ABSTRACT
Americans routinely seek resolution of their disputes by courts, and lawyers run the courts; the legal profession exercises great influence over the relations between individuals and institutions in the United States. Lawyers have been influential in the United States throughout the country's history. Of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, 25 were lawyers, as were 31 of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. All aspiring lawyers, regardless of their class rank, must pass a bar exam in the state(s) where they plan to practice. In solo practices and small law firms, where the greatest number of lawyers works today, the burdens and benefits are quite different from those of large-firm practice. Lawyers practicing today can anticipate fundamental changes in the work they will be expected to perform during the course of their legal careers; they will find that some of the work they used to do has become the work of nonlawyers.
