LawCrossing Reports Increase in Number of Positions at Law Firms across U.S.

Pasadena, CA—According to the latest report by LawCrossing, the world's largest legal career-placement website, the month of March was marked by steady growth in the number of positions at law firms in every region of the U.S.

The latest numbers compiled by LawCrossing indicate that the legal industry's private sector has continued to enjoy stable growth through 2007. In total, law firms across the country offered 804 more positions last month.


The Western region saw the largest increase with 3,665 law firm positions offered in March, compared with 3,363 in February. The Northeast also showed notable growth with a total of 2,747 law firm positions, as did the South with 2,284 positions and the Mid-Atlantic region with 2,059 positions.

Other figures reflect a stable increase in the number of positions for legal staff. The total number of jobs for paralegals increased to 12,168, while jobs for legal secretaries enjoyed the strongest growth among all categories of legal staff positions. In March, 13,097 positions for legal secretaries were available, compared with 12,628 in February. The only category of legal staff jobs to show a decline in growth last month was that of legal administrators, which had 16 fewer positions.

Overall growth in law firm jobs offset slow decreases in other sectors of the legal industry. With the exception of the West, which had only 26 more jobs, the number of in-house positions was down by a total of 467 jobs throughout the rest of the country.

The Northeast showed the steepest loss of in-house jobs with 126 fewer positions. Other regions fared slightly better. Both the Mid-Atlantic region and the Midwest suffered declines of 104 in-house jobs, the South had 70 fewer positions, and the Southwest had 63 fewer positions.

LawCrossing reported that the public sector also offered fewer positions for legal professionals in March. In total, the number of government positions decreased by 251 throughout the country. The Mid-Atlantic region suffered the largest decline, offering 73 fewer jobs even though it saw a slight increase in its number of positions in February.

"While we hope the number of in-house and government positions will be on the upswing, we are very impressed by the strong increase in law firm jobs across the country. And of course, LawCrossing will continue its efforts to find and feature the most positions from every corner of the legal industry," stated Harrison Barnes, CEO of LawCrossing.

About LawCrossing:

LawCrossing's team of more than 200 researchers and editorial staff monitors the hiring needs of more than 750,000 legal employers throughout the U.S. and worldwide. With more than 100,000 legal jobs in its database, LawCrossing counts tens of thousands of law students, attorneys, and legal staff professionals as members.

Media Contact:

Mandy Willingham
mandyw@juriscape.com