Methodology
This report is based on several data sources, including an annual California attorney survey that captures demographic characteristics. The narrative below describes all data sources and definitions of demographic and employment data elements. All results in this report supersede those previously published in State Bar reports on attorney demographics.
DATA SOURCES
2023 Attorney Census
The State Bar Attorney Census is a voluntary survey administered during the annual licensing fee payment period through the State Bar’s online portal. The survey was first issued in 2019, and it contained questions on (1) demographic characteristics, (2) primary employment sector, (3) workplace leadership, and (4) workplace climate. The State Bar has since developed two versions of the survey. A short version containing demographic questions and formatted so that prior answers are stored and made for updating is administered annually. A more extended version of the survey that includes employment and workplace-related questions is administered every two to three years.
The 2023 Attorney Census comprised the short-form survey. Analyses in this report that compare the California attorney population to the state’s adult population are limited to attorneys whose licenses were active in February 2023. Each demographic survey question was analyzed based on all attorneys who responded to the question.
As discussed in more detail below, State Bar applicants are requested to voluntarily provide demographic characteristics when applying for admission to practice law in the state. Starting in 2023, missing Attorney Census demographic data was supplemented with data from the State Bar’s Admissions Information Management System (AIMS). Supplemented data accounted for approximately 1 to 2 percent of all responses reported for 2023, depending on the demographic question. See the table below for overall response rates for all demographic questions from 2019 through 2023. Response rates varied by question; depending on the question, this group of attorneys represents 66 to 91 percent of approximately 195,000 active attorneys in 2023.
Active Attorney Response Rates to Demographic Questions
Note: Cisgender/ transgender identity and veteran status were collected beginning in 2020.
Demographic reporting should be considered estimates of the attorney population given the response rates described above.
State Bar Administrative Databases
Data on the number of attorneys admitted to the State Bar of California since 1970 was drawn from the State Bar’s administrative databases.
DEMOGRAPHIC DEFINITIONS
The State Bar tracks and analyzes attorney diversity for the following demographic characteristics:
Race/ ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation/ identity
Attorneys with disabilities
Veterans
The narrative below describes how each demographic characteristic was analyzed for this report.
Race/Ethnicity
The race/ethnicity question provides eight answer categories. Attorneys who selected more than one racial/ethnic group other than the “Other race, ethnicity, or origin” category were categorized as “Multiracial.” The small share of attorneys who selected only “Other race, ethnicity, or origin” were excluded from the analysis. Nonwhite racial/ethnic categories were combined into a single category, “Attorneys of Color,” to facilitate analyses in the body of the report. “Latino” is used in place of Hispanic/Latino, and “Black” is used in place of Black/African American to streamline the narrative.
Asian and Hispanic/Latino Subgroups
Attorneys who selected Asian or Hispanic/Latino as a racial/ethnic identity were given the option to report their ethnic identity. Asian attorneys were able to select from Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, South Asian, and Southeast Asian, and Latino attorneys were able to select from Central American, Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, and South American. Both were given the option to select “Other” and write in a response. If attorneys selected more than one of the listed Asian or Latino ethnic identities, they were categorized as “Multiethnic” for the analysis.
Gender Identity
The Attorney Census contains two questions related to gender identity:
(1) “Which of the following best fits with the gender you identify as?” This question had five answer categories. Analyses of “gender identity” compare three categories: men, women, and nonbinary. Attorneys who selected more than one category were categorized as “nonbinary.”
(2) “Which of the following best applies to you?” offered the following answer categories: “cisgender,” “transgender,” “intersex,” and “not listed.”
Sexual Orientation/Identity
The sexual orientation/identity survey question had seven answer categories. “LGBTQIA+” includes attorneys who selected lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, and/or “not listed.” Data regarding gender identity (including transgender and nonbinary identity) are reported separately. For this report, LGBTQIA+ is an umbrella term for attorneys’ sexual orientation/identity.
Attorneys with Disabilities
Attorneys who selected “yes” in response to the prompt, “I identify as a person with a disability,” were categorized as an attorney with a disability.
Veteran Status
Attorneys who selected “yes” in response to the question, “Have you ever served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, Reserves, or National Guard?” were categorized as veterans. The State Bar added this question to the Attorney Census in 2020.
The Intersection of Race/Ethnicity and Gender
Analyses that explore the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender identity are the focus of this report. The six categories used throughout this report are:
- White Men
- White Women
- White Nonbinary Attorneys
- Men of Color
- Women of Color
- Nonbinary Attorneys of Color
The Detailed Intersection of Race/Ethnicity and Gender
Analyses that explore the detailed intersection of race/ethnicity and gender identity use the following 16 categories throughout this report:
- American Indian/Alaska Native Men
- Asian Men
- Black/African American Men
- Hispanic/Latino Men
- Middle Eastern/North African Men
- Multiracial Men
- Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander Men
- White Men
- American Indian/Alaska Native Women
- Asian Women
- Black/African American Women
- Hispanic/Latino Women
- Middle Eastern/North African Women
- Multiracial Women
- Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander Women
- White Women
Attorneys who identify as nonbinary comprise 1 percent of the total attorney population. Detailed intersectional data on attorneys who identified as nonbinary is not displayed due to small cell size.
FIVE-YEAR TRENDS AMONG ATTORNEY POPULATION
Proportions tests were used to identify statistically significant changes in racial/ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and disability representation among total attorneys between 2019, the first year the State Bar began administering the Attorney Census, and 2023.[1] In the case of transgender identity and veteran status, the comparison years were 2020 and 2023.
It is important to note that results describing the demographics of the active attorney population are based on the Attorney Census, and results reported and analyzed are estimates of the attorney population. The standard errors and confidence intervals generated for statistical significance testing are sensitive to sample size because standard errors are directly proportional to the square root of the sample size. In contrast, the width of the confidence interval is inversely proportional to the square root of the sample size. As the sample size increases, the standard error decreases, and the width of the confidence intervals narrows, producing more precise estimates and a greater ability to detect statistically significant differences. In contrast, the opposite is true when the sample size is smaller. Confidence intervals calculated at the 95 percent level imply that if the same survey were conducted 100 times, the actual population results would fall within the specified percentage range in approximately 95 out of those 100 instances. The margin of error was calculated by multiplying the standard error by two; this value was then added and subtracted from the 2019 estimate for each demographic category to obtain a 95 percent confidence interval that was used to determine whether the 2023 estimate was statistically different over time.
For example, in 2019, men and women accounted for 55.6 percent and 43.5 percent of the attorney population in 2019, respectively, and 54.9 percent and 44.0 percent in 2023. The difference between the two estimates across the two time periods was 0.7 for men and 0.5 percent for women. However, only the difference for men was statistically significant because the standard error (and margin of error) was bigger for women than for men. The 2019 estimate for women could have been as low as 42.9 percent or as high as 44.1 percent. The 2023 estimate for women of 44.0 percent falls within the 2019 confidence interval for women’s 2019 estimate of 43.5 percent.
ANALYSES OF NEWLY ADMITTED ATTORNEYS
The State Bar began collecting race/ethnicity and gender identity from applicants in 1990. The race/ethnicity and gender questions did not allow applicants to select more than one category, there was no category for Middle Eastern/North African, and the gender identity question did not offer response options other than for men and women. The 2019 Attorney Census improved this data collection process with more comprehensive questions on race/ethnicity and gender identity. These improved questions were asked of applicants beginning in 2020, and data is stored in the State Bar’s AIMS database. The analysis of race/ethnicity and gender identity of newly admitted attorneys was primarily based on responses from the Attorney Census. In cases where this data was unavailable, data was supplemented with information from AIMS and when necessary, filled in gaps using data from the race/ethnicity and gender identity data collected before 2020. Large shares of race/ethnicity and gender identity data are missing for attorneys admitted before 1990. However, less than 5 percent of race/ethnicity and gender identity data is unavailable for attorneys admitted from 1990 onward. Missing data was excluded from the denominator in all calculations of the demographic composition of the newly admitted attorney population.
Have questions about the data in this report? Email your questions to surveydata@calbar.ca.gov.