Research
Law firm size and revenue: how many are solo or small, by state
74.5% of the 156,583 US law firms with employees had fewer than 5 employees in 2022, yet they took in 13.8% of receipts. The 203 firms with 500 or more employees took in 34.9%. Another 275,815 legal-services businesses had no employees at all in 2024, and their receipts averaged $88,270.
Key facts
- Law firms with employees (US)
- 156,583
- 2022, offices of lawyers
- With fewer than 5 employees
- 74.5%
- 116,668 firms
- Receipts of firms with 500 or more employees
- 34.9%
- 203 firms
- Businesses with no employees
- 275,815
- 2024, legal services
- Receipts per business with no employees
- $88,270
- 2024; 89.0% are proprietorships
- Receipts per firm with employees
- $2.3 million
- 2022; $419,995 under 5 employees
Download the US and every state (CSV) All files Free under CC BY 4.0. No email or login.
What do these surveys count?
The Census Bureau publishes three views of law firms. The Statistics of U.S. Businesses (2022) counts firms that paid at least one employee, sorted by how many people the firm employs. Nonemployer Statistics (2024) counts businesses with no paid employees, mostly one-person practices, and groups all legal services together. The Economic Census (2022) counts firms again and adds how much of the money the biggest firms take. The years differ, so this page keeps each source labelled.
What did we find?
- Three in four law firms with employees are tiny. 116,668 of 156,583 (74.5%) had fewer than 5 employees, and 149,187 (95.3%) had fewer than 20. In 50 of the 52 places in the table, more than half have fewer than 5.
- The largest firms take a third of the money. 203 firms with 500 or more employees (0.1% of firms) took in $124.4 billion, 34.9% of receipts. Firms with fewer than 5 employees took in $49.0 billion, 13.8%.
- Receipts per firm climb steeply with size: fewer than 5 employees, $419,995; 5 to 9 employees, $1.4 million; 10 to 19 employees, $3.2 million; 20 to 99 employees, $10.2 million; 100 to 499 employees, $58.7 million; 500 or more employees, $612.7 million.
- Businesses with no employees outnumber firms with employees. In 2024, 275,815 legal-services businesses had no employees, 1.8 for every employer law firm counted in 2022. They took in $24.3 billion, $88,270 each, and 89.0% of them are individual proprietorships. The two counts come from different years and industry levels, so read the ratio as a size, not an exact figure.
- Solos are most common next to employer firms in Tennessee (2.2 per firm), Maryland (2.2 per firm) and Massachusetts (2.1 per firm), and least common in North Dakota (0.9), Iowa (1.0) and South Dakota (1.1).
- The share of firms with fewer than 5 employees runs from 43.6% in Delaware to 84.1% in Wyoming. The next highest are Arkansas (83.0%) and Oklahoma (80.0%); District of Columbia (48.9%) and North Dakota (65.6%) are the next lowest. A firm with offices in several states is counted in each.
- The Economic Census agrees on the total and shows how concentrated it is. It counted 156,777 law firms with $356.0 billion in 2022. The 4 largest took 4% of receipts and the 50 largest 21.4%. The 334 firms with receipts of $100 million or more (0.2% of firms) took 42.7%.
How do firms and money split by firm size?
The dark bar is the share of firms; the lighter bar is the share of receipts. Bars under 1% are drawn at a minimum width so they stay visible.
| Employees in the firm | Firms | Share of firms | Employees | Receipts | Share of receipts | Receipts per firm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All sizes | 156,583 | 100.0% | 1,078,148 | $356.2 billion | 100.0% | $2,275,101 |
| Fewer than 5 | 116,668 | 74.5% | 193,091 | $49.0 billion | 13.8% | $419,995 |
| 5 to 9 | 22,518 | 14.4% | 145,732 | $31.9 billion | 9.0% | $1,416,234 |
| 10 to 19 | 10,001 | 6.4% | 132,365 | $31.9 billion | 9.0% | $3,187,546 |
| 20 to 99 | 6,245 | 4.0% | 237,092 | $63.5 billion | 17.8% | $10,168,102 |
| 100 to 499 | 948 | 0.6% | 173,687 | $55.6 billion | 15.6% | $58,651,846 |
| 500 or more | 203 | 0.1% | 196,181 | $124.4 billion | 34.9% | $612,665,074 |
A firm is sorted by its total number of employees. Receipts are revenue before expenses.
How big are law firms in each state?
Every state and DC, most firms first. Firms with employees are from 2022; businesses with no employees are legal services from 2024. A firm with offices in several states is counted in each, so the state counts add up to more than the US total.
| State | Firms with employees | Under 5 employees | Receipts per firm | No-employee businesses | Per firm with employees | Receipts per no-employee business |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 156,583 | 74.5% | $2,275,101 | 275,815 | 1.8 | $88,270 |
| California | 21,612 | 74.6% | $2,577,044 | 40,308 | 1.9 | $104,400 |
| Florida | 16,554 | 76.9% | $1,514,900 | 24,106 | 1.5 | $78,054 |
| Texas | 13,172 | 74.1% | $2,233,674 | 25,610 | 1.9 | $90,186 |
| New York | 11,590 | 72.5% | $5,017,409 | 24,323 | 2.1 | $108,161 |
| Illinois | 6,887 | 72.0% | $3,108,796 | 10,656 | 1.5 | $88,044 |
| Georgia | 5,770 | 74.6% | $1,887,138 | 8,677 | 1.5 | $80,797 |
| Pennsylvania | 4,912 | 67.7% | $2,431,893 | 9,752 | 2.0 | $81,302 |
| New Jersey | 4,741 | 69.1% | $1,812,962 | 9,091 | 1.9 | $97,657 |
| Massachusetts | 3,964 | 73.1% | $2,721,748 | 8,463 | 2.1 | $101,143 |
| Ohio | 3,917 | 71.4% | $1,669,281 | 7,981 | 2.0 | $73,748 |
| North Carolina | 3,830 | 67.9% | $1,625,858 | 5,488 | 1.4 | $65,595 |
| Michigan | 3,605 | 72.9% | $1,511,236 | 7,371 | 2.0 | $74,643 |
| Colorado | 3,473 | 77.3% | $1,722,220 | 5,514 | 1.6 | $80,985 |
| Washington | 3,439 | 71.2% | $1,802,451 | 5,356 | 1.6 | $82,075 |
| Virginia | 3,257 | 66.4% | $1,744,542 | 6,187 | 1.9 | $85,045 |
| Louisiana | 3,110 | 74.9% | $1,422,711 | 4,991 | 1.6 | $82,836 |
| Arizona | 2,995 | 73.8% | $1,472,606 | 4,787 | 1.6 | $78,850 |
| Missouri | 2,692 | 72.2% | $1,940,652 | 3,832 | 1.4 | $84,872 |
| Maryland | 2,589 | 68.9% | $1,483,735 | 5,617 | 2.2 | $81,055 |
| South Carolina | 2,416 | 68.3% | $1,502,457 | 3,309 | 1.4 | $72,853 |
| Tennessee | 2,210 | 70.5% | $1,463,778 | 4,922 | 2.2 | $83,047 |
| Oklahoma | 2,206 | 80.0% | $888,897 | 3,090 | 1.4 | $75,597 |
| Indiana | 2,203 | 71.5% | $1,415,229 | 3,315 | 1.5 | $70,446 |
| Alabama | 2,172 | 74.7% | $1,327,070 | 3,637 | 1.7 | $73,944 |
| Oregon | 2,151 | 75.0% | $1,244,956 | 2,706 | 1.3 | $89,035 |
| Minnesota | 2,017 | 69.0% | $1,970,496 | 3,185 | 1.6 | $72,747 |
| Connecticut | 1,915 | 67.7% | $1,651,482 | 3,645 | 1.9 | $106,022 |
| Kentucky | 1,794 | 74.9% | $1,071,349 | 2,721 | 1.5 | $81,336 |
| Nevada | 1,669 | 69.8% | $1,427,099 | 2,463 | 1.5 | $87,331 |
| Wisconsin | 1,618 | 66.3% | $1,648,296 | 2,462 | 1.5 | $69,247 |
| Utah | 1,421 | 75.5% | $1,431,243 | 2,286 | 1.6 | $83,691 |
| Arkansas | 1,294 | 83.0% | $706,962 | 1,583 | 1.2 | $62,121 |
| Mississippi | 1,214 | 74.6% | $1,055,435 | 2,052 | 1.7 | $76,038 |
| Iowa | 1,208 | 70.5% | $1,025,606 | 1,175 | 1.0 | $76,258 |
| District of Columbia | 1,197 | 48.9% | $17,882,496 | 1,495 | 1.2 | $127,694 |
| Kansas | 1,122 | 73.9% | $992,944 | 1,701 | 1.5 | $73,073 |
| New Mexico | 977 | 68.4% | $878,854 | 1,289 | 1.3 | $75,258 |
| Idaho | 840 | 77.1% | $881,374 | 1,117 | 1.3 | $66,687 |
| Nebraska | 789 | 70.6% | $1,326,326 | 916 | 1.2 | $55,438 |
| West Virginia | 712 | 68.8% | $1,355,473 | 965 | 1.4 | $78,046 |
| Rhode Island | 697 | 70.4% | $1,583,646 | 1,114 | 1.6 | $97,259 |
| Montana | 655 | 75.4% | $820,342 | 880 | 1.3 | $77,720 |
| Maine | 569 | 66.3% | $1,266,998 | 955 | 1.7 | $76,328 |
| Hawaii | 549 | 74.9% | $1,306,483 | 1,039 | 1.9 | $107,493 |
| New Hampshire | 521 | 66.0% | $1,339,474 | 974 | 1.9 | $88,852 |
| Wyoming | 465 | 84.1% | $625,368 | 528 | 1.1 | $73,055 |
| Delaware | 408 | 43.6% | $4,457,434 | 590 | 1.4 | $91,353 |
| South Dakota | 357 | 72.6% | $825,899 | 399 | 1.1 | $50,694 |
| Vermont | 350 | 68.0% | $903,403 | 521 | 1.5 | $79,710 |
| Alaska | 297 | 71.7% | $1,031,461 | 413 | 1.4 | $86,969 |
| North Dakota | 294 | 65.6% | $939,364 | 258 | 0.9 | $76,314 |
Receipts per firm in a state divide the state’s receipts by the firms with an office there, so states with big firms’ offices (DC, Delaware, New York) run high. Sources: Statistics of U.S. Businesses 2022 and Nonemployer Statistics 2024, Census Bureau.
How much do businesses with no employees take in?
The 275,815 legal-services businesses with no employees took in $24.3 billion in 2024. Individual proprietorships are 245,365 of them and took in $19.0 billion; S-corporations are 20,281 ($2.8 billion), partnerships 7,332 ($2.2 billion) and other corporations 2,837 ($380.9 million). The Census Bureau does not publish the dollar total for each receipts band, only the number of businesses.
| Business receipts | Businesses | Share of businesses |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 43,775 | 15.9% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 31,686 | 11.5% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 49,472 | 17.9% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 41,256 | 15.0% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 41,754 | 15.1% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 44,348 | 16.1% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 15,875 | 5.8% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 5,761 | 2.1% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 1,888 | 0.7% |
43,775 of them (15.9%) took in under $5,000. Source: Nonemployer Statistics 2024, Census Bureau.
How concentrated is law-firm revenue?
The Economic Census (2022) counted 156,777 law firms with $356.0 billion in receipts and $129.7 billion in payroll. Ranked by receipts, the largest firms hold this much of the total.
| Largest firms | Offices | Receipts | Share of all receipts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 largest | 47 | $14.2 billion | 4% |
| 8 largest | 83 | $22.7 billion | 6.4% |
| 20 largest | 273 | $42.2 billion | 11.9% |
| 50 largest | 643 | $76.2 billion | 21.4% |
| Firm receipts | Firms | Share of firms | Receipts | Share of receipts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $100,000 | 13,446 | 8.6% | $818.4 million | 0.2% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 27,905 | 17.8% | $4.8 billion | 1.4% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 29,739 | 19.0% | $10.7 billion | 3.0% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 25,002 | 16.0% | $17.7 billion | 5.0% |
| $1 million to $2.49 million | 20,888 | 13.3% | $32.3 billion | 9.1% |
| $2.5 million to $4.99 million | 8,006 | 5.1% | $27.7 billion | 7.8% |
| $5 million to $9.99 million | 4,037 | 2.6% | $27.9 billion | 7.8% |
| $10 million to $24.99 million | 2,256 | 1.4% | $34.2 billion | 9.6% |
| $25 million to $99.99 million | 919 | 0.6% | $41.2 billion | 11.6% |
| $100 million or more | 334 | 0.2% | $152.1 billion | 42.7% |
| Did not operate all year | 24,245 | 15.5% | $6.6 billion | 1.9% |
13,446 firms (8.6%) took in under $100,000 and 334 took in $100 million or more. Source: Economic Census 2022, Census Bureau.
How did we build it?
We download the Census Bureau’s own tables each year: the Statistics of U.S. Businesses file for 2022, the Nonemployer Statistics files for 2024, and the Economic Census 2022 tables through the Census Data API. A script reads every row for offices of lawyers and checks it before anything is published: in every state the size classes must add up to the total, and the states must add up to the US for offices, employees, payroll and receipts. The Economic Census must agree with SUSB for the US within 1%. Dollar figures are stored in whole dollars; the Census tables print thousands.
- Different years and industry levels. Firms with employees and the Economic Census are 2022 and cover offices of lawyers (NAICS 541110). Businesses with no employees are 2024 and cover all legal services (NAICS 5411), the finest level that survey publishes, which includes a few non-lawyer services.
- State firm counts overlap. A firm with offices in several states is counted in each, so the states add up to 160,416 firms against 156,583 for the US. Offices, employees, payroll and receipts add up to the US exactly.
- The Census Bureau adds noise. To protect confidentiality it changes each figure a little. It flags a figure changed by 2% to under 5% (H) or by 5% or more (J); 111 of the 364 size-class records carry one of those flags in the data files. Small states are the most affected.
- Empty means not published. The Census Bureau published no figure for 8 state size classes (AK 100-499, HI 500+, NH 500+, ND 500+, SD 100-499, SD 500+, VT 500+ and WY 500+), and the Economic Census withheld the firm count for AR, NE and ND. Those cells are empty in the data and flagged suppressed, never estimated.
- Receipts are revenue, not profit, and payroll is wages before benefits. A firm’s size here is its employees, not its lawyers.
- Counts only. We publish no firm names. Not legal advice.
How to cite this study
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 28, 2026
- Every version
- 10.5281/zenodo.23739996 (always points to the newest)
- License
- CC BY 4.0
Download the data
- CSV: data.csv 7 KB · one row per state, DC and the US
- CSV: law-firm-economy.csv 423 KB · every size class and record, with its source
- JSON: law-firm-economy.json 904 KB · every record with its source and flags
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Suggested citation
Probative. (2026). Law firm size, solos and receipts, by state: Census SUSB 2022, Nonemployer Statistics 2024 and Economic Census 2022 (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23739997
Credit line for a chart, table or article
Source: Probative, Law firm size, solos and receipts, by state: Census SUSB 2022, Nonemployer Statistics 2024 and Economic Census 2022, version 1.0.0, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23739997, licensed CC BY 4.0.
Not legal advice. These are Census Bureau business statistics, kept for marketing planning. Receipts are revenue, not profit.
Where can I read more?
- Where the offices are, county by county: the law-office competition map.
- The official pages: Statistics of U.S. Businesses, Nonemployer Statistics and the Economic Census.
- Report an error: the data corrections log.
Questions about law firm size and revenue
How many law firms are there in the United States?
156,583 law firms had paid employees in 2022 (NAICS 541110, offices of lawyers), per the Census Bureau. Another 275,815 legal-services businesses had no employees in 2024. Together they are about 432,398, but the two counts come from different years and industry levels.
What share of law firms are small or solo?
Of the firms with employees, 74.5% had fewer than 5 employees and 95.3% had fewer than 20. Counting the 275,815 businesses with no employees as well, they make up about 63.8% of all legal-services businesses, a rough figure because the years differ.
How much do US law firms take in?
Law firms with employees took in $356.2 billion in 2022, $2,275,101 per firm on average. That average hides a wide spread: $419,995 for firms with fewer than 5 employees and $612.7 million for firms with 500 or more. Receipts are revenue before expenses, not profit.
Does “no employees” mean a solo practitioner?
Mostly. A business with no paid employees is usually one person: 89.0% of them are individual proprietorships. But a few are partnerships or corporations whose owners take no payroll, and this count (NAICS 5411) also includes a small number of non-lawyer legal services.
Why do the state counts add up to more than the US count?
A firm with offices in several states is counted once in each state, but once in the US. The states add up to 160,416 firms against 156,583 for the US. Offices, employees and receipts are not double-counted: the states add up to the US exactly.
Why do the Economic Census and SUSB differ slightly?
They are different surveys of the same year. The Economic Census counted 156,777 firms and $356.0 billion in receipts; SUSB counted 156,583 and $356.2 billion. The Census Bureau also adds random noise to SUSB figures to protect confidentiality.
Are receipts the same as profit or what lawyers earn?
No. Receipts are the money a firm takes in before paying staff, rent and other costs. They say how big a firm is, not what its owners keep.
Can I reuse the law firm size and revenue figures?
Yes. The Census Bureau figures are public domain and our compilation is free under CC BY 4.0. Credit Probative with a link to this page.
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