5% - Rate of Major Depressive Order (MDD) among the general population
5% - Rate of MDD among students entering law school
32% - Rate of MDD among law students in their second semester
40% - Rate of MDD among law students in their sixth semester
17% - Rate of MDD among graduates two years after law school
10% - Rate of alcohol abuse/dependency among the general population
17% - Rate of alcohol abuse/dependency among lawyers
3% - Rate of cocaine use among the general population
1% - Rate of cocaine use among lawyers
70% - Rate of lawyers who use cocaine but must be lying about it
11% - Lawyers who think about suicide at least once a month
100% - Lawyers who think about homicide at least once a month
1/4-1/2 - Lawyers who, if they could go back, would do something else
1/3 - Partners at the largest 125 law firms who, if they could go back, would do something else
1300 - Typical hours billed by a law firm partner in 1970
1500 - Typical hours billed by a law firm associate in 1970
2000 - Median associate hours billed in 1990
2400 - 80th percentile associate hours billed in 1990
70% - Associates given more than 2 weeks vacation each year
48% - Associates who take more than 2 weeks vacation each year
As grim as these numbers are, the reality is much worse. The data comes from a Vanderbilt Law Review article published in 1999, and much of the data was already several years old then. 13 years later the situation has gotten much more grim, with unemployment, job insecurity, and massive debt piling on the all the existing problems.
