The American Bar Association was founded on this date in 1878 in Sarasota Springs, New York. One-hundred attorneys from 21 states were present at its first meeting. The legal profession as we know it barely existed at the time. There was no National Code of Ethics, lawyers generally worked alone and trained under a system of apprenticeship. Today, there are some 1.27 million lawyers in the U.S., as the ever-swelling number of civil and criminal cases, and federal and local regulatory requirements, engages the profession. Washington, D.C. has the greatest number of lawyers per capita, with about 52,000 in a population of 646,000. Across the U.S, there are about 188,000 legal services establishments. Profile America is in its 17th year as a Public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.