How big is AFL?

As of December 1, 2011, AFL has identified 2,474 members of the Arizona Bar that meet its membership criteria and have been elected to regular member status by the Executive Board. We have 225 Sustaining Members (9 percent of the total membership).  Four questions structurally define any organization--How big? How Fast? How Much? And Famous For What? This question goes to the first and last of those four.  Size and purpose are always related questions. AFL would serve no useful purpose and accomplish very little if its membership was a small fraction of the best talent in the state. Our goal is to identify, recognize, and validate those Arizona lawyers who meet our criteria. We will identify some who are no longer in active practice. Some will be in legal service situations where client acquisition is irrelevant, e.g., in single-client environments such as in-house corporations. Some will be in public service as judges, prosecutors, public defenders, social justice agencies, administrative lawyers, etc. We hope to identify the top twenty percent of the bar by the end of 2011. The actual number is not important, but our preliminary estimates assume that Arizona has 21,728 from which we hope to identify the top 20%, writ large. The actual number will depend on peer-reviewed nominations. Whatever the number, identifying those in one of America's strongest bar associations is a worthy goal and a valuable resource.