Working with Americans

11:

professional advisers

INTRODUCTION

Although the US has only 5 per cent of the world’s population, it has 70 per cent of the world’s lawyers¹ – about 1 million according to the American Bar Association, the US legal industry regulating body. Seven out of ten of these are in private practice, while the remainder are found in public sector or in-house counsel roles. Typically US lawyers are addressed by the term “Esquire” after their name, and you will often see the abbreviation “JD” on their business cards – “Juris Doctor”, the name of the law degree granted in the US. However, the American lawyer is likely to be a specialist, belonging to one or more of about 100 specialist categories – from insurance defence litigator to probate lawyer. ...