ATTORNEY DESERTS
Attorney deserts are geographical areas where residents must travel significant distances to access legal services for everyday matters because too few attorneys live and practice locally. The analysis below examines changes in attorney availability across California over the past decade, focusing on counties and rural areas that have become—or are at risk of becoming—attorney deserts. By comparing the ratio of active attorneys to residents over time, this study highlights shifts in legal service accessibility and identifies the areas experiencing the greatest declines. Understanding these trends is critical for assessing gaps in legal representation and informing policy efforts to address attorney shortages in underserved communities.
BACKGROUND
Identifying attorney deserts is crucial for several reasons. Residents of these areas often struggle to find legal assistance, which leads to unmet legal needs and potential miscarriages of justice. Prior studies have highlighted disparities in attorney distribution across California. A 2019 study of California’s attorney deserts found that rural areas of the state have a higher average number of residents per attorney than urban areas.[1] In 2020, the American Bar Association (ABA) also found that several California counties were attorney deserts, defined as less than one active attorney per 1,000 residents.[2]
This analysis contributes to the existing body of research in several key ways. First, it examines changes in the number of active attorneys living in California compared to those licensed in California but residing out of state.[3] Second, it analyzes where active attorneys live and how these geographic patterns have shifted over the past 10 years. Third, it identifies attorney deserts across all 58 California counties, including distinctions between urban and rural areas. Finally, it explores whether the State Bar’s Pro Bono Practice Program (PBPP) could help address attorney deserts by engaging the growing number of inactive attorneys.
CALIFORNIA ATTORNEYS
The following analyses explore how the number of attorneys residing in California has changed over the last 10 years, disaggregated by active and inactive status. Among attorneys admitted to the State Bar of California, only those with active status can practice law within the state. Attorneys can voluntarily change their status to inactive at any point in their careers and as often as they wish by submitting an application to transfer to inactive status.[4]
The number of active attorneys residing in California has increased by just 3 percent in the last 10 years.
Table 9 displays the California population and the number of active and inactive attorneys by residency status for 2015 and 2025. Key findings are as follows:
- While the number of active attorneys residing in California has increased by 3 percent over the last 10 years, it did not keep pace with California’s population growth of 4 percent.
- The number of active attorneys residing outside California grew by 32 percent.
- The number of inactive attorneys who live in the state grew by 59 percent.
Table 9. California Population and Number of Active and Inactive Attorneys by Residency: 2015 and 2025
Note: Attorney data reflect a count of the attorney population on January 1 of each year. Population data is based on the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey five-year estimates. The population labeled as 2025 reflects the most recent five-year estimate available. See methodology for more details and data sources.
The share of active attorneys living outside California has increased from 11 percent to 13 percent in the last 10 years.
Figure 29 explores how the residency of California’s licensed attorney population has changed over the last 10 years. There has been a notable shift in the geographic distribution of California’s licensed attorneys. While the total number of active attorneys has grown by 3 percent (as shown in table 9), a larger share now resides outside California—increasing from 11 percent to 13 percent. In contrast, the share of inactive attorneys living outside California has decreased from 46 percent to 41 percent. There are several reasons attorneys may maintain an active California license while living elsewhere: some work remotely for California-based clients or firms; others practice in multiple jurisdictions and want to keep their options open; and some work in corporate or regulatory roles tied to California but live out of state. Additionally, attorneys may relocate temporarily or in retirement while keeping their licenses active.
Figure 29. California Residency Status of Active and Inactive Attorneys: 2015 and 2025
Figure 30. Summary of Active Attorney and Population Change from 2015 to 2025 Across California Counties
Three-quarters of California counties have experienced a decline in the number of active attorneys in the last 10 years.
As shown above, California’s number of active attorneys living in the state grew by 3 percent over the past decade, slightly trailing the state’s 4 percent population growth. This statewide trend masks much more profound disparities at the local level. An analysis of California’s 58 counties reveals significant variation in the changes in the active attorney workforce compared to population changes (see figure 30).
- Over the past decade, over three-quarters (76 percent) of all counties experienced a decline in the number of active attorneys.
- Over half of all counties (55 percent) experienced a decline in active attorneys while simultaneously experiencing an increase in population.
- Only 16 percent of counties saw growth in both their active attorney and resident populations.
Several counties experienced double-digit reductions in active attorneys between 2015 and 2025, while just four counties experienced double-digit increases. Table 10 shows the 10 counties with the largest increases and the 10 with the largest declines in active attorneys. In most counties with the greatest declines, the resident population either decreased more slowly than the attorney population or continued to grow. For example, in Lassen County, both the attorney population and the overall population declined, but the attorney population decreased at a much faster rate—falling by 36 percent compared to a 5 percent decline in residents. Similarly, Trinity County saw a 30 percent decline in its attorney population, even as its resident population grew by 19 percent. In general, these 10 counties are among the least populated counties in the state, with 8 out of 10 having fewer than 100 active resident attorneys.
The resident population also increased in most of the 10 counties that experienced the largest increases in the number of active attorneys. Moreover, only half of these 10 experienced double-digit increases in active attorneys, and two were very small counties. Also of note is that most of these 10 counties already had thousands of attorneys.
Table 10. Change in Population and Number of Active Attorneys Across California Counties: 2015 and 2025
Just 3 percent of California’s active attorneys live in rural areas, compared to 12 percent of California’s residents.
Following the California Commission on Access to Justice’s 2019 report on California’s attorney deserts, analyses of the state’s urban, rural, and frontier areas were facilitated using geographical units known as Medical Service Study Areas (MSSAs). MSSAs are clusters of census tracts within counties and are used by the Office of Statewide Health and Development Planning (OSHDP) to identify areas with an unmet need for primary care family physicians. Applying the same logic, access to legal services should require no greater travel distance than access to medical care. See methodology for details about the MSSAs and methods used to categorize attorney addresses as urban, rural, or frontier.
Figure 31. Where California’s Residents and Attorneys Live: 2025
In 2025, 12 percent of California’s residents live in a rural area (see figure 31), a proportion that has remained unchanged over the last 10 years.[5] Similarly, attorneys are still more concentrated in urban versus rural areas than the general population. While 12 percent of California’s population lives in rural areas, just 3 percent of active and 7 percent of inactive attorneys live in rural areas. Because only one percent of the California population lives in frontier areas, the remainder of the analyses focus on urban and rural areas.[6]
Figure 32. Counties with the Largest Gap in Percentage of Residents and Active Attorneys Living in Rural Areas: 2025
Some counties have extreme mismatches between active attorneys’ and residents’ locations, with attorneys disproportionately concentrated in urban areas.
As noted above, 12 percent of California’s residents statewide live in a rural area. However, there is wide variation across the 51 counties in California that contain rural areas.[7] For most counties with urban and rural areas, attorneys are more concentrated in urban versus rural areas than the overall population. Figure 32 lists 10 counties where the mismatch is greatest between the share of the population living in a rural area compared with attorneys. In Merced County, 71 percent of residents live in rural areas, yet only 17 percent of the county’s active attorneys are rurally based.
ATTORNEY DESERTS
As discussed above, most counties in California have seen a decline in active attorneys over the last 10 years, and just 3 percent of current active attorneys are in rural areas. A broader concern is the availability of active attorneys relative to population size in counties and urban/rural areas within counties. Even in areas where the number of attorneys has remained stable or grown, the demand for legal assistance may still exceed the supply if the population grows at faster rate than the number of attorneys.
The following analyses examine geographic disparities in attorney availability across California using the American Bar Association’s definition of an attorney desert (see below).[8] These measures are calculated at multiple levels, including statewide, county levels, and within each county’s urban and rural areas.
Definitions💡 Attorney desert: less than one active attorney per 1,000 residents At risk of becoming an attorney desert: at least one but less than two active attorneys per 1,000 residents
Statewide, California has 4.3 active attorneys per 1,000 residents.
Statewide, there are currently 4.3 active attorneys for every 1,000 California residents. Although California has the second-highest number of attorneys in the nation, an American Bar Association report ranked the state sixth in the number of active attorneys per 1,000 residents.[9] Ten years ago, the statewide ratio was slightly higher, at 4.4. This decline is due to California’s population growth outpacing its active resident attorney population, as shown in table 9.
Most California counties are attorney deserts or are at risk of becoming one.
The statewide ratio of 4.3 obscures significant within-state variation across counties. An analysis of the current ratio of active attorneys per 1,000 residents by county shows that 16 counties are attorney deserts, 21 are at risk of becoming attorney deserts, and 21 are not attorney deserts (see table 11).[10] In general, counties that are attorney deserts are poorer, less populous, and have, on average, fewer active attorneys compared with counties that are at risk of becoming an attorney desert or are not attorney deserts. Ten years ago, fewer counties were attorney deserts or at risk of becoming one.
Table 11. California Counties by Attorney Desert Status: 2015 and 2025
Note: Poverty is defined by the population percentage at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The median poverty rates are the same as the average poverty rates. The median population is as follows: Attorney deserts, 125,901; At risk of becoming an attorney desert, 68,139; and Not an attorney desert, 485,642. See methodology for more details.
Table 12 lists the 16 counties that currently qualify as attorney deserts. Most of these counties were already attorney deserts a decade ago. Over the past 10 years, nearly all have experienced a decline in active attorneys alongside an increase in population growth—widening the gap between legal resources and community needs. Attorney deserts disproportionately affect the Southern San Joaquin Valley and Superior California regions. Of the 5 counties in the Southern San Joaquin Valley, 3 are attorney deserts. If the 17 counties in Superior California, 7 are attorney deserts.
Table 12. California Counties That Are Currently Attorney Deserts
Note: Counties are presented from lowest to highest based on the 2025 ratio of active attorneys to 1,000 residents.
Within-county analyses reveal disparities in access to attorneys between urban and rural residents.
As discussed above, most California counties are a mix of urban, rural, and frontier areas. Half of all counties have urban and rural areas.[11] Of these, 16 counties’ rural areas are currently either attorney deserts or at risk of becoming attorney deserts, while their urban areas are not (see table 13).[12] In all counties, the share of active attorneys living in rural areas is lower than that of the population. Even in counties where a small share of residents lives in rural areas, such as San Diego, Alameda, and Los Angeles, the share of active attorneys residing in those areas is even smaller.
Table 13. California Counties with Rural/Urban Disparities in the Ratio of Active Attorneys to 1,000 Residents: 2025
Counties with rural attorney deserts
Counties with rural areas at risk of becoming attorney deserts
Ten counties do not have enough attorneys in both rural and urban areas.
Of the 29 counties with urban and rural areas, 10 have rural and urban areas that are either attorney deserts or at risk of becoming one (see table 14). For the majority of these counties, poverty rates in both rural and urban areas are higher than the statewide poverty rate at 200% of the federal poverty level of 28 percent. Kings County is the only county in the state where both rural and urban areas are attorney deserts.
Table 14. Counties Whose Rural and Urban Residents Reside in Attorney Deserts or Areas at Risk of Becoming Attorney Deserts: 2025
INACTIVE ATTORNEYS
One potential way to increase the number of attorneys available to provide legal services is for inactive attorneys to participate in the State Bar’s PBPP. The PBPP waives license fees for attorneys who would otherwise be on inactive status so they may maintain active status for the sole purpose of providing pro bono services in partnership with approved legal services providers. At this time, just over 100 inactive attorneys participate in the PBPP annually; as noted above, over 45,000 inactive attorneys reside in California.
Table 15 contains an analysis that estimates the impact of increasing inactive attorneys’ participation in the PBPP for 29 counties with urban and/or rural attorney deserts. The simulation analysis estimates the ratio of active attorneys to 1,000 residents under scenarios where increasing shares of inactive attorneys participated in the PBPP.[13] The results show that encouraging inactive attorneys to participate in the PBPP will improve the ratio of attorneys to 1,000 residents but will not eliminate attorney deserts in most areas within the counties analyzed.
Kings County’s urban and rural areas are designated attorney deserts. Although 100 percent of inactive attorneys in the county reside in urban areas, increasing their participation in the PBPP would have minimal impact because only 15 inactive attorneys live in Kings County.
As noted above, only 7 percent of inactive attorneys statewide reside in rural areas, compared with 12 percent of all residents. This mismatch is present throughout most of the counties analyzed. However, even in entirely rural counties, increasing inactive attorney participation in the PBPP would not move counties out of the risk category. These counties tend to be smaller than those with both urban and rural areas and only a small number of inactive attorneys reside there.
CONCLUSION
California is experiencing significant shifts in its attorney workforce, raising concerns about access to legal services across the state. While the number of active attorneys residing in California has seen only modest growth over the past decade, the number of inactive attorneys has surged. At the same time, more active attorneys are choosing to live outside the state, and most counties have seen a decline in their active attorney populations.
These trends have contributed to widespread attorney shortages, with most counties classified as attorney deserts or at risk of becoming one. The imbalance is particularly stark in rural areas, where only a small fraction of the state’s active attorneys reside. Even within counties, disparities persist between urban and rural communities, exacerbating challenges in accessing legal services. In some counties, there are insufficient attorneys in urban and rural areas.
Efforts to encourage inactive attorneys to engage in pro bono work through the PBPP are unlikely to fully resolve the issue, mainly because small shares of inactive attorneys reside in rural areas. Addressing attorney deserts will require more comprehensive strategies to attract and retain attorneys in underserved regions, ensuring equitable access to legal representation across the state. These strategies include conducting research to identify the barriers to practicing in rural areas as a foundation for targeted recruitment and retention initiatives. Additionally, partnerships among lawyer referral services, legal aid organizations, pro bono programs, and private attorneys should be expanded and strengthened to deliver legal services remotely (e.g., via video consultations or email), extending support to communities with limited on-the-ground legal resources.