A R T I C L E

Tennessee lawyers, who are you?

Did you ever wonder if you are older or younger than most other members of the Tennessee Bar Association? Did you ever wonder how your pro bono contributions stack up to others'? And did you ever wonder (secretly, of course) if you make more or less money than most of your colleagues?

If you did, you are not alone. The leadership of the Tennessee Bar Association wondered too, and recently commissioned a survey to find out just such things as well as a few others. The survey, sent to all TBA members and 2,000 non-members, had a 12.7 percent response rate for members. Statistical results show that the survey has a 95 percent confidence level. The surveys were sent electronically for all those whose e-mail addresses were available, and the old fashioned way - on paper - to the rest. The survey was conducted by Management 21, a Nashville company, and is accurate within " 3 percent.

If there is a typical TBA member, and of course that's not really possible, it would be a white man between the ages of 46 and 55. He is in private practice, most likely a litigator or tort & personal injury lawyer, and making more than $100,000/year. This typical lawyer, who works in a city, has nearly as much of a chance of working by himself (21 percent) as in a firm with more than 25 attorneys (24 percent).

Survey respondents were asked how they felt about transitional legal education, a mandatory program of fee dispute resolution, and whether or not all lawyers should be required to carry professional liability insurance.

Respondents thought requiring new lawyers to attend transitional legal education was a great idea - 38 percent agreed and 22 percent strongly agreed to that.

They also felt strongly that lawyers should be required to carry professional liability insurance - an overwhelming 45 percent strongly agreed and 31 percent agreed. Only 6 percent strongly disagreed.

But when it came to requiring lawyers to have fee dispute arbitration, respondents were undecided. Twenty-eight percent were right in the middle, saying they were not sure how they felt about it.

Lawyers in Tennessee did a lot of legal work pro bono in the past year. In fact, 74 percent of respondents did some sort of legal work pro bono. Only 22 percent took a case that was referred to them by legal aid; the rest took on the cases on their own. Eighteen percent of respondents did no legal work pro bono at all.

Attorneys' most frequent answer as to why they didn't do more pro bono was overwhelmingly because they are too busy (59 percent). Financial constraints (36 percent) and the lack of experience in poverty law areas (40 percent) were also often-cited reasons.

Of attorneys who did do pro bono last year, more than half spent more than 40 hours. Eighteen percent spent 10 hours or less during the year on pro bono work.

Readers like the Journal. At least they are spending a lot of time with it. Survey responses show that Tennessee Bar Journal readers spend a relatively long time with each issue - 56 percent read the TBA's magazine for more than 30 minutes each month.

Readers turn to the substantive articles 73 percent of the time and, just as often and not surprisingly, go straight to the disciplinary actions. Anyone you know there?

Readers are most likely to read "Paine on Procedure" (63 percent), News & Information (44 percent), the CLE course schedule (45 percent), Bulletin Board (45 percent) and "But Seriously, Folks" (38 percent).

Gender
No surprises here: three-quarters of TBA members are male.

Age
The largest group of TBA members is 46 to 55 years old.

Income
Although 45% make more than $100,000, 16% make less than $50,000.

Race
3 % of TBA members are not white.

Number of lawyers in the organization
Lawyers are mostly either sole practitioners (21 percent) or in firms of more than 25 attorneys (24 percent).

Year admitted to the bar
If you were admitted before 1960, you are almost in a class by yourself.

Type of practice
Nearly three-quarters of members are in private practice.

Tennessee should adopt a mandatory program of transitional legal education for newly admitted lawyers.
More than half the lawyers surveyed either agree or strongly agree with this statement.]

Lawyers should be required to carry professional liability insurance.
More than three-quarters agree or strongly agree that lawyers should be required to have professional liability insurance.

Tennessee should have a mandatory program of fee dispute arbitration for lawyers.
Lawyers were split on this one, with nearly a third undecided.

How many lawyers did legal work pro bono last year?
Nearly three-quarters of members did some sort of legal work pro bono. 12 percent did not do any legal work pro bono.*

How much did you do?
Thirty-four percent spent more than 80 hours on pro bono and/or community service work in the past year.*

Why didn't you do more pro bono?
59 percent indicate that being too busy makes it difficult to do legal work pro bono.*

Average time spent reading the Journal
Wow! 40 percent of respondents read the Tennessee Bar Journal 30 minutes to an hour every month. And thanks to that 1 percent who stick with us more than two hours.

The features most likely to be read
Readers like some features more than others, but overall the survey shows a good balance of readers for nearly each category. Note: some standing columns that are in the Journal now were not at the time of the survey.*

* Respondents were asked to mark all that applied, therefore the percentages will not equal 100%.

Top 10 areas of practice for TBA members

In what areas do Tennessee Bar Association members practice?

1. Litigation/General Civil Practice 22.8% *
2. Tort & Personal Injury 21.7
3. Litigation/Commercial and Business 18.8
4. Corporate & Business 18.5
5. Real Estate 17.4
6. Trust, Estate Planning & Probate 16.9
7. General Practice 16.6
8. Family Law 12.4
9. Labor & Employment Law 11.4
10. Commercial 10.1

* Respondents could chose up to three practice areas; therefore percentages will total more than 100%