The State Bar of Michigan's Law Practice Management Section will reveal the results of the 2000 Economics of Law Practice Survey during the State Bar's 65th Annual Meeting at the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit. Lawrence H. Stiffman, PhD, M.P.H., of Applied Statistics Laboratory in Ann Arbor, conducted the survey and will reveal the results in a panel discussion during the Section's Friday, September 22 meeting at 9:45 a.m., W2-68 (Level 2) of the Cobo Center.

The last survey was presented in 1997. For more than 25 years the State Bar has surveyed and published information on the economics of law practice in Michigan. During this period, the number of attorneys in Michigan has increased steadily (from about 12,000 in 1972 to about 29,000 in 1997). At the same time, Michigan's population has grown and then stabilized while, within the state, regions have independently experienced concurrent periods of economic expansion and decline.

To determine some of the impacts of these changes on the profession, the Law Practice Management Section periodically monitors and reports on:

• Current membership demographics and its geographic distribution;
• Attorney practice (legal) classification and net income by location, tenure and firm size;
• Associate, legal assistant, and secretary compensation by tenure and experience;
• Prevailing average hourly billing rates for attorneys and legal assistants;
• Time allocated to billable and non-billable professional activities;
• Overhead expenses associated with maintaining a private practice by location and firm size; and
• Perceptions on current and future economic circumstances related to law practice.