Tinder Box

"Is That Your Final Answer?"

As Regis Philbin, the host of the extremely popular television show, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.?" would say - "Is that your final answer?"

For 1,649 State Bar members, they did provide their final answers to the 1999 Membership Survey that was distributed last fall. That figure is 41% of the total active practicing lawyers in West Virginia which numbers just over 4,000. According to the polling firm that tabulated the results, Ryan McGinn Samples Research, Inc., that is an unbelievably high response rate for a lengthy survey that had close to 200 questions.

In last month’s West Virginia Lawyer, you were able to review the Executive Summary of this important report. I hope that you have taken the additional time to go to the State Bar’s homepage - www.wvbar.org - and review all of the survey results. There is a massive amount of important information in that document that should be of interest to individual lawyers in West Virginia as well as to the State Bar as an entity.

We plan to use the survey results in the planning process for our organization. We also will be able to better respond when we get specific questions about various aspects of the legal profession in West Virginia.

The State Bar has done a Membership Survey in 1974, 1984 and 1994. It was decided that the 10 year time period was too long and that is the major reason why the survey was done in 1999 after only 5 years.

Ryan McGinn Samples provided us with some comparisons between 1994 and 1999. I want to share some of those comparisons with you.

*The number of "full-time attorneys" decreased from 87% to 85% while the number of attorneys working full-time but in a position that "does not require legal training" increased from 4% to 8%.

*The number of attorneys who have practiced from 21 to 30 years dramatically increased from 13% to 22% with a corresponding decrease in the number of attorneys practicing from 11 years to 15 years from 21% to 14%. These are the Baby Boomer attorneys.

*The male/female comparison remained about the same from 1994 to 1999 - 26% of the attorneys were female in 1994 and 25% in 1999.

*The racial figures remained the same with African-American individuals being 1% of the total number of attorneys.

*The taxable income levels had a major increase from 1993 to 1998. The percentage of attorneys in the $20,000 to $40,000 range decreased from 15% to 10% and from $40,000 to $60,000, there was a reduction from 22% to 20%. On the other hand, the percentage in the $60,000 to $80,000 increased from 13% to 15%, remained the same - 10% - in the $80,000 to $100,000 range and then increased in the highest three categories from 14% to 15% in the $100,000 to $150,000 range, from 8% to 12% in the $150,000 to $250,000 range and from 6% to 8% in the over $250,000 range.

*There was a corresponding set of figures for the question relating to the hourly rate charged by those attorneys who use that method of compensation. The hourly rate category from $46 to $65 decreased from 5% to 2%, the $66 to $90 category decreased from 22% to 9% and the $91 to $110 category decreased from 27% to 23%. On the other hand, the $110 to $135 category doubled from 11% to 22%, the $136 to $150 category increased from 6% to 10% and the $150 to $200 category increased from 4% to10%.

*There were also some changes in response to the question of whether your law office requires a minimum number of hours per year. The biggest modification was in the "no requirement" category which increased from 51% to 66%. In the other time categories, there were the following changes - 1,500 hours or less decreased from 2% to 1%. 1,501 to 1,750 hours decreased from 3% to 2%, 1,751 to 2,000 increased from 14% to 17% and 2,001 to 2,220 increased from 1% to 2%.

* State Bar members continued to devote substantial amounts of time to civic and community work. Less than 5 hours increased from 32% to 39%, 5 to 9 increased from 21% to 28%, 10 to 15 hours increased from 15% to 17%, 16 to 20 hours increased from 3% to 5% and more than 20 hours increased from 6% to 8%.

*The amount of pro bono legal work donated each month was also on the rise. Less than 5 hours increased from 46% to 58%, 5 to 9 hours increased from 18% to 22%, 10 to 15 hours increased from 8% to 11%, 16 to 20 hours remained the same at 2% and more than 20 hours increased from 2% to 3%.

*The percentage of State Bar members receiving their legal training from the West Virginia University College of Law was basically the same - 66% in 1994 and 64% in 1999, while those who characterized the quality of their education experience at the College of Law in the excellent and good categories increased from 80% to 86%.

*The percentage of State Bar members practicing law in small law offices - 5 lawyers or less - increased significantly from 46% in 1994 to a majority of 58% in 1999.

I hope that these few statistics have whetted your appetite to review more of the excellent 1999 Membership Survey. We will keep placing more survey results in future issues of the magazine; but, don’t forget, to take the time to go to the State Bar’s website and look at the entire document.

A big Thank You goes to those 1,649 State Bar members who gave us their Final Answers!