Richmond is legal central. It lost its title as a banking center a decade or so ago, but the legal industry is going strong and is a major driver of the local economy.

Mergers and acquisitions in the late 1990s saw local banks such as Crestar Financial Corp. and Central Fidelity Banks of Richmond transformed into national banks with headquarters in Georgia and North Carolina.

Law firms took up some slack along with an influx of companies such as MeadWestvaco and Qimonda.

Richmond-based firms Hunton & Williams LLP and McGuireWoods LLP, with 1,000 and 900 attorneys companywide, respectively, are among the 50 biggest law shops in the country, according to Internet Legal Research Group.

Neither ventured far from the Maryland, Washington, North Carolina footprint until the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Since then, both have opened offices overseas, on both coasts and in middle America.

McGuireWoods has merged more than 10 times since 1966, and opened nearly as many branches in that time. It opened its first overseas office in Belgium in 1990.

Four years later, an office opened in Kazakhstan, a country spanning the edge of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In 1998, McGuireWoods opened offices in Chicago, Atlanta and in Charlotte, N.C.

Hunton & Williams has grown primarily by opening offices, but mergers have also played a part. The firm has 14 offices across the United States, as well as in Singapore, London, Beijing and Bangkok.

No single reason accounts for the legal concentration here. With about 1.2 million people in the metro area, Richmond is unlike most cities its size because of an unusual convergence.

As a capital city, Richmond is home to the General Assembly and the Virginia Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is here, one of 12 regional circuit courts. So is the headquarters of one of 12 Federal Reserve districts.

Only Boston and Atlanta can claim all three - state capital, seat of a court of appeals and headquarters to a Fed district.

"Where you have courthouses, you're going to have lawyers," said John D. O'Neill Jr., managing partner of Hunton & William's Richmond office.

A decade ago, 4,869 people were employed in legal services - in offices of lawyers and other establishments that provide legal or paralegal services - in the Richmond area, according to Chmura Economics & Analytics.

At the end of last year, 5,838 people were employed here in legal services - or 17.12 percent of the total number of people working in the professional business services sector, according to the Richmond research firm.

By comparison, legal workers in Virginia represented only 7.29 percent of the professional sector, which also includes accounting, advertising, architecture, engineering, scientific and technical services firms.

The numbers are expected to grow locally as more people and businesses move here.

The Virginia Employment Commission projects that 6,900 people will work in the legal profession in Richmond by 2014, up 18 percent from today's number.

"We are major employers in the city," said Robert D. Seabolt, administrative partner at Troutman Sanders LLP. "We're involved in major acquisitions," as companies moving to Richmond seek legal counsel.

Richmond is home to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court, one of 94 federal judicial districts in the country. Also in Richmond is the State Corporation Commission, which regulates electric and gas utilities, insurance companies and banks.

Hundreds of lawyers represent clients before the SCC. Hundreds more are full-time lobbyists.

Consider, too, Richmond is the base for 13 Fortune 1000 companies such as Dominion Resources, LandAmerica Financial Group and CarMax, all needing legal counsel.

"It's an interesting phenomenon [and] concentrates a lot of need for different types of law in a small area," said John Douglass, acting dean of the University of Richmond School of Law, which enrolls 500 students and employs 97 full-time or adjunct professors.

"For a city of its size, Richmond has really an exceptionally large legal market," Douglass said.

Just take a look in the Yellow Pages, where there are 92 pages of ads, from A Accident Law Firm to Zwerdling and Oppleman.

The Bar Association of the City of Richmond has 2,000 members whose specialties include real estate, banking, business and environmental law. Some also serve as corporate counsel.

Legal firms employ more than lawyers. Consider, for example, that only 33 percent of the 751 people at Hunton & Williams, one of the largest law firms here, are lawyers. The rest are in other disciplines.

The impact in the local economy has become more significant because of the evolution of the legal industry, said O'Neill with Hunton & Williams.

The average salary of people in the legal profession in Richmond was $77,000, compared with an overall average salary here of $44,270 in the third quarter of 2007, according to Chmura Economics & Analytics.

"When people are being paid more, they spend their money," said Christine Chmura, president of the Richmond research firm. "It has a ripple effect."

Law firms help spawn support businesses.

"We purchase a lot of services and goods," said O'Neill of Hunton & Williams.

Court reporters, copier services, couriers, videographers - all help the legal world go round.

"One of the nicest things about doing business in Richmond is there is plenty of work to go around," said Jeanne Wiley, owner of Cook & Wiley, a court reporting firm. "We're all friendly competitors with each other."

In business since 1984, Wiley has 18 court reporters - each one must type at least 225 words per minute - who record mostly depositions and a handful of courtroom procedures. The company bills between $1.2 million and $1.3 million per year.

The firm hires proofreaders or scopists, who translate the steno machine's shorthand into English.

"You've got the client who hires the lawyer who hires the court reporters who hire the scopists and the proofreaders," Wiley said.

Another spinoff business is taking videos to record depositions.

"There's a lot of work out there," said Jimma Attaway, who with her husband, Jim, owns Video Works of Virginia Inc.

Jim Attaway started the company 25 years ago when his days as an office supply salesman grew tiring. He wanted to be his own boss.

What began in the family den now occupies a storefront on Patterson Avenue. They employ two contract videographers and one part-time and one full-time person to handle the workload. Last year, they worked with 258 legal establishments, she said.

The company also shoots "day in the life" videos. Simple moments, such as showing a person's inability to brush their own teeth in an injury case, can be powerful in the courtroom, Jimma Attaway said.

Contact Emily C. Dooley at (804) 649-6016 or edooley@timesdispatch.com.