Data · Attorneys by county
Lawyers, county by county, in seven states
How many lawyers have an address in each county, from the public counts of seven state licensing bodies: active attorneys per 10,000 residents, and where the bar counts them, inactive and retired lawyers too, with the date of each count. We publish counts only and check every state against its source's own total.
What is in this dataset?
How many lawyers each bar counts in each county, for seven states. Ohio: attorneys by county of address and status, from the Supreme Court of Ohio's attorney directory list (88 counties, with admission decade, private practice and Spanish speakers). California: active, inactive, judge and not-eligible licensees in each of the 58 counties, from the State Bar's county table. Michigan: active State Bar members living in each of the 83 counties, with private practice and the change from 2024. Idaho: members by status in each of the seven judicial districts. Arizona: active State Bar members in each of the 15 counties (the Bar's 2022 report). Washington: WSBA licensees of every type (lawyers plus limited licensees) in each of the 39 counties, with the attorney counts by member type. Pennsylvania: active attorneys in the seven counties the Disciplinary Board's annual report lists, and the Board's statewide status counts. Each record carries the source's own as-of date and a rate per 10,000 residents from the Census Bureau's county estimate. Only counts are published, and where a count is built from a directory file no name, birthdate, address or registration number is kept or written. In Ohio, counts of one to four in a disciplinary, deceased or other status, an admission decade, private practice or Spanish are withheld, and where a withheld count could be worked out from a county's total or the statewide figures, another count in the same group is withheld too. Every state record ties to its source's own total, and every published number is read a second time from the source file before release.
Use it to see how many lawyers already serve a county before choosing where to advertise: active attorneys per 10,000 residents, how many are inactive or retired, and for some states how many are in private practice or admitted recently. The seven bars count differently: the unit of each record is printed with it (active attorneys with an address in the county, active members living in the county, or all members of every license type), the as-of date differs by state and a county is where the lawyer's address is, not where clients live. Compare counties within a state, not one state's count with another's.
- Records
- 312
- Look up by
- 7
- state
- Primary-source records
- 312
The letters are explained in what P, S, D and U mean.
Where does the data come from?
Each state's own count page, report or directory file is read: HTML tables and PDF tables are parsed for the county rows and the state's totals, and the Ohio directory file is aggregated in memory by county, status, admission year, private practice and Spanish before anything is written, so no row or personal field is kept or written; Ohio cells are then protected by complementary suppression, checked by linear programming against every published total. County names are matched to the shared county list, rates use the Census Bureau's 2025 county estimate, and every state's rows are tied to the totals its source prints.
- Places
- States and counties
- How often we refresh it
- Every quarter
- The source's next release
- January 2027
- Records read
- October 28, 2026 to October 29, 2026
Official sources
- Supreme Court of Ohio, Attorney Services, by bulk download. Public court directory with a downloadable list; the site states no reuse restriction. Only status, county, state, admission year, private-practice and Spanish flags are counted, in memory; no name, birthdate or other personal field is kept or written.
- State Bar of California, by official web pages. Public count page; no reuse restriction stated for the counts (the State Bar's logo and marks are reserved and not used). The page shows no as-of date, so the date read is shown.
- State Bar of Michigan, by official web pages. Public demographics report published for general use; counts only, cited to the report.
- Idaho State Bar, by official web pages. Public membership count page; counts only, cited to the page.
- State Bar of Arizona, by bulk download. Public 2022 Demographic Report, page 19 (county table of active members); counts only, cited to the report.
- Washington State Bar Association, by bulk download. Public member licensing counts report; counts only, cited to the report.
- Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, by bulk download. Public 2025 annual report, page 20 (license status statistics); counts only, cited to the report.
- U.S. Census Bureau, by bulk download. Public domain (17 U.S.C. 105). County population estimates for the per-10,000 rates.
The sources the records cite most
- Supreme Court of Ohio attorney directory (list download, aggregated by county; no name or other personal field is kept or written): 91 records
- State Bar of Michigan demographics by county, 2025: 86 records
- State Bar of California, attorney demographics by county and status: 59 records
- WSBA member licensing counts (members by county): 41 records
- State Bar of Arizona, 2022 Demographic Report (active members by county): 17 records
What does a record look like?
-
Ohio: 102,279 attorney registrations in the Supreme Court's directory, of which 43,390 have Active status (34,153 with an address in an Ohio county, 6,444 elsewhere, 2,793 with no county on file), 26,200 inactive and 2,533 retired. Directory file updated 2026-10-28.
Status P · checked October 29, 2026 · source: Supreme Court of Ohio attorney directory (list download, aggregated by county; no name or other personal field is kept or written)
The full records add the dates, the quoted source text and every field in the CSV and JSON files below.
What each of the 40 main columns means
jurisdiction- Two-letter code of the state whose bar published the count: OH, CA, MI, ID, AZ, WA or PA
level- county; district (Idaho judicial district); county-not-given (members in the state's total whom the source's county rows do not place, derived); out-of-state (members with an address outside the state, as the source defines it); state (the source's statewide figures)
county- 5-digit county FIPS code (vintage 2025); empty for other levels
countyName- County name as the Census Bureau writes it; for other levels a plain label
stateName- State name
barDistrict- California: State Bar district of the county; Idaho: judicial district number
districtCounties- Idaho district records: the counties in the district
year- Year of the source's as-of date
asOf- The source's as-of date: a day, a month or a year (California's page shows none, so it is the day it was read)
basis- What the source counts, in a sentence
value- The record's main count; the unit says what it counts
unit- What the value counts (for example active attorneys with an address in the county)
active- Active attorneys or members in the group (Washington: only on the state and King County records)
inactive- Inactive attorneys or members (Ohio: withheld in a few counties so that a withheld small count cannot be worked out)
retired- Retired, senior, emeritus or permanently retired (Ohio: withheld in some counties so that a withheld small count cannot be worked out)
judge- Judges or judicial members
not_eligible- California: licensees not eligible to practice
deceased- Ohio: deceased registrations (withheld when 1 to 4, or where needed so a withheld count cannot be worked out)
discipline_related- Ohio: suspended, disbarred, revoked or resigned with discipline pending (withheld when 1 to 4, or where needed so a withheld count cannot be worked out)
other_status- Other statuses (Ohio: corporate, resigned, pending admission and others, withheld when 1 to 4, or where needed so a withheld count cannot be worked out; Idaho: emeritus and house counsel; Washington: the other license types; Pennsylvania: in-house counsel)
total- Everyone the source counts in the group, any status
population- Residents, Census estimate of July 1, 2025
active_per_10k- Active attorneys per 10,000 residents, one decimal
per_10k- Washington county records: WSBA licensees of every type per 10,000 residents
admitted_pre1970- Ohio: active attorneys admitted before 1970 (withheld when 1 to 4, or where needed so a withheld count cannot be worked out); the other admitted_ columns are the decades 1970s to 2020s
median_admission_year- Ohio: median admission year of the active attorneys (empty below 20)
private_practice- Ohio and Michigan: active attorneys in private practice (Ohio withheld when 1 to 4, or where needed so a withheld count cannot be worked out)
other_practice- Michigan: active members not in private practice
spanish_speaking- Ohio: active attorneys who list Spanish (withheld when 1 to 4, or where needed so a withheld count cannot be worked out)
prior_value- Michigan: the 2024 count
change- Michigan: change from 2024
active_in_state_county- Ohio state record: active attorneys with an address in an Ohio county
active_outside_state- Ohio state record: active attorneys with an address elsewhere
active_no_county- Ohio state record: active attorneys with no county on file
effectiveFrom- As-of date as a day
effectiveTo- As-of date as a day
lastChecked- Day the source was read
note- Caveat for the record, if any
sourceLabels- Source names
sourceUrls- Source URLs
How do I use it in my own tools?
attorneys_lookup- For a state code (OH, CA, MI, ID, AZ, WA, PA): that bar's attorney counts for the state and each county or district, with status, as-of date and the rate per 10,000 residents.
attorneys_search- Records whose text matches the words given, such as a county name ("Cuyahoga County"), a state or a 5-digit county FIPS code.
How to cite this dataset
You can reuse, adapt and republish this data, including commercially, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0). The only condition is that you credit Probative and link to the source.
- Version
- 1.0.0, released October 29, 2026
- Every version
- 10.5281/zenodo.23777036 (always points to the newest)
- License
- CC BY 4.0
Download the data
- CSV: attorneys.csv 205 KB · one row per record (columns in README.txt)
- JSON: attorneys.json 498 KB · every record with its sources
Free, no email or login. The files are hosted on this site and Zenodo, a public research archive.
Suggested citation
Probative. (2026). Attorneys by county in Ohio, California, Michigan, Idaho, Arizona, Washington and Pennsylvania, from each bar's public counts (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23777037
Credit line for a chart, table or article
Source: Probative, Attorneys by county in Ohio, California, Michigan, Idaho, Arizona, Washington and Pennsylvania, from each bar's public counts, version 1.0.0, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23777037, licensed CC BY 4.0.
Add to a reference manager (Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote)
Not legal advice. These are counts of lawyers from state bars' and courts' public count pages, reports and directory, kept for research and marketing planning. A status is the bar's record, not a judgment of any lawyer's skill or standing, and a county is the county of the address the lawyer gave, not where the lawyer practices or where clients live. Rights and deadlines in a matter are for your own counsel.
What changed recently?
- 2026-10-29 · Attorneys counted by county from the public count pages, reports and directory of the bars of Ohio, California, Michigan, Idaho, Arizona, Washington and Pennsylvania.
The full log is in changes.json.
What are the limits?
- The seven bars count differently. Each record prints its unit: active attorneys with an address in the county (Ohio, California, Pennsylvania), active members who live in the county (Michigan, Arizona), active members by judicial district (Idaho) or licensees of every type, lawyers plus limited licensees such as LLLTs and LPOs (Washington). Compare counties inside one state, not one state with another.
- Each state's count has its own as-of date, and every record prints it. Michigan's is its latest annual report, and Arizona's newest county table comes from an older report of the Bar, whose year its records print. California's page shows no date, so the day it was read is shown.
- A county is the county of the address a lawyer gave the bar, not where the lawyer's clients live. Lawyers whose address is outside the state, or whom a bar's county rows do not place, are in their own records and the state record, not in a county.
- Pennsylvania's report gives county figures only for the seven counties it lists; Idaho's bar counts by judicial district, not county, and the district list is printed on each record.
- In Ohio's county records, counts of one to four lawyers in a disciplinary, deceased or other status, in an admission decade, in private practice or speaking Spanish are withheld. Where such a count could be worked out from the county's total or the statewide figures, another count in the same group is withheld too, so no single lawyer can be picked out. A county's active count and its total are never withheld. Registration is not practice: a lawyer on a bar's list may be retired, in-house or in government.
- Records older than 135 days since their last check are marked
stalein the files until we re-check them. Every confirmed error we fix is listed in the data corrections log.
Found a wrong value? Report an error with the record id and the source that shows the right value.
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