San Francisco, CA
Legal recruiters in San Francisco
The San Francisco legal market
- Legal-sector jobs
- 25,341
- 10th largest legal market of 73 tracked
- 3.9x the median metro
- Legal employers
- 3,360
- 8th most legal employers of 73 metros tracked
- 3.3x the median metro
- Average annual wage (weekly x 52)
- $245,700
- 5th highest of 73 metros tracked
- 51% above the median metro
Source: BLS QCEW county files, private ownership, Q4 2024 vs Q4 2025. NAICS 5411, all legal-services employment, not attorneys alone.
Practice areas covered here
Firms with an office in the San Francisco area
National(18 states)
San Francisco, CA · +25 more
- Litigation
- Corporate & M&A
- Tax, Trusts & Estates
Places paralegals & legal staff
- M
Multi-state(2 states)Specialist
San Francisco, CA · +3 more
- Corporate & M&A
- Finance & Restructuring
Places partners & groups
National(17 states)Specialist
San Francisco, CA · +20 more
- Litigation
- Labor & Employment
Places in-house counsel
National(14 states)Specialist
San Francisco, CA · +18 more
- Litigation
- Intellectual Property
Places partners & groups, in-house counsel
- PL
Single officeGeneralist
Pleasanton, CA
- Intellectual Property
- Real Estate
- Tax, Trusts & Estates
- Labor & Employment
- +2 more
Places in-house counsel, paralegals & legal staff
National(9 states)Specialist
San Francisco, CA · +8 more
- Litigation
Places partners & groups
Multi-state(3 states)
San Francisco, CA · +2 more
- Litigation
- Corporate & M&A
- Finance & Restructuring
Multi-state(2 states)
San Francisco, CA · +1 more
- Corporate & M&A
- Labor & Employment
- Regulatory
Places in-house counsel
Single officeSpecialist
Redwood City, CA
- Litigation
Places partners & groups, in-house counsel
Single officeSpecialist
San Francisco, CA
- Intellectual Property
Places partners & groups, in-house counsel, paralegals & legal staff
- RK
Search types are what each firm says on its own site: retained search, contingency search, contract & temporary.
The San Francisco legal market in numbers
The San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro area had 25,341 legal-sector jobs in Q4 2025. That is the 10th largest legal market of the 73 metros this directory tracks, and 3.9x the median metro, which had 6,428. It had 3,360 legal employers (establishments), the 8th most of 73 and 3.3x the median metro. That is 132.6 legal employers for every 1,000 legal-sector jobs, against 156.0 in the median metro. The average annual wage in the legal sector (the average weekly wage times 52) was $245,700, the 5th highest of 73 metros and 51% above the median metro, which paid $162,708. Compared with Q4 2024, legal-sector jobs rose 1.8% and the average weekly wage rose 0.5%.
This directory tracks 5 metros in California: Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose and Riverside. Together they had 137,463 legal-sector jobs, and 18% of them were in the San Francisco metro. 17 firms in this directory list an office in the San Francisco area, the 8th most of the 37 metros with a page here.
Source: BLS QCEW county files, private ownership, Q4 2024 vs Q4 2025, taken September 15, 2026. NAICS 5411, all legal-services employment, not attorneys alone.
Who is listed here
The groups below count what each of the 17 legal recruiting firms with an office in the San Francisco area states on its own website, and name the firms in each group in the same order as the list on this page.
By footprint
4 of the 17 have only one listed office, in the San Francisco area, and 6 are national firms (offices in five or more states) with an office here. The other 7 are multi-state.
- Single office, 4 firms: Premier Legal Staffing, Inc., Solutus Legal Search, LLC, Lighthouse Legal Search, Ryder Smith Legal Search
- Multi-state (offices in two to four states), 7 firms: Macrae, Engle, Lindsley & Regan Legal Search Consultants, Axiom Law (San Francisco), Quaero Group, Hirewell, Law Tyme, Inc., Rondone Kemp
- National (offices in five or more states), 6 firms: Scion Staffing, Latitude, Major Lindsey & Africa, Special Counsel, Reaction Search International Inc., Marsden Legal Search
Their offices in the San Francisco area are in 4 cities. By the number of firms with an office there: San Francisco, CA (14), Pleasanton, CA (1), Redwood City, CA (1) and San Ramon, CA (1).
By search model
7 of the 17 firms say on their own site what kind of search they run. 2 name both retained and contingency search, 2 name retained search and 3 name contract and temporary work only. 1 of the firms with a permanent search model also names contract or temporary work. 10 do not say.
- Retained and contingency, 2 firms: Scion Staffing, Macrae
- Retained, 2 firms: Solutus Legal Search, LLC, Quaero Group
- Contract and temp, 3 firms: Latitude, Premier Legal Staffing, Inc., Special Counsel
By level placed
By the levels they say they place: partners and groups (6), in-house counsel (6) and paralegals and legal staff (5). A firm can name several. 5 name none.
Practice areas covered
The firms state 8 practice areas between them. The most stated are Litigation (6 of 17, 35%), Corporate & M&A (5 of 17, 29%) and Finance & Restructuring (3 of 17, 18%). 6 name no practice area.
| Practice area | Firms | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Litigation | 6 | 35% |
| Corporate & M&A | 5 | 29% |
| Finance & Restructuring | 3 | 18% |
| Intellectual Property | 3 | 18% |
| Labor & Employment | 3 | 18% |
| Regulatory | 2 | 12% |
| Tax, Trusts & Estates | 2 | 12% |
| Real Estate | 1 | 6% |
4 of the 17 firms state a founding year, from 2000 to 2009. No listing here has been claimed by its firm yet.
Largest listed firms by footprint
The 5 listed firms in the San Francisco area with the most offices nationally, counting each city once and only firms with more than one office. Ties are broken A to Z by name.
- 1.Scion Staffing26 offices, 18 states
- 2.Latitude21 offices, 17 states
- 3.Major Lindsey & Africa19 offices, 14 states
- 4.Reaction Search International Inc.10 offices, 9 states
- 5.Special Counsel9 offices, 9 states
Practicing law in California
- Admitting authority
- State Bar of California Office of Admissions source
- Uniform Bar Exam
- No source
- Admission on motion
- No source
Checked against the National Conference of Bar Examiners.
Nearby markets
Every firm with an office anywhere in California is on the California page.
Questions about San Francisco legal recruiters
- How many legal recruiters have an office in San Francisco?
- 17 firms in this directory list an office in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro area, as of their last check.
- How many San Francisco legal recruiters have only one office?
- Of the 17 listed firms, 6 are national, 7 are multi-state and 4 have only one listed office, in San Francisco. Offices are counted nationally: a regional firm has two or more offices in one state, a multi-state firm has offices in two to four states, and a national firm has offices in five or more.
- How many San Francisco legal recruiters run retained searches?
- 4 of the 17 listed firms say on their own site that they run retained searches, 2 of them alongside contingency search. 3 name contract and temporary work only. 10 do not say. Most legal recruiting is done on contingency, where the hiring firm pays only when it hires.
- Which practice areas have the most coverage in San Francisco?
- By the number of listed firms that state them: Litigation (6 firms), Corporate & M&A (5 firms), Finance & Restructuring (3 firms) and Intellectual Property (3 firms). The other 4 practice areas stated here are Labor & Employment (3), Regulatory (2), Tax, Trusts & Estates (2) and Real Estate (1).
- Do San Francisco legal recruiters place in-house counsel?
- 6 of the 17 listed firms say they place in-house counsel. By the other levels they name: partners and groups (6) and paralegals and legal staff (5). 5 name no level.
- Which markets near San Francisco have their own page?
- San Jose, CA (3 firms), Los Angeles, CA (38 firms) and San Diego, CA (7 firms).
- How is this list ordered?
- By a published rule: listings claimed by their firm come first, then listings with more complete profiles, then A to Z by name. No firm is placed by hand, including Voll Recruiting, which operates this site.
- When was this list last checked?
- Every listing here was last checked against the firm's own website on October 1, 2026. The market figures are from BLS QCEW county files, private ownership, Q4 2024 vs Q4 2025, taken on September 15, 2026. The bar admission facts were checked against the National Conference of Bar Examiners on October 4, 2026.