Sifter

Lawyer-hopefuls statewide are gearing up to take the bar exam in July. But what are the demographics of Chico’s current attorneys? A whopping 324 Chico lawyers are listed on the www.calbar.ca.gov Web site, although that counts nearly 100 who are dead, inactive, serving as judges or for other reasons unable to practice. Following are some stats gathered by sifting through the details.

• Most currently practicing Chico attorneys—68 of them—passed the bar in the 1990s. Another 23 passed in the 2000s, 51 passed in the 1980s, another 51 passed in the 1970s, 19 passed in the 1960s, two in the 1950s and one stalwart lawyer, Robert Allen Prior, passed the bar way back in 1949.

• A full 73 lawyers here got their undergraduate degrees from Chico State University.

• The most frequently attended law school for local barristers is Chico’s own Cal Northern School of Law, with 41 graduates practicing here. Most of the others attended colleges in the Bay Area. Thirteen went to out-of-state schools, and one studied in Canada. One smarty pants, William Zachary Jefferson Brown, graduated from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Mass.

• If attorneys don’t pay their bar fees on time, they get suspended. That’s what’s happened to 16 local lawyers.

• Six Chico lawyers have records of discipline, and two of those were actually suspended.

• While two Chico lawyers have resigned, only one has been disbarred: John Nicholas Bach in 1993.