The number of lawyers in Israel has nearly quadrupled in the past 19 years, from 10,697 lawyers in 1990 to 40,469 today. The number of lawyers who joined law firms in the past nine years is not much below the number of lawyers who joined law firms between independence and the end of the second millennium: 23,127 lawyers joined law firms between 1950 and 1999, and 17,342 lawyers have joined law firms since 2000.
The Israel Bar Association Conference yesterday published its "Lawyers Index" ahead of its annual conference in Eilat at the end of the month. The index includes statistics about lawyers' circumstances in Israel. The condition of the legal profession is Israel is quite dismal, with a saturated market and competition for every client fiercer than ever.
Many students who poured into law faculties and try their luck in practice, full of motivation and hopes to grab a piece of the pie, very quickly discover that there are 40,000 equally hungry lawyers competing with them for the same piece.
Bar Association figures show that the rise in the number of lawyers far outstrips population growth. The people-to-lawyer ratio has fallen from 1,687 to 1 in 1950 to 622 to 1 in 1970, and to an all-time low of 183 to 1 in 2009. There are more than 40,000 lawyers for Israel's population of 7.4 million.
The figures take on even sharper focus in an international comparison. Japan has 25,000 lawyers for its 120 million population and China has 150,000 lawyers for its population of 1.3 billion, or fewer than one lawyer per 8,000 people. What worries Israel's lawyers even more, however, is that at the current growth rate, the number of lawyers could double within a decade, and Israel will be in the unprecedented situation of having one lawyer for every 100 people.
The Bar Association notes that most Israeli lawyers are young: 60% are under 40, including 45.6% aged 31-40, and fewer than 10% are older than 61.
The Bar Association also notes that even in this era of liberal enlightenment, the legal profession is dominated by men, though less than in the past: 23,231 of Israel's 40,469 practicing lawyers - 57.4% - are men, and 17,238 lawyers - 42.6% - are women.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 20, 2009
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