The State Bar of Arizona just announced that its new report titled “2010 Economics of Law Practice in Arizona” is out and available for purchase.

Click here for more information.

In Arizona Attorney Magazine this month, we provide a three-page story providing some of the highlights from the report.

I’ve got to say that the complete report is very robust. It provides far more valuable content than our magazine article could possibly describe. It goes beyond the usual suspects (average hourly rates, etc.) and heads over to lesser-traveled paths, like job satisfaction.

The economics of law is something we covered in February 2009 in our own magazine survey of members. Our story illustrated the sickening drop in the country’s financial picture, which was reflected in law practice.

In that issue and the next, I wrote in my column about the grim prospects facing lawyers. And then I included just a few of the hundreds of lengthy comments attorneys provided in our survey. Here is what I—and they—said:

(From our February 2009 issue)

Things don’t look good.

As we begin 2009, the economy resists efforts to halt its downward spiral. What began as a real estate crisis has ballooned to overwhelm most other sectors—globally, nationally and locally.

Those efforts have been alternately concerted and sporadic. Bailouts and incentives, carrots and sticks have all been wielded at industries and their captains, standing, lashed to their own gilded wheels, as their ships head ever-downward—or at least into government ownership.

The spectacle not so much inspires a sense of confidence as it brings to mind a “Little Rascals” episode, cocky ragamuffins gazing intently through the sewer grate, each convinced he has the ideal method to retrieve their communal treasure, clumsily allowed to plummet down the drain. It stinks to high heaven.

Given the economic news, we wondered how it was affecting Arizona law practice—so we decided to ask you. In December, thousands of you responded to our survey. Thank you for your great response.

(From our March 2009 issue)

Thank you again to all those who participated in our economic survey, whose results we published last month. Now, we’ve posted more of your responses online (http://www.myazbar.org/AZAttorney).

Included are answers to three final questions. Many of you listed for us the practice areas that will improve or deteriorate in a downturn; those answers may not be surprising.

What did startle us was the volume and vehemence of your responses to our general query about law practice and the economy. We’ve posted your thoughts—all 28 pages of them.

As you might guess, your opinions run the gamut. Here is a small sample:

  • Good lawyers will always have plenty of clients. It’s a cyclical phenomenon and will self-correct.
  • I am now working two part-time jobs besides my full-time job to pay my mortgage and bills. I’ve never had to work so hard for so little.
  • I think your survey is skewed toward finding recessionary problems.
  • I have closed my practice and I have not been able to find steady employment elsewhere. I am about to lose everything. There is your economic survey.

As I wrote last year, the economy is not a one-survey story. Please contact me with your own stories, either of hardship or of positive practice changes that have yielded results.