Haley Voll
Founder & Partner
Legal Recruiting · Boston, MA
The Boston legal market, in the numbers we can verify.
We work the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH 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 Boston legal market
Federal employment data for the legal-services sector in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NHarea. This counts the whole legal sector, not attorneys alone, and is the most reliable public measure of how much legal work a market sustains.
24,703
Legal-sector jobs
3,029
Establishments
$245,440
Avg legal-sector wage
The Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH area supports 24,703 legal-sector jobs across 3,029 establishments, at an average wage of about $245,440 a year. Legal-sector employment is up 1.8% year over year, with average wages up 7.0%.
Source: BLS QCEW county files, private ownership, Q4 2024 vs Q4 2025. Massachusetts-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 Boston-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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Life sciences licensing associate | Goodwin Procter · Boston | 3 to 5 years | $260,000 – $365,000 |
| Real estate transactions associate | Goodwin Procter · Boston | 3 to 4 years | $260,000 – $310,000 |
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 Boston moves are rarely the posted ones.
Employment counts tell you a market is real. They do not tell you which Boston 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 Massachusetts market.
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