Broke lawyers was the way Ray had figured things.

[kjc0123]

What is the meaning of "Broke lawyers was the way Ray had figured things." in the following senteces?

 

Broke lawyers was the way Ray had figured things. Like all small towns in the South, Clanton was brimming with lawyers. They were packed in the office buildings opposite the courthouse square. They ran the politics and banks and civic clubs and school boards, even the churches and Little Leagues. Where, exactly, around the square was he supposed to fit in?
During summer breaks from college and law school, Ray had clerked for his father. For no salary, of course. He knew all the lawyers in Clanton. As a whole, they were not bad people. There were just too many of them.

[Marsh]

It sounds to me as though the paragraphs immediately before this one have outlined a problem.  Ryan thinks that the cause of this problem is that the town has too many lawyers for the legal work available, so that they are all short of money.  Does this fit in with what went before?

[Marsh]

Sorry, Ray not Ryan

[jno]

The sentence is written backwards, I think. 'Ray thought that things could be explained by the fact that the lawyers had no money' is probably what he's saying (and as Marsh explains, this is because there are too many of them and not enough work).