How Many Lawyers Are in California?

278,688 licensee records appear on the attorney roll maintained by the State Bar of California · 202,146 on active status and 76,542 inactive. Only an attorney on active status may practise law in the state. Figures observed 2026-07-22; source: State Bar of California : Records request 26-1100: full attorney roll dataset (2026-07 extract), counts verified at import.

The tables below are drawn from the same record and are published for reuse. They are counts, not rankings: the registry issues no scores and states no view about the attorneys, schools, or firms named. Method: how this record is built.

Coverage of the published registry

Attorneys by county

Published attorney records by the county of the address of record on the State Bar roll, read from the registry on 2026-09-18. Active counts the licence status on that day; an attorney whose address of record is outside California is not in this table. Each county links to its own directory page.

Attorneys by decade of admission

Published licensee records by the decade of admission to the California bar, read from the registry on 2026-09-17. Active counts the licence status on that day. Records with no admission date on the roll are not in the table. Small status cells (under 10) and additional admission groups needed to protect them are withheld and shown as a dash.

Practice areas listed in the registry

How many published records list each practice area, read on 2026-09-17. 143,125 of 279,113 published records list at least one. A record may list several areas, so the rows do not add up to a total. A listing is what the record says about an attorney’s practice; it is not a certification, which only the State Bar’s specialist program confers. Cells under 10 records are withheld.

Largest alumni cohorts among California licensees

Law schools whose graduates hold the most California licenses. The roll records an alma mater for nearly every licensee, and a school is published here once at least 10 California-licensed alumni list it. Every school on the roll is listed at alma maters.

Largest employers among California licensees

Organizations that the most California-licensed attorneys name as their employer on the roll, published once at least 10 attorneys list them. This counts California licensees only, so a national firm appears at its California headcount rather than its global one, and public employers appear alongside private practices. The full list is at law firms.

Using these figures

These numbers are published to be quoted. Journalists, law librarians, researchers, students, and anyone writing about the California legal profession may reproduce the figures on this page, in whole or in part, at no cost and without asking permission, on two conditions:

• Attribute them to the California Attorney Registry, with a link to the page the figure came from.
• Carry the date. Figures move as the roll moves; a count without its observation date will be wrong before long. The date on this page is 2026-07-22.

Underlying licensee facts originate with the State Bar of California and are public. Citing the primary source directly, in addition to this page, is always welcome.

Suggested citation: California Attorney Registry, "How Many Lawyers Are in California?", https://californiaattorneyregistry.com/data (accessed [date]).

Machine-readable file

The same figures, as JSON: /data/registry.json. It carries the roll counts, the coverage figures, and both cohort tables, with the source and observation date attached. The page also publishes schema.org Dataset metadata pointing at that file.

Working on something that needs a cut of this data the file does not cover (by county, admission year, or practice area) write to info@californiaattorneyregistry.com and describe it. Documentation written for AI systems is at AI context.

Common questions