Legal Recruiting · Illinois

The Illinois lateral market, in the numbers firms publish.

We track every opening Illinois law firms post publicly, and the salary ranges they publish with them. Here is what the market looks like right now, and what it means if you are weighing a move.

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Open demand

What Illinois firms are hiring for today

Openings posted publicly by law firms with Illinois offices (July 2026). Postings only show you the visible market; many searches, especially at partner level, never get posted at all.

880

Open law-firm postings

429

Attorney roles (associate)

293

Litigation openings

The Midwest's anchor market. Illinois posts more openings than the rest of the Midwest's large markets combined, and nearly half are associate roles. Chicago's demand spreads across litigation, corporate, and IP rather than concentrating in one practice, which keeps lateral options open at every level.

Source: Voll Recruiting analysis of publicly posted law-firm openings, July 2026.

Practice areas

Where the demand concentrates

Posted openings by practice area. If your practice sits in a deep column, you have options; if it sits in a thin one, timing and positioning matter more, and that is exactly the situation a recruiter earns their keep in.

Litigation

293 openings

Corporate / transactional

143 openings

Intellectual property

92 openings

Source: Voll Recruiting analysis of publicly posted law-firm openings, July 2026.

Published pay

What Illinois postings are offering

Salary ranges taken directly from current public postings. 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
Medical malpractice defense associate	Litchfield Cavo · Chicago	3 to 5 years	$120,000 – $160,000

Source: Salary ranges published in public law-firm job listings, July 2026.

The part postings can't show you

The best Illinois moves are rarely the posted ones.

A posting tells you a seat exists. It does not tell you which 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 Illinois attorney we work with, confidentially, before anything is sent anywhere.

Get a confidential market read

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