Haley Voll
Founder & Partner
Legal Recruiting · Tampa, FL
The Tampa legal market, in the numbers we can verify.
We work the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL legal market off public data and firm-by-firm knowledge. Here is the local picture, and where a recruiter earns their keep beyond it.
Legal-sector footprint
The size of the Tampa legal market
Federal employment data for the legal-services sector in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FLarea. This counts the whole legal sector, not attorneys alone, and is the most reliable public measure of how much legal work a market sustains.
18,131
Legal-sector jobs
3,028
Establishments
$151,112
Avg legal-sector wage
The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL area supports 18,131 legal-sector jobs across 3,028 establishments, at an average wage of about $151,112 a year. Legal-sector employment is up 0.4% year over year, with average wages up 3.3%.
Source: BLS QCEW county files, private ownership, Q4 2024 vs Q4 2025. Florida-side counties of the metro with disclosed data; wages employment-weighted; NAICS 5411 legal services (all legal-sector employment, not attorneys alone).
Published pay
What Tampa-area postings are offering
Salary ranges taken directly from public postings attached to this market. Ranges like these are the floor of a negotiation, not the ceiling; knowing where a specific firm actually lands is the part we do for a living.
| Role | Firm · location | Experience | Posted range |
|---|---|---|---|
| M&A associate | Foley & Lardner · Miami / Orlando / Tampa / Jacksonville (multi-office) | 4 to 8 years | $290,000 – $420,000 |
Source: Salary ranges published in public law-firm job listings, attributed to this metro by posted location.
The part public data can't show you
The best Tampa moves are rarely the posted ones.
Employment counts tell you a market is real. They do not tell you which Tampa groups are quietly building, which firms flex on class year, or where your book and background put you at the front of the line. That is the read we give every attorney we work with, confidentially, before anything is sent anywhere. For the full state picture, including posted demand by practice area, see the Florida market.
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