Legal Industry
Statistics2026
How many lawyers, paralegals and legal staff there are, who employs them, where the jobs are, what they earn and how fast each role is growing — plus live openings from our own job board.
Every figure is sourced, dated and linked to the organization that published it.
Live Law Firm Job Openings
Every other figure on this page comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics or NALP.
These numbers are ours — aggregated from employer career sites and direct postings on Law Firm Hires, and updated continuously.
| Role | Listings with a salary | Median posted low | Median posted high |
|---|---|---|---|
| Litigation Attorneys | 208 | $120,000 | $190,000 |
| Government Attorneys | 193 | $121,785 | $197,200 |
| Associate Attorneys | 186 | $100,000 | $130,000 |
| Paralegals | 152 | $65,000 | $91,815 |
| Insurance Defense Attorneys | 113 | $110,000 | $180,000 |
| Attorneys | 100 | $100,000 | $165,000 |
| Legal Assistants | 98 | $52,069 | $70,000 |
| Litigation Paralegals | 92 | $66,300 | $95,000 |
| Personal Injury Attorneys | 78 | $125,000 | $200,000 |
| In-House Counsel | 75 | $176,100 | $255,400 |
| Prosecutors | 73 | $79,469 | $197,100 |
| Legal Secretaries | 68 | $60,000 | $85,000 |
| Of Counsel Attorneys | 46 | $165,350 | $231,650 |
| Family Law Attorneys | 44 | $87,200 | $130,000 |
| Corporate Attorneys | 41 | $160,000 | $220,000 |
| Senior Associates | 39 | $200,000 | $300,000 |
| Family Law Paralegals | 33 | $50,000 | $75,000 |
| Workers' Compensation Attorneys | 32 | $107,500 | $167,500 |
| Legal Billing Specialists | 29 | $75,000 | $95,000 |
| Employment Attorneys | 29 | $100,000 | $275,000 |
| Case Managers | 23 | $65,000 | $85,000 |
| Real Estate Attorneys | 21 | $160,000 | $230,000 |
| Intellectual Property Attorneys | 21 | $200,000 | $290,000 |
| Law Firm Administrators | 21 | $125,000 | $140,000 |
| Corporate Paralegals | 20 | $80,800 | $110,430 |
| Legal Recruiters | 19 | $80,000 | $100,000 |
| Estate Planning Attorneys | 19 | $90,000 | $130,000 |
| Legal Intake Specialists | 18 | $50,113 | $71,250 |
| Law Clerks | 17 | $80,000 | $121,371 |
| Docketing Clerks | 15 | $84,700 | $111,000 |
| Role (hourly postings) | Listings with hourly pay | Median posted low | Median posted high |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal Assistants | 126 | $21/hr | $25/hr |
| Paralegals | 95 | $24/hr | $28/hr |
| Legal Intake Specialists | 49 | $20/hr | $25/hr |
| Legal Secretaries | 44 | $21.50/hr | $25/hr |
| Legal Receptionists | 44 | $18/hr | $21/hr |
| Case Managers | 35 | $25/hr | $35/hr |
| Litigation Paralegals | 33 | $29/hr | $38/hr |
2,562 of 7,440 live listings (34%) state pay; 2,046 state it as an annual salary and 516 as an hourly rate.
Roles with at least 15 listings in a pay unit are shown, and each column is the median of the posted range’s low or high end.
Posted ranges are what employers advertise, not what workers are paid, and they are not comparable to the BLS wage percentiles further down this page.
This is the Law Firm Hires job board’s own live sample of law firm and legal-department openings — a real-time view of hiring demand, not a census of every legal job.
Roles are grouped by our job categories, not BLS occupations, and listings we cannot place in a state appear only in the total.
The figures move as roles are posted and filled, and we also save a snapshot on the first of each month.
If you cite them, please note the “as of” date and link back to this page.
How many lawyers and paralegals are there?
BLS counted 754,500 lawyer jobs and 392,880 paralegal and legal assistant jobs in May 2025 — wage-and-salary jobs, not counting the self-employed.
Most of them sit inside one industry: the legal services industry employed 1,224,710 people, and lawyers, paralegals and legal secretaries together are 71.8% of that workforce (calculated).
| Occupation (SOC) | Jobs | 10th pct | Median | 90th pct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lawyers 23-1011 | 448,040 | $74,330 | $157,870 | about $372,590 |
| Paralegals & Legal Assistants 23-2011 | 304,820 | $44,020 | $61,770 | $99,210 |
| Legal Secretaries & Administrative Assistants 43-6012 | 125,980 | $36,260 | $54,900 | $93,950 |
| Office Clerks, General 43-9061 | 30,700 | $30,040 | $40,700 | $64,660 |
| Receptionists & Information Clerks 43-4171 | 25,020 | $31,200 | $41,600 | $56,160 |
| Secretaries & Administrative Assistants (except legal, medical & executive) 43-6014 | 23,510 | $31,200 | $46,330 | $74,870 |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting & Auditing Clerks 43-3031 | 20,990 | $36,620 | $57,660 | $82,630 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Office & Administrative Support Workers 43-1011 | 20,340 | $48,030 | $76,480 | $129,390 |
| Title Examiners, Abstractors & Searchers 23-2093 | 19,260 | $37,460 | $56,530 | $82,620 |
| General & Operations Managers 11-1021 | 19,000 | $47,990 | $114,380 | about $293,220 |
| Accountants & Auditors 13-2011 | 12,400 | $55,550 | $86,540 | $156,330 |
| Billing & Posting Clerks 43-3021 | 11,080 | $42,890 | $59,730 | $84,480 |
| Legal Support Workers, All Other 23-2099 | 10,550 | $39,410 | $63,100 | $117,860 |
| File Clerks 43-4071 | 8,280 | $30,450 | $44,060 | $63,190 |
| Computer User Support Specialists 15-1232 | 6,850 | $52,240 | $77,690 | $108,300 |
| Executive Secretaries & Executive Administrative Assistants 43-6011 | 6,070 | $51,480 | $80,580 | $123,830 |
| Administrative Services Managers 11-3012 | 4,600 | $78,050 | $120,370 | $225,110 |
| All occupations | 1,224,710 | — | $78,200 | — |
Wage-and-salary employment and annual wages in the legal services industry (NAICS 541100: law offices, notaries and other legal service offices such as title abstract and settlement offices), BLS OEWS May 2025.
The occupations shown are a selection, so they do not sum to the total.
Firms employ far more than lawyers and paralegals: 30,700 general office clerks, 25,020 receptionists, 20,990 bookkeeping clerks and 11,080 billing clerks.
Wages marked “about” are at or above the $239,200 line where BLS top-codes its published tables.
Two counts, two meanings.
OEWS (754,500 lawyer jobs) is a payroll survey and leaves out the self-employed.
The Occupational Outlook Handbook (863,700) adds them back.
In BLS’s 2025 data, 52% of lawyer jobs were in legal services and 11% were self-employed, while 75% of paralegal jobs were in legal services.
BLS publishes one combined occupation for paralegals and legal assistants, with no separate figure for either title.
Legal Job Growth, 2025–2035
BLS projects lawyer employment to grow 5% between 2025 and 2035, against 3.5% for all occupations.
Paralegal and legal assistant employment is projected to show little or no change (0%), and legal secretary employment to fall 5%.
Even so, lawyers and paralegals together are projected to need about 69,500 new workers a year (sum of the two projections), mostly to replace people who retire or change occupations.
| Occupation (SOC) | 2025 | 2035 | Change | Openings / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lawyers 23-1011 | 863.7k | 904.3k | +5% | 28,700 |
| Paralegals & Legal Assistants 23-2011 | 404.9k | 403.8k | 0% | 40,800 |
| Legal Secretaries & Administrative Assistants 43-6012 | 157.6k | 149.3k | −5% | — |
| All occupations | — | — | +3.5% | — |
BLS Employment Projections 2025–35, released 27 August 2026, as shown in the Occupational Outlook Handbook; employment in thousands, including the self-employed.
Openings count jobs from growth and from replacing workers who leave the occupation.
Percent changes are as BLS publishes them, rounded to whole numbers.
The Entry-Level Lawyer Market
92.8% of the Class of 2025 was employed about ten months after graduation, the second-highest rate NALP has recorded.
The national median starting salary reached a record $100,000, and $155,000 in private practice.
Firms of more than 500 lawyers took 33.2% of all law firm jobs that went to the Class of 2025, and firms of 1–10 lawyers took 26.4%.
By firm size, median starting salaries ranged from $84,000 at firms of 1–10 lawyers to $225,000 at firms of more than 500.
Public service — government, judicial clerkships and public interest — took 31.0% of all jobs, down from 32.7%.
Federal government hiring of new graduates (excluding clerkships) fell 37.0%, from nearly 1,100 to about 690.
Where the Legal Jobs Are
California has the most lawyer jobs (95,770), ahead of New York and Texas. California also has the most paralegal and legal assistant jobs (47,130), ahead of Florida and New York.
Wage-and-salary employment, BLS OEWS May 2025, the top five states as published (BLS counts the District of Columbia as a state).
For pay and job counts in every state, see the lawyer salary and paralegal salary pages.
Legal Salaries by Role
The national median for lawyers was $159,670 in May 2025 and for paralegals and legal assistants $62,890 — the same BLS release our salary pages use.
The bar is the 25th-to-90th-percentile range, and the notch is the median.
Annual wages from BLS OEWS, May 2025, national figures across all employers; “~” marks a value at or above the $239,200 line where BLS top-codes its published tables.
OEWS wages leave out self-employed lawyers and partners in unincorporated firms, and they exclude most bonuses.
Employer-type medians come from the Occupational Outlook Handbook, except the corporate head-office row (NAICS 551100), the closest BLS proxy for in-house legal departments.
The class-year chart is NALP’s survey of law firm offices, mostly firms of more than 250 lawyers, so it describes large-firm pay rather than all associates.
See the Cravath scale for how big-firm pay steps work.
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions the sourced data on this page can actually answer — nothing beyond it.
01How many lawyers are there in the U.S.?
BLS counted 754,500 wage-and-salary lawyer jobs in May 2025 (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics).
Counting the self-employed, the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook puts lawyer employment at 863,700 jobs in 2025.
The two figures measure different things, so cite the one that matches your question and name its series.
02How many paralegals are there in the U.S.?
BLS counted 392,880 wage-and-salary jobs for paralegals and legal assistants in May 2025.
Including the self-employed, employment was 404,900 in 2025 (BLS Employment Projections).
BLS publishes one combined figure for paralegals and legal assistants, with no separate count for each title.
03Is the legal industry growing?
Unevenly.
BLS projects lawyer employment to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 28,700 openings a year.
Paralegal and legal assistant employment is projected to show little or no change (0%), yet about 40,800 openings a year are still expected as workers retire or change occupations.
Legal secretary employment is projected to fall 5%.
04How many people work at law firms?
The legal services industry (NAICS 541100: law offices, notaries and other legal service offices) employed 1,224,710 wage-and-salary workers in May 2025, with an annual median wage of $78,200 across all occupations.
Lawyers (448,040), paralegals and legal assistants (304,820) and legal secretaries (125,980) are the three largest occupations.
05How much do lawyers make?
The national median wage for lawyers was $159,670 a year ($76.76 an hour) in May 2025.
The 25th percentile was $102,990 and the 90th about $351,600.
By state median, New York ($207,860), the District of Columbia ($195,190) and California ($195,080) paid the most.
OEWS wages leave out self-employed lawyers and partners in unincorporated firms.
06How much do paralegals make?
The national median wage for paralegals and legal assistants was $62,890 a year ($30.24 an hour) in May 2025.
The 25th percentile was $50,340 and the 90th $101,500.
By state median, the District of Columbia ($89,750), Washington ($79,400) and Colorado ($78,190) paid the most.
07How much do first-year associates make?
NALP’s 2025 Associate Salary Survey found a median first-year associate base salary of $200,000 as of January 1, 2025, and $215,000 at firms of more than 700 lawyers. $225,000 was the most common figure, reported by 32% of offices.
Across all new law graduates, the Class of 2025 median starting salary was $100,000, and $155,000 in private practice.
08What share of new law graduates find jobs?
NALP measured a 92.8% employment rate for the Class of 2025 about ten months after graduation, the second highest on record.
84.6% of graduates held jobs requiring or anticipating bar admission, the highest share since NALP’s current classifications began in 2001.
Methodology & Sources
Every published figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics or NALP, checked against the source and quoted as published, with its release or data year.
We use the latest releases: OEWS wages for May 2025 (released May 2026), Employment Projections for 2025–35 (released August 2026) and NALP’s Class of 2025 findings (released August 2026).
Where a figure is a sum or ratio of published numbers, the page says so.
Where we could not read a figure at its source, the page leaves it out rather than filling the gap.
All figures reviewed October 2026.
No SEO stat aggregators and no figures we could not read at the source.
The live-openings block is first-party data from the Law Firm Hires job board: every active listing, grouped by our role categories, refreshed automatically and timestamped with an “as of” date.
Posted pay is the median of the ranges employers advertise, shown only for roles with enough listings.
We also save a snapshot of the totals on the first of each month.