The number of female lawyers in Capitol Heights, Maryland is still much lower than that of male lawyers. However, the number of women in the legal profession has been steadily increasing over the past few decades. In 1960, when Reno graduated from law school, women made up less than 1 in 25 attorneys. Now, there are more than 400,000 female lawyers, representing just over 1 in 3 (38 percent).
The number of attorneys at U. S. law firms who report having disabilities remains small: just over 1% of the total number of attorneys. There are no reliable statistics available on the total number of attorneys who identify as LGBTQ in the general legal profession.
At one extreme, 30% of all associate law firms in Miami are attorneys of color, the highest percentage in the country. The workforce and its presence are increasing in higher-paying occupations, such as law, and women continue to earn less than men. Maryland saw an unusually significant growth in the number of attorneys over the past decade because the state changed the way it informed resident attorneys, and not necessarily because it had experienced great growth. In other words, the number of male lawyers is still much higher than that of women, although that is gradually changing as more women and fewer men enroll in law schools every year. In 1993, when the NALP began tracking the race and ethnicity of law firm partners, 2.55% of all partners were attorneys of color. In the previous century, from 1900 to 2000, the number of lawyers increased by 793%, from 114,460 to just over 1 million, representing an average annual growth of almost 8%.
The first female president of the United States Bar Association was Roberta Cooper Ramo, from New Mexico, in 1995. The ABA created the Margaret Brent Award in 1991 to recognize and celebrate the achievements of women lawyers. Topping the list is North Carolina, where the number of active attorneys grew by 21% over the past decade, followed by Georgia and Texas (both at 18%) and Utah (17%). At the other extreme, only 3% of partners in Pittsburgh are attorneys of color, the lowest percentage in the country. In conclusion, while there has been a steady increase in female lawyers across Capitol Heights and other cities nationwide over recent decades, there is still a long way to go before gender parity is achieved within the legal profession.
