Nearly half of Michigan’s counties have under 50 lawyers; eight counties have fewer than 10 lawyers. And Michigan’s 10 smallest counties collectively have only 83 lawyers.
Chart 5 Active Resident Michigan Lawyer Population 2023 (Ranked by Lawyer Population)
Chart 5 demonstrates that in Michigan there are two lawyers aged 60 or older for every lawyer under 40. It also shows that the rural areas not only have fewer lawyers, but also that the lawyers that they do have are aging. Michigan faces a legal services crisis in the coming years, particularly in its rural communities.
In the next part in this series, the focus will shift to the ratios of general population to the lawyer population, again by county.