Legal Recruiting · New York

The New York lateral market, in the numbers firms publish.

We track every opening New York 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 New York firms are hiring for today

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

2,000

Open law-firm postings

1,084

Attorney roles (associate)

592

Litigation openings

The deepest legal market in the country. New York's posted openings exceed 2,000, the ceiling of our counting method, so the true number is higher still. It is the only state where corporate demand approaches litigation head on, and posted associate ranges in Manhattan start where other markets top out.

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

592 openings

Corporate / transactional

434 openings

Intellectual property

175 openings

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

Published pay

What New York 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
Corporate associate, venture focus	Dentons · New York City	3 to 5 years	$260,000 – $365,000

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

The part postings can't show you

The best New York 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 New York attorney we work with, confidentially, before anything is sent anywhere.

Get a confidential market read

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