After a sluggish two-year stretch, the U.S. legal job market finally showed signs of life in 2024 — and it wasn’t a whisper, but a shout. Lateral hiring at law firms surged 14%, according to freshly released data from the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), signaling renewed confidence and aggressive expansion after a period of strategic restraint.
The real action was among associates. Firms brought in 25% more lateral associates compared to 2023, dwarfing the more modest 2% uptick in lateral partner moves. It’s a notable pivot from the hiring freeze of 2022 and 2023, when many firms, burned by earlier hiring frenzies, kept their benches tight and their wallets tighter.
So what changed? Money, mostly. Law firms rode a wave of high demand and juiced-up billing rates throughout 2024. Corporate practices, which had been snoozing for a few years, finally rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and got back in the game. Litigation stayed hot. According to industry observers, the year delivered not just steady work — it delivered profits.
NALP’s numbers tell the story: nearly 4,300 laterals were hired across 434 firm offices. The lion’s share came from firms boasting over 1,000 lawyers — Big Law showed up big. The average number of lateral hires per office hovered around 10, though the median sat at a more modest 4.
Smaller firms, the ones with fewer than 250 lawyers, actually took a step back — their lateral hires dipped 11% from the prior year. Meanwhile, the heavyweights ramped up, posting a 21% gain in lateral hiring. A clear sign that size — and budget — matters when the market gets competitive.
Still, the surge wasn’t universal. Cities like Boston, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, and Seattle saw lateral hiring slip. Geography and practice area nuance continue to shape these ebbs and flows.
And while remote work continues to be part of the legal conversation, the report reveals that more than half of firm offices — 51% — still maintain policies against hiring fully remote lateral lawyers. The message is clear: if you want to jump ship, most firms still expect you to show up at the dock.
After the pandemic whiplash — from 2021’s 111% spike in lateral hiring to the icy pullbacks that followed — 2024 looks like the year law firms recalibrated. The lateral doors are open again. Just maybe not wide open.
