Based on information provided by the State Bar of Wisconsin, there were 23,761 active members of the Wisconsin bar at the beginning of June 2010. Of these, 5,818 (24.5 percent) are graduates of the Marquette Law School. The remaining 17,943 were almost evenly divided between graduates of the University of Wisconsin Law School (8,982) and graduates of out-of-state law schools (8,961).
Presumably, this means that 62.3 percent of Wisconsin lawyers were admitted pursuant to the diploma privilege, compared to 37.7 percent who either passed the bar examination or were admitted based on practice elsewhere.
Unfortunately, detailed information on the alma maters of those who attended law school out of state is not currently available. However, it appears that the schools with the largest number of alumni practicing in Wisconsin are located in states bordering Wisconsin.
Special thanks to James Behan, Database Support Analyst, State Bar of Wisconsin and to Marquette law student Colin Forester-Hoare for their assistance with the compilation of this data.
I actually thought it would be a little higher.
Good information. The question is, how does that compare to other states? How many lawyers in MN graduated from MN law schools, etc?
This is an excellent question. However, it appears that Wisconsin is one of the few states that makes statistics on law school alma maters readily available. If I can find statistics for other states, I will post them.