1973, June, Pg. 35. Specialization: A Report on Colorado Lawyers.

• Author: by James E. Wallace

2 Colo.Law. 35

The Colorado Lawyer

1973.

1973, June, Pg. 35.

Specialization: A Report on Colorado Lawyers

35Vol. 2, No. 8, Pg. 35Specialization: A Report on Colorado Lawyersby James E. Wallace,In August 1972 members of the Colorado Bar Association were surveyed by the Economics of Law Practice Committee. Although the survey was designed primarily to gain data about the economics of law practice in Colorado, several items dealing with specialization were included in the survey questionnaire. [See Report on the 1972 Economic Survey of the Colorado Bar, Appendix I, questions 17-37.]

Of the 3407 questionnaires which were mailed to lawyers in Colorado, only 1196, or 35 percent, were returned---a response which cannot be considered representative of all lawyers in the state. The data with respect to specialization are even less representative of all lawyers in Colorado. Although 1196 questionnaires were returned, an average of 928 respondents answered the items which dealt with the matter of specialization---only 27 percent of the lawyers who were sampled. Thus the most that can be said is that the data show what 928 Colorado lawyers, on the average, think about specialization.

Who Is a Specialist?"Understanding a specialist as a lawyer who concentrates his practice in one or relatively few fields of law or its practice, do you consider yourself as a specialist?"

In answer to this question, 51 percent of the lawyers responded "no," they did not consider themselves as specialists. This result is a bit curious. Data from the 1967 Economic Survey indicated that 59 percent of the lawyers in Colorado spent 50 percent or more of their time in a single field of law, and that 87 percent of the lawyers spent 30 percent or more of their time in the practice of a single field of law. Data similar to that obtained in the 1967 study are not available for the lawyers surveyed in 1972, but it is difficult to conclude that lawyers were less specialized in 1972 than they were in 1967 (although this possibility must be taken seriously). This discrepancy in the data about specialization may be explained by the point made earlier---namely, that the responses of 928 lawyers may not be representative of the 3407 lawyers

36who were surveyed in 1972. However, given the fact that the majority of the lawyers responding in the 1972 survey did not consider themselves as specialists, their responses to other questions dealing with the matter of specialization are most interesting.

Length of Specialized PracticeOf those lawyers who considered themselves as specialists, 37 percent had practiced their specialty five years or less and 44 percent had been practicing their specialties more than ten years. The breakdown of length of practice in a specialty is as follows:

[Please see hardcopy for image]Future intentions of these lawyers, both specialists and nonspecialists, were revealing. Seventy-three percent indicated that they would like to specialize in the future, 22 percent indicated that they wanted to specialize in one field of law and 51 percent indicated that they wanted to specialize in more than one field of law. Only 27 percent of these lawyers stated that they wanted to be general practitioners. Thus, even though slightly more than one half of these lawyers did not now consider themselves as specialists, only about one-fourth of them would like to be general practitioners in the future.

Client ReferralOne of the ticklish and often explosive issues surrounding specialization concerns protection of the general practitioner. How can the practitioner who refers a client to a specialist be protected from client-stealing by the specialist?

The data are clear---lawyers now refer their clients to other lawyers in appropriate circumstances. Of the lawyers who responded 90 percent indicated that they refer their clients to other lawyers, 31 percent indicating that they refer clients six or more times per year and 59 percent indicating that they make from one to five referrals a year.

What happens to clients who are referred to other lawyers? Of the lawyers who responded 52 percent said that they have never lost a client whom they have referred out for specialist services, 44 percent indicated that occasionally they lost a client after a referral, and only 3 percent stated that they frequently lost clients who had been referred to specialists.

Those lawyers who considered themselves specialists were asked about their usual practice regarding acceptance of work from a client who was referred to them by another lawyer for specialized work. Their responses were as follows:

---No further work accepted without the consent of the...