Legal Hiring Trends 2023

Legal Professionals in Highest Demand

Within each scoring indicator, a role is awarded points if its demand is above average compared with other legal roles. A role that had below-average demand received zero points toward its score. Roles were scored by comparing their quarter-over-quarter growth.

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Title Closers4.70
Lawyers3.10
Legal Support Professionals2.76
Records and Case Clerks2.24
Paralegals 2.20

The ranking of roles is based on proprietary analysis of more than 8 million positions posted on more than 1,000 independent job boards and company websites, specialized unemployment rates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and placement data from Robert Half.

Law Firms and Legal Departments Are Hiring — and Challenges Continue

January-June 2023

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Hiring for new roles

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Hiring for vacated roles

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Facing challenges finding skilled talent

Demand for Contract Workers Increases

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of lawyers and managers in law firms and legal departments plan to hire more contract professionals in the first half of 2023 (up from 32% in July-December 2022).

Top areas where lawyers and managers plan to add contract professionals:

Law firms:

Lawyers
Legal specialists
Legal support

Legal departments:

Legal operations
Legal support
Compliance administration and corporate/in-house counsel (tie)

Hottest Practice Areas for Legal Professionals Seeking a New Job

Legal practice areas offering the most job opportunities, according to employers:

Privacy, data security and information law
Labor and employment
General business/commercial law

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of legal professionals are looking or plan to look for a new job in the first half of the year.

Current Unemployment Rates

1.3%

Lawyers

1.8%

Paralegals and legal assistants

Current Population Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Jan. 6, 2023. Percentages reflect unemployment rates for select positions that were near or below the national unemployment rate at the end of fourth-quarter 2022.

In-Demand Roles and Hiring Trends by Profession

See which jobs employers want to hire for soon, based on Robert Half’s unique demand scoring system.

Administrative and Customer Support

Finance and Accounting

Healthcare

Human Resources

Legal

Marketing and Creative

Technology

Your Resource for Meeting Today’s Hiring Challenges

U.S. Hiring Trends

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Local Hiring Trends

Find out where the job market is the hottest, with key insights into local postings, remote work options and in-demand roles.

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Remote Job Trends

The divide over remote work deepens — plus see which roles are yielding the most remote opportunities.

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Data Sources:

*Robert Half calculations are based on job postings provided by TalentNeuron™

The Employment Situation — February 2023, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 10, 2023

Job Openings and Labor Turnover — January 2023, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 8, 2023

Online surveys were developed by Robert Half and conducted by independent research firms. Respondents included executives, senior managers and employees from small (20-249 employees), medium (250-499 employees) and large (500+ employees) businesses in private, publicly listed and public sector organizations across the United States.