The ARDC’s 2022 Annual Report hints that its Master Roll and investigation numbers are returning to trends in line with pre-COVID-19 years.

Since its creation 50 years ago, the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of Illinois (ARDC) has issued an annual report documenting attorney demographic and disciplinary data. Below are highlights from the ARDC’s 2022 Annual Report, released in May. The full report can be read online. For a visual summary, see the Highlights online.

More lawyers are retiring

Since 2012, the number of attorneys moving to “retired status” on the ARDC’s Master Roll has gradually been increasing, with roughly twice as many attorneys moving to “retired status” in 2021 than in 2012. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of “retired status” attorneys jumped by 28 percent, from 1,369 to 1,752, a larger increase than in previous years.

Female attorneys

In 2022, female lawyers registered in Illinois accounted for 40 percent of all Illinois attorneys, the highest percentage since the ARDC began tracking this data in 1992. The ARDC notes that the national average of female attorneys is 38 percent. However, this percentage drops as attorneys age. On a more positive note, of attorneys in practice for 10 years or less, 47.5 percent are women.

Active attorneys in Illinois

Of the 95,711 active and inactive lawyers registered in 2022, 73,861 are practicing law, 49,108 (66.5) percent are working in a private-practice setting, and 65,839 are based in Illinois. There has been little change in the number of registered Illinois attorneys over recent years.

Of the 49,108 attorneys in private practice, roughly half work in firms of ten or fewer lawyers, slightly more than 50 percent of which (or, 25.8 percent of all private-practice attorneys) are solo practitioners.

The number of attorneys in firms of 100 or more lawyers rose from 26.3 percent to 27.8 percent of all Illinois attorneys, accounting for the largest private practice setting.

Of all solo practitioners, roughly 55 percent are older than 60; those older than 70 comprise 26 percent of all solo attorneys in Illinois.

Pro bono

Thirty percent of all registered attorneys in 2022 reported performing pro bono services, contributing more than 1.7 million hours of work. This averages out to about 58 hours per attorney. (The ARDC’s Annual Report notes that the ABA has set an “aspirational” pro bono goal of 50 hours per year per attorney.)

In 2022, Illinois lawyers contributed more than $18 million to legal service providers working with clients in need.

Investigations

ARDC investigations dropped significantly in 2020 and 2021, likely the result of decreased business and legal activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, as the state began recovering from the pandemic, the number of ARDC investigations also increased by more than 18 percent to 4,359 between 2021 and 2022.

However, investigations overall have been dropping annually since at least 2012. Even with the rise of investigations in 2022 by more than 478 from the previous year, the total number of investigations continued to stay under prepandemic levels.

The 4,359 investigations processed in 2022 involved 3,257 different attorneys—3.4 percent of all registered attorneys in Illinois.

Disciplinary cases and sanctions

Most investigations do not lead to official disciplinary action. Depending on the severity of the case, disciplinary actions can be taken by the Illinois Supreme Court or the ARDC’s Hearing or Review boards. The ARDC reports that the Supreme Court sanctioned 63 attorneys in 2022 and the Hearing Board reprimanded one attorney. Of the 63, 40 percent were disbarred or suspended. Solo practitioners accounted for about 63 percent of disciplined attorneys.

More than 30 percent of disciplined attorneys indicated struggling with mental illness or substance abuse.

What the ARDC does

The ARDC is the regulatory arm of the Illinois Supreme Court. The agency was created 50 years ago, when the Illinois State Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association petitioned the Court to assume responsibility for the registration and discipline of attorneys. Until then, the two bar associations assisted with these duties.

Since its founding, the ARDC has processed more than 225,000 grievances against attorneys and has imposed more than 4,800 disciplinary sanctions.

Most attorneys pay an annual registration fee of $385 to the ARDC (inactive attorneys, Rule 707 attorneys, and new attorneys pay $121). Of the $385, $210 goes to the ARDC, $95 to the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois, $25 to the Illinois Commission on Professionalism, $25 to the Client Protection Program; $20 to the Illinois Lawyers’ Assistant Program; and $10 to the Illinois Commission on Access to Justice.

Pete Sherman is managing editor of the Illinois Bar Journal.
psherman@isba.org