Data report
Legal recruiters per 1,000 lawyers, by metro
By John Voll. Published . Sources: BLS OEWS May 2025; this directory's listings, checked through November 3, 2026.
What the numbers say
- Austin, TX ranks first. 13 listed firms have an office there, against 7,540 employed lawyers.
- New York has more listed firms than anywhere else (55) and ranks 36 of 38. It also has 94,610 employed lawyers, which is a lot of lawyers to divide by. Washington, D.C. is last, at 0.45.
- Every metro in the top 10 has fewer than 10,000 employed lawyers: Austin, TX, Columbia, SC, Richmond, VA, Seattle, WA, Pittsburgh, PA, Milwaukee, WI, New Orleans, LA, Raleigh, NC, Kansas City, MO and Tampa, FL. 35 of the 38 ranked metros beat New York.
- 17 of the 73 metros we track have no listed firm with an office at all. The largest are Salt Lake City, UT (4,830 employed lawyers) and San Antonio, TX (4,020 employed lawyers).
I don't think this means New York lawyers are short of recruiters. My guess is that a big-market firm covers more lawyers per office, and that plenty of recruiters with no New York office still call New York associates. Neither shows up in a count of local offices.
The useful reading is for a lawyer in a mid-size metro. The local list is short enough to read in one sitting, and each firm on it is a real share of the local market. In Columbia, SC, one firm opening or closing an office moves the rate by 0.51.
The ranking
Metros with a page on this site (3 or more listed firms). Each metro links to its list of firms.
| Rank | Metro area | Listed firms | Employed lawyers | Per 1,000 lawyers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Austin, TX | 13 | 7,540 | 1.72 |
| 2 | Columbia, SC | 3 | 1,950 | 1.54 |
| 3 | Richmond, VA | 5 | 3,780 | 1.32 |
| 4 | Seattle, WA | 12 | 9,210 | 1.30 |
| 5 | Pittsburgh, PA | 7 | 5,550 | 1.26 |
| 6 | Milwaukee, WI | 5 | 4,040 | 1.24 |
| 7 | New Orleans, LA | 5 | 4,330 | 1.15 |
| 7 | Raleigh, NC | 5 | 4,350 | 1.15 |
| 9 | Kansas City, MO | 6 | 5,310 | 1.13 |
| 10 | Tampa, FL | 9 | 8,330 | 1.08 |
| 11 | Houston, TX | 18 | 16,810 | 1.07 |
| 12 | Chicago, IL | 30 | 28,320 | 1.06 |
| 13 | Dallas, TX | 18 | 17,110 | 1.05 |
| 14 | Nashville, TN | 4 | 3,990 | 1.00 |
| 15 | Baltimore, MD | 7 | 7,520 | 0.93 |
| 15 | Charlotte, NC | 5 | 5,380 | 0.93 |
| 17 | San Francisco, CA | 17 | 18,470 | 0.92 |
| 18 | Los Angeles, CA | 38 | 41,580 | 0.91 |
| 19 | Cleveland, OH | 5 | 5,540 | 0.90 |
| 19 | Indianapolis, IN | 4 | 4,450 | 0.90 |
| 21 | Detroit, MI | 9 | 10,110 | 0.89 |
| 22 | San Diego, CA | 7 | 8,020 | 0.87 |
| 23 | Miami, FL | 20 | 23,270 | 0.86 |
| 24 | Atlanta, GA | 15 | 18,760 | 0.80 |
| 24 | Jacksonville, FL | 3 | 3,760 | 0.80 |
| 26 | Phoenix, AZ | 7 | 8,820 | 0.79 |
| 26 | Philadelphia, PA | 15 | 19,040 | 0.79 |
| 28 | Cincinnati, OH | 3 | 3,870 | 0.78 |
| 29 | Portland, OR | 4 | 5,170 | 0.77 |
| 30 | Denver, CO | 9 | 11,860 | 0.76 |
| 31 | Boston, MA | 14 | 20,080 | 0.70 |
| 32 | Minneapolis, MN | 7 | 10,160 | 0.69 |
| 33 | Orlando, FL | 4 | 5,890 | 0.68 |
| 34 | St. Louis, MO | 4 | 6,100 | 0.66 |
| 35 | Columbus, OH | 3 | 4,960 | 0.60 |
| 36 | New York, NY | 55 | 94,610 | 0.58 |
| 37 | San Jose, CA | 3 | 6,040 | 0.50 |
| 38 | Washington, DC | 21 | 46,840 | 0.45 |
Metros with fewer than 3 listed firms
We track these metros but they have no page yet, because a list of one or two firms isn't much of a list. They are left out of the ranking for the same reason: one firm is the whole rate.
| Metro area | Listed firms | Employed lawyers |
|---|---|---|
| Las Vegas, NV | 2 | 5,480 |
| Salt Lake City, UT | 0 | 4,830 |
| Oklahoma City, OK | 1 | 4,310 |
| San Antonio, TX | 0 | 4,020 |
| Riverside, CA | 0 | 3,470 |
| Albany, NY | 1 | 3,180 |
| Buffalo, NY | 2 | 2,930 |
| Birmingham, AL | 2 | 2,800 |
| Providence, RI | 1 | 2,380 |
| Baton Rouge, LA | 1 | 2,300 |
| Virginia Beach, VA | 1 | 2,280 |
| Omaha, NE | 0 | 2,010 |
| Louisville/Jefferson County, KY | 1 | 2,000 |
| Albuquerque, NM | 0 | 1,960 |
| Urban Honolulu, HI | 0 | 1,960 |
| Harrisburg, PA | 0 | 1,930 |
| Madison, WI | 0 | 1,860 |
| Tulsa, OK | 1 | 1,820 |
| Des Moines, IA | 0 | 1,760 |
| Rochester, NY | 1 | 1,710 |
| Tucson, AZ | 0 | 1,690 |
| Little Rock, AR | 0 | 1,670 |
| Memphis, TN | 0 | 1,670 |
| Charleston, SC | 2 | 1,590 |
| North Port, FL | 1 | 1,440 |
| Grand Rapids, MI | 1 | 1,430 |
| Jackson, MS | 1 | 1,390 |
| Portland, ME | 1 | 1,360 |
| Greenville, SC | 1 | 1,290 |
| Boise City, ID | 1 | 1,250 |
| Knoxville, TN | 0 | 1,250 |
| Syracuse, NY | 0 | 1,190 |
| Lexington, KY | 0 | 1,040 |
| Wichita, KS | 0 | 690 |
| Lafayette, LA | 0 | 650 |
How this was counted
Firms. The count is listed firms with at least one office in the metro, the same count the metro pages use. A firm counts once per metro however many recruiters it has, so a 40-person firm and a solo recruiter are one each. It counts firms listed in this directory (289 of them, checked through November 3, 2026), which is not every legal recruiter in the country. Firms that recruit nationwide from an office elsewhere are not counted in a metro where they have no office. How a firm gets listed is on the methodology page.
Lawyers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, metropolitan area estimates, occupation 23-1011 Lawyers. OEWS counts wage and salary jobs. It leaves out the self-employed and the owners and partners of unincorporated firms, so solo practitioners and many law firm partners are not in it. The real number of lawyers in each metro is higher, and the rate per 1,000 lawyers would be lower.
Matching. Metros are matched to OEWS areas by their federal CBSA code. OEWS uses the 2023 metro definitions, which renamed several areas and gave Cleveland a new code (17460 to 17410); the counties are the same. The CSV keeps BLS's own area names.
Precision. OEWS is a survey. BLS publishes a relative standard error for each estimate, and the CSV includes it; for lawyers in these metros it runs from 2% to 19.4%. Rates are shown to two decimals, and metros that round to the same rate share a rank. The lawyer counts are for May 2025; the listings are newer.
Cite this
Voll, John. "Legal recruiters per 1,000 lawyers, by metro." LegalRecruiters.org, November 3, 2026. https://legalrecruiters.org/reports/recruiters-per-lawyer/
Data: recruiters-per-lawyer.csv (CSV, every tracked metro, ranked or not). Use it however you like; a link back is appreciated.
Other reports: Do legal recruiters publish their fees?