By Janelle Schwartz, State Bar of Wisconsin
August 12, 2009 – Historically, farmers and lawyers have dominated the Wisconsin Legislature. For decades, around half of all legislators officially listed one occupation or the other, compared to only 17 percent today.
Today’s legislators hold a wide range of occupations that reflect an increasingly diverse economy and society. The occupational backgrounds currently listed in the Wisconsin Legislature include newspaper publisher, bricklayer, software executive, nurse, baseball team owner, small business owner, civil engineer, assembly line operator, forester, police officer, and attorney.
Attorneys still comprise a significant portion of the Legislature, but their presence has certainly shrunk from earlier decades. According to a recent article by the National Conference of State Legislatures in State Legislatures magazine, attorneys decreased from nearly 25 percent of our nation’s legislative bodies in 1976 to 15 percent today. Similarly, Wisconsin has seen a decline in lawyer-legislators (i.e., those legislators who classify themselves as practicing attorneys) from nearly 20 percent in 1976 to 11 percent today.
While the long-term trend has led to a significant decline in lawyer-legislators over the past several decades, in recent years Wisconsin has actually seen a steady climb in the number of attorneys serving in the Statehouse; growing from 11 members (8 percent) in 2003 to 15 members (11 percent) in 2009. However, this number does not include legislators who are licensed attorneys but do not list themselves as practicing attorneys; when these members are taken into account, the 2009-2010 Wisconsin Legislature includes 19 attorneys, up from 17 last session.
As legislative districts grow more populous and sessions grow longer, many legislators treat their elective duties as a full-time occupation (i.e., they no longer maintain other full-time occupations). The National Conference of State Legislatures’ article indicates that, nationally, legislators who classify themselves as full-time lawmakers increased from 3 percent in the mid-1990s to more than 16 percent today. In Wisconsin, the 2009 session lists 11 senators and 39 representatives, or almost 38 percent, who consider themselves full-time legislators.
It is important to have a wide range of occupations and backgrounds serving in the Legislature, yet the increase in Wisconsin lawyer-legislators is a welcome trend. As the Rotunda Report’s ongoing profiles of lawyer-legislators affirm, lawyers are uniquely qualified, by their training and experience, to positively contribute to the quality of legislative deliberations and the laws they help enact.
Rotunda Report is a new newsletter, issued once every two weeks, from the State Bar of Wisconsin that highlights legislative, judicial and administrative developments that impact the legal profession and the justice system. It is produced by the Bar’s Government Relations Team and is distributed free to attorneys, public officials and others who help shape public policy in Wisconsin. We invite your suggestions to make the Rotunda Report more informative and useful and we encourage you to visit our Web site for the most current information about justice-related issues.
© 2009, State Bar of Wisconsin
