By: Dr. Tamara Patzer
Key Takeaways
- The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics counted 19,697 U.S. legal services companies with 10 or more employees in 2021, including 2,853 with 50 or more.
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics, in an August 2026 update, projects 5 percent growth for lawyers from 2025 to 2035 and says some routine legal work may be automated.
- The same agency projects no net growth for paralegals and legal assistants, and names artificial intelligence among the technology advances that could limit demand.
- Illinois court officials wrote in January 2026 that supervising lawyers remain responsible for how staff use AI, and that confidential client data does not belong in public AI tools.
A Profession Counted in Small Offices
Walk into most American law offices and the first thing you notice is how few people work there. The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, the statistical agency of the National Science Foundation, published Table 35 of its report NSF 24-303 using the Census Bureau’s 2022 Annual Business Survey. It counted 152,543 legal services companies with employees for data year 2021. Of those, 132,844 had one to nine employees.
The firms that fit the profile of a growing practice are a smaller group. The table lists 16,844 companies with 10 to 49 employees, 2,278 with 50 to 249, and 575 with 250 or more. Added together, 19,697 companies had at least 10 employees, about 13 percent of the total. Those with 50 or more numbered 2,853.
The survey counts companies, not offices, so a firm with branches in three cities appears once. The figures are also several years old, and they describe a profession in which a 10-person firm is already bigger than most of its peers.
The Routine Work Question
The federal government’s own occupational forecasts show how that pressure may play out. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, part of the U.S. Department of Labor, updated its Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for lawyers on Aug. 27, 2026. It reports about 863,700 lawyer jobs in 2025 and projects growth of 5 percent from 2025 to 2035, faster than the average for all occupations. The agency expects about 28,700 openings a year, many of them created when lawyers move to other occupations or leave the labor force.
On technology, the handbook says some routine legal work may be automated, but it does not expect that to reduce overall demand. Automation could free lawyers to spend more time with clients and on strategy.
The outlook for the people who support lawyers is less comfortable. The bureau’s entry for paralegals and legal assistants, also updated Aug. 27, 2026, lists 404,900 jobs in 2025 and projects a change of zero percent through 2035, a net loss of about 1,100 jobs. The page says demand is expected to be limited by advances in technology, including artificial intelligence, which may make paralegals more efficient at research and document preparation. Even so, the agency projects about 40,800 openings a year, mostly from workers who change occupations or leave the labor force.
For a managing partner, those two forecasts point in the same direction. The total number of seats may hold steady, but the tasks that fill a junior employee’s first years, such as first-pass research and document preparation, are the kind of work the agency says technology may make more efficient.
Rules Catch Up to the Tools
The tools are arriving faster than most firms can write policy for them, and courts and disciplinary bodies have noticed. On Jan. 28, 2026, the Office of the Illinois Courts published an article by Mary F. Andreoni, ethics education senior counsel at the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, about the commission’s guide, The Illinois Attorney’s Guide to Implementing AI, released in October 2025. The guide is written with solo and small-firm lawyers in mind, and it lines up with the Illinois Supreme Court’s policy on artificial intelligence, which allows AI use as long as lawyers keep meeting their existing professional duties.
The guide lays out a three-step approach. A firm sorts its information into four levels of sensitivity, rates each AI tool on eight safeguards, and then matches the two. According to the article, confidential data should never go into public AI tools, even with a client’s consent. Business-class or enterprise tools may be acceptable if clients are informed and can opt out.
The article also stresses verifying AI-assisted work before anything is filed.
For firms in the 10 to 50 range, the supervision language is the part that stands out. Under Rules 5.1 and 5.3, the article explains, senior lawyers must make sure subordinate lawyers and staff use AI ethically and responsibly. Andreoni recommends training paralegals, clerks and associates on the risks of invented citations, setting verification steps before anything is filed, and keeping a log of that checking. She also advises reading local rules and standing orders, because many courts now require disclosure of AI use.
What Experience Takes With It
Rules and software are only part of the picture. A great deal of legal work depends on judgment that rarely makes it into a manual, such as how a certain client prefers to be updated or what a clerk’s office will accept on a Friday afternoon.
The federal numbers do not measure that knowledge, and no agency counts it. What they do show is steady turnover. Both of the Labor Department’s occupation pages describe openings that come from people leaving the labor force or changing careers, and the paralegal forecast suggests fewer entry-level seats in which newcomers would absorb that judgment the old way.
The Illinois guide points toward one answer. Its call for written policies, training and verification logs amounts to asking firms to turn habits into documents, so that how work gets checked does not depend on any one person.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many U.S. law firms have 10 or more employees? The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics counted 19,697 legal services companies with 10 or more employees for data year 2021, of which 2,853 had 50 or more. The figures come from the Census Bureau’s 2022 Annual Business Survey.
Will AI reduce the number of lawyers? The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 5 percent growth in lawyer employment from 2025 to 2035. It says some routine legal work may be automated but does not expect that to reduce overall demand.
What about paralegals? The bureau projects employment of paralegals and legal assistants to change by zero percent from 2025 to 2035, and it names advances in technology, including AI, as a factor that may limit demand.
What do ethics officials say about AI at law firms? In a Jan. 28, 2026 article, Illinois ethics counsel wrote that lawyers who supervise others must ensure AI is used responsibly, that confidential data should stay out of public AI tools, and that many courts require disclosure of AI use.
About the Author
Dr. Tamara “Tami” Patzer is a publisher and former newspaper editor who was on the staff of The Charlotte Sun when it was named a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Breaking News Reporting. She writes about AI and media literacy. Connect with her on LinkedIn. Contact: info@dailysuccessinstitute.com.
Sources
- National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Table 35, Companies by company size and industry: 2021 (NSF 24-303)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Lawyers (updated Aug. 27, 2026)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Paralegals and Legal Assistants (updated Aug. 27, 2026)
- Office of the Illinois Courts, article by Mary F. Andreoni of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (Jan. 28, 2026)
