Legal Education in the United States: Organization and Social Function

Abstract

Lawyers occupy a special place in American social and political life in comparison with other professional groups. Lawyers are traditionally called upon to fill important, frequently key posts in government. It is sufficient to note that 33 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were lawyers, and 25 out of 40 U.S. presidents have had a legal education. In the mid-1970s, half of the members of the House of Representatives, two-thirds of senators, half of the state governors, and 40 percent of diplomats had a law background. Between 25 and 75 percent of the members of university boards of trustees are lawyers; the representation of lawyers among trustees is four times higher than that of other professional groups.¹ The number of the nation's professional lawyers continues to grow. Between the 1950s and the mid-1970s, the number of lawyers in Washington, D.C. increased by 300 percent—from 3,700 to 11,500.² The ratio of lawyers to population in the District of Columbia is 1:56, which is 10 times higher than the national average. While the number of lawyers in the mid-1980s totaled 600,000, which is 3 percent of the 25 million Americans having complete higher education following four years of college, their share is two times higher among persons with specialized higher education requiring postgraduate study in a professional school. The number of specialized law libraries in the United States is roughly 1,000.³