In-House Counsel Hiring Far Outpaces Law Firm, Government Growth

The number of lawyers working inside corporate legal departments has skyrocketed in the last 16 years, an industry report showed Wednesday.

The population of in-house counsel increased 87% from 2008 to 2024, growing from 78,000 to 145,000 attorneys, the Association of Corporate Counsel said, citing US Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

“These findings affirm what our members have experienced firsthand: Corporations are increasingly valuing the vital role in-house legal teams play in business operations and strategy, especially solving problems related to regulatory compliance, ethics, privacy and risk,” Veta Richardson, ACC president and CEO, said in a news release.

In-house numbers far outpaced those for law firms, where the number of attorneys only grew 23%, and government, where the number of roles grew 38% over the period studied. Growth in all categories dipped during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The growth was also regionally diverse, with states with smaller initial populations of in-house counsel experiencing faster growth. Wyoming’s population of in-house counsel increased 150%, and Vermont’s rose by 90%. New York, Texas and Florida all saw more than 45% growth, adding thousands of new positions.

ACC’s calculation subtracted the number of lawyers employed by the government or law firms from the total number of lawyers counted by the BLS.