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Research & Statistics > Legal Career Professionals > Preliminary Findings from the 2024 U.S. Survey of Legal Career Professionals

Preliminary Findings from the 2024 U.S. Survey of Legal Career Professionals

NALP Bulletin+
September 2024

NALP administers the U.S. Survey of Legal Career Professionals in Law Firms and Employer Organizations biennially to provide members with essential benchmarking information on compensation, job responsibilities, professional experience, and credentials. The 2024 survey was administered in April and May of 2024, resulting in a total of 465 completed surveys. Nearly 99% of respondents were working in a law firm setting. In the tables that follow, respondents are grouped according to job title: director/chief, manager, and coordinator/assistant. Additional sub-groupings are included by primary job duties (e.g., recruiting, professional development), scope of responsibility (e.g., global, national), firm size, geographic location, and education levels. Below is a summary of key findings from the preliminary data analysis.

Key findings:

Overall, the median annual salary increase was 4.0% for directors, managers, coordinators, and assistants, while chiefs saw a 5.0% increase. The median represents the 50th percentile of salary increases. (See Tables 1-3 below.)
As of April 1, 2024, median salaries by role ranged from $55,000 for assistants to $350,000 for chiefs. (See Chart 1.)
Since the 2022 survey, the median salary for chiefs has increased from $340,000 to $350,000, while it has grown from $200,000 to $223,000 for directors.
For chiefs/directors, median salaries were higher for legal career professionals with global responsibilities, as compared to those with national or regional responsibilities. Median salaries were also higher in the largest firms of 1,000 or more lawyers. (See Table 1.)
For managers, the median salary grew from $135,000 as reported in the 2022 survey to $150,000 in 2024.
Salaries increased by scope of responsibility for professional development managers, but that was not the case for recruiting managers. However, for both recruiting and professional development managers, salaries were highest in firms of 1,000 or more lawyers. (See Table 2.)
The median salary for coordinators rose from $77,000 in 2022 to $80,000 in the 2024 survey.
As with managers, salaries increased by scope of responsibility for professional development coordinators, but that pattern was not evident for recruiting coordinators. Unlike chiefs/directors and managers, there was no clear differentiation in coordinator salaries by law firm size. (See Table 3.)

The complete report will be released later this fall and will feature additional benchmarking information on departmental position hierarchy, bonuses, employer-paid membership dues, as well as a demographic profile of legal career professionals. NALP also will publish a separate report for Canadian legal career professionals. Once published, these resources will be available exclusively to NALP members on the Member Salary Surveys page.

Table 1. Salaries and Percent Raises for Chiefs and Directors — as of April 1, 2024

	Median Salary	Average Salary	Half of Salaries Fell in Range	# Reporting Salary	Median % Raise from April 2023
Overall
All Chiefs and Directors	$231,700	$249,314	$195,000-281,000	142	4.0%
All Chiefs	350,000	379,283	300,000-475,000	23	5.0
All Directors	223,000	224,194	182,000-260,000	119	4.0
By General Job Function:
Recruiting	223,000	235,983	182,000-275,000	67	5.0
Professional Development*	241,500	257,821	209,000-280,000	48	4.0
Alumni Relations	275,000	260,286	—	7	4.0
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion	250,000	303,500	—	7	3.5
Recruiting and Professional Development	238,750	273,958	205,000-345,000	12	4.5
Other Job Functions/Responsibilities	235,000	261,920	175,000-282,000	15	4.0
Chiefs/Directors of Recruiting
By Scope of Responsibility:
Global	275,000	282,829	250,000-311,000	18	4.0
National	208,080	233,366	182,000-260,000	33	5.0
Regional	165,000	184,255	148,000-218,500	15	5.0
By Size of Firm (Number of Lawyers in United States):
500 or fewer	190,000	189,688	141,800-230,000	22	4.5
501-999	252,000	247,320	200,000-296,925	27	4.0
1,000+	252,500	275,560	200,000-350,000	18	6.0
By Region/Firm Size (Number of Lawyers in United States):
Northeast	285,000	297,000	—	8	5.0
Mid-Atlantic	203,000	220,799	192,000-252,000	15	4.0
Mid-Atlantic/501-999	218,000	241,101	—	9	4.0
Mid-Atlantic/1,000 or more	195,000	190,016	—	5	.
Southeast	180,000	190,158	148,000-245,000	13	5.0
Southeast/500 or fewer	138,828	149,066	—	5	4.0
Southeast/501-999	190,000	212,788	—	6	5.0
Midwest	233,400	247,188	182,000-280,000	17	5.0
Midwest/500 or fewer	190,000	185,743	—	7	4.0
Midwest/501-999	280,000	263,667	—	6	8.0
West/Rocky Mountain	240,000	246,329	190,000-281,000	14	5.0
West/Rocky Mountain/500 or fewer	193,800	209,450	—	8	6.5
By City:
Chicago	275,000	310,567	—	6	5.0
Los Angeles/Orange County	312,500	303,667	—	6	6.5
New York City	285,000	297,000	—	8	5.0
Philadelphia	192,000	194,428	—	5	4.0
Washington DC/Northern VA	210,500	233,985	195,000-260,000	10	4.0
By Years in Field:
Less than 13 years	170,900	174,999	140,314-209,000	12	4.0
13.5-19.5 years	229,200	238,874	190,000-260,000	20	5.0
20 years or more	252,000	259,951	200,850-296,925	33	5.0
By Education:
BA/BS	218,250	237,067	190,000-265,000	40	5.0
MA/MS/MBA	255,000	250,973	—	8	4.0
JD	236,700	232,966	152,000-300,000	14	4.0
Chiefs/Directors of Professional Development*
By Scope of Responsibility:
Global	260,000	283,165	216,000-290,000	25	4.0
National	225,000	220,220	176,000-254,000	15	4.0
By Size of Firm (Number of Lawyers in United States):
500 or fewer	207,560	230,412	176,000-260,000	10	5.0
501-999	235,900	236,559	205,000-265,000	22	4.0
1,000+	267,500	304,188	230,000-288,000	16	4.0
By Region/Firm Size (Number of Lawyers in United States):
Northeast	285,000	320,273	215,000-430,000	11	4.0
Northeast/1,000 or more	290,000	380,286	—	7	4.0
Mid-Atlantic	238,000	246,675	216,000-300,000	15	5.0
Mid-Atlantic/500 or fewer	215,000	221,624	—	5	5.0
Mid-Atlantic/1,000 or more	230,000	232,500	—	6	4.0
Southeast	236,500	237,417	—	6	4.0
Southeast/501-999	236,500	237,417	—	6	4.0
Midwest	216,900	216,067	170,500-257,500	12	4.5
Midwest/501-999	205,000	203,257	—	7	4.0
By City:
Chicago	235,900	232,100	—	8	5.0
New York City	273,000	342,250	—	8	4.0
Washington DC/Northern VA	244,000	255,612	216,000-306,000	10	5.0
By Years in Field:
Less than 13 years	235,000	233,113	211,500-262,500	16	4.0
13.5-19.5 years	215,000	218,538	176,000-260,000	13	4.0
20 years or more	260,000	305,506	216,000-335,000	19	4.0
By Education:
BA/BS	238,000	260,007	210,000-260,000	17	4.0
MA/MS/MBA	267,500	310,000	—	6	5.0
JD	228,800	235,187	171,500-270,000	23	4.0

Note: The reporting for "All Chiefs" includes all individuals with "Chief" in their title, regardless of job duties, and the reporting for "All Directors" includes all individuals with "Director" in their title, regardless of job duties. All other reporting in this table includes individuals with either "chief" or "director" in their title. The "# Reporting Salary" column shows the number of full-time salary figures reported. Groupings with fewer than five salaries reported are not shown, and only medians and averages are shown if fewer than ten salaries were reported. The number of raises reported is slightly smaller. The median is based on individuals who were eligible for a raise, and reported a valid figure, which could be zero. About 8% of respondents reported they did not receive a raise from their current employer because of a job change and/or departing their previous employer before salary adjustments. About 2% of respondents who were eligible for a raise did not provide a raise figure. A dash in the raise column indicates that fewer than five raise percentages were reported for that group or subgroup. Examples of other job functions/responsibilities include general human resources duties or other duties related to lawyer personel management, in addition to small amounts of time on recruiting or professional development in many cases.

*The professional development category includes individuals whose jobs encompass alumni relations; diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; career coaching and attorney engagement and integration. Additionally, individuals whose jobs are primarily or wholly alumni relations or DE&I initiatives are also reported separately in the "By General Job Function" portion of the table.

Source: 2024 Survey of Legal Career Professionals in Law Firms and Employer Organizations

Table 2. Salaries and Percent Raises for Managers — as of April 1, 2024

	Median Salary	Average Salary	Half of Salaries Fell in Range	# Reporting Salary	Median % Raise from April 2023
Overall
All Managers	$150,000	$148,521	$124,500-168,500	175	4.0%
By General Job Function:
Recruiting	145,000	145,850	124,500-165,000	113	4.0
Professional Development*	160,000	155,928	130,000-179,000	45	4.0
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion	177,000	158,736	—	5	—
Other Job Functions/Responsibilities	140,000	144,158	130,000-154,500	13	5.0
Senior Managers**
Senior Managers Overall**	180,000	176,961	160,000-195,000	35	4.5
Recruiting	170,000	170,716	156,000-193,000	21	5.0
Professional Development*	176,000	178,628	165,375-195,000	13	5.0
Managers of Recruiting
By Scope of Responsibility:
Global	155,000	159,629	—	8	4.0
National	140,000	140,526	120,000-165,000	47	4.5
Regional	145,000	147,318	130,000-165,000	27	4.0
Single Office	155,250	150,402	139,000-165,000	29	6.0
By Size of Firm (Number of Lawyers in United States):
500 or fewer	140,000	137,462	120,000-159,000	33	4.5
501-999	135,000	138,140	118,000-160,000	29	8.0
1,000+	155,250	155,661	138,375-172,000	51	4.0
By Region/Firm Size (Number of Lawyers in United States):
Northeast	160,000	158,154	145,000-170,000	17	4.0
Northeast/500 or fewer	160,500	155,500	—	6	3.0
Northeast/1,000 or more	155,125	153,578	—	8	4.5
Mid-Atlantic	150,000	151,634	135,000-172,400	22	4.0
Mid-Atlantic/500 or fewer	145,800	144,655	—	8	5.0
Mid-Atlantic/1,000 or more	160,000	160,960	144,000-182,000	10	4.0
Southeast	132,500	133,731	115,000-156,000	26	7.0
Southeast/501-999	132,500	130,643	115,000-150,000	14	10.0
Southeast/1,000 or more	145,500	144,750	—	8	4.0
Midwest	135,508	131,105	120,000-151,000	22	5.0
Midwest/500 or fewer	120,000	119,429	—	7	4.0
Midwest/501-999	131,016	127,403	—	5	—
Midwest/1,000 or more	142,000	141,130	124,300-159,000	10	6.0
West/Rocky Mountain	150,000	154,547	130,000-173,500	24	4.0
West/Rocky Mountain/500 or fewer	138,500	140,000	—	8	5.0
West/Rocky Mountain/1,000 or more	165,000	165,015	150,000-180,200	13	4.0
By City:
Boston	159,000	156,875	—	5	3.0
Chicago	142,500	148,110	135,508-160,000	12	5.0
Dallas	148,500	136,800	115,000-157,000	10	7.5
Los Angeles/Orange County	133,500	138,250	—	8	3.0
New York City	162,500	160,225	145,000-170,000	10	6.0
San Francisco Bay area	176,100	180,266	—	8	4.0
Washington DC/Northern VA	150,000	153,986	140,000-172,400	19	4.0
By Years in Field:
8 years or less	140,000	133,304	116,500-150,000	32	5.0
8.5-14.5 years	145,000	145,484	121,000-165,000	43	5.0
15 years or more	159,000	156,975	139,000-185,000	29	4.0
By Education:
BA/BS	146,000	144,118	120,000-165,000	68	5.0
MA/MS/MBA	143,000	147,029	122,352-169,000	16	4.5
JD	144,500	151,144	124,650-173,500	16	4.0
Managers of Professional Development*
By Scope of Responsibility:
Global	169,250	169,568	160,000-191,000	16	4.0
National	147,400	147,807	115,000-179,000	19	4.5
Regional	134,000	146,484	—	5	—
By Size of Firm (Number of Lawyers in United States):
500 or fewer	134,000	140,050	108,500-160,000	15	4.0
501-999	160,680	161,154	144,000-187,000	15	4.5
1,000+	170,000	166,580	145,000-192,000	15	5.0
By Region/Firm Size (Number of Lawyers in United States):
Northeast	187,500	175,559	146,600-205,000	10	4.0
Northeast/500 or fewer	146,600	161,918	—	5	4.0
Mid-Atlantic	166,938	160,610	—	6	5.0
Southeast	119,000	124,580	—	5	—
Midwest	153,700	145,380	116,750-161,840	16	5.0
Midwest/500 or fewer	118,500	127,771	—	7	5.0
Midwest/501-999	160,000	156,240	—	7	5.0
West/Rocky Mountain	170,500	168,568	—	8	4.0
By City:
Chicago	160,000	158,958	145,000-175,000	10	5.0
By Years in Field:
8 years or less	134,000	139,905	111,500-165,375	13	3.0
8.5-14.5 years	160,000	157,230	144,000-175,000	17	5.0
15 years or more	170,000	168,340	145,000-200,000	15	4.0
By Education:
BA/BS	141,393	141,202	115,000-170,000	14	5.0
MA/MS/MBA	140,700	144,411	—	8	4.0
JD	166,938	171,643	160,000-192,000	22	4.0

Note: The "# Reporting Salary" column shows the number of full-time salary figures reported. Groupings with fewer than five salaries reported are not shown, and only medians and averages are shown if fewer than ten salaries were reported. The number of raises reported is slightly smaller. The median is based on individuals who were eligible for a raise, and reported a valid figure, which could be zero. About 12% of respondents reported they did not receive a raise from their current employer because of a job change and/or departing their previous employer before salary adjustments. About 3% of respondents who were eligible for a raise did not provide a raise figure. A dash in the raise column indicates that fewer than five raise percentages were reported for that group or subgroup. Examples of other job functions/responsibilities include general human resources duties or other duties related to lawyer personnel management, in addition to small amounts of time on recruiting or professional development in many cases.

*The professional development category includes individuals whose jobs encompass alumni relations; diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; career coaching and attorney engagement and integration. Additionally, individuals whose jobs are primarily or wholly DE&I initiatives are also reported separately in the "By General Job Function" portion of the table. There were not enough responses in order to report out alumni relations managers separately.

**Managers whose title includes "Senior" are reported separately in this section of the table. These respondents are also included in the appropriate categories in the rest of the table.

Source: 2024 Survey of Legal Career Professionals in Law Firms and Employer Organizations

Table 3. Salaries and Percent Raises for Coordinators and Assistants — as of April 1, 2024

	Median Salary	Average Salary	Half of Salaries Fell in Range	# Reporting Salary	Median % Raise from April 2023
Overall
All Coordinators	$80,000	$82,636	$71,209-91,500	116	4.0%
Recruiting	79,350	82,108	71,209-92,250	84	4.0
Professional Development*	85,000	83,553	64,028-92,500	24	4.0
Other Job Functions/Responsibilities	84,000	86,658	—	6	3.5
Senior Coordinators**
Senior Coordinators	94,000	97,398	80,000-110,000	14	4.0
Recruiting Coordinators
By Scope of Responsibility:
Global	88,000	84,560	—	5	—
National	77,000	80,516	70,500-90,500	32	4.0
Regional	80,000	80,511	70,000-90,000	29	4.0
Single Office	81,000	86,643	72,500-95,000	17	5.0
By Size of Firm (Number of Lawyers in United States):
500 or fewer	80,000	83,405	72,250-96,900	20	3.5
501-999	85,017	83,064	70,877-92,750	28	3.0
1,000+	78,250	80,643	70,500-85,375	36	5.0
By Region/Firm Size (Number of Lawyers in United States):
Northeast	87,250	91,070	78,500-100,000	14	4.5
Northeast /500 or fewer	97,500	94,583	—	6	3.0
Mid-Atlantic	71,959	74,281	70,000-80,000	14	3.0
Mid-Atlantic/1,000 or more	74,000	75,671	—	9	4.0
Southeast	74,580	77,107	69,000-86,375	24	3.0
Southeast/501-999	82,500	82,004	71,250-91,250	12	3.0
Southeast/1,000 or more	73,500	74,152	70,000-78,700	10	4.5
Midwest	72,563	79,518	67,412-93,000	10	5.0
West/Rocky Mountain	90,000	88,018	76,000-98,800	21	4.0
West/Rocky Mountain/500 or fewer	85,000	86,600	—	8	4.0
West/Rocky Mountain/1,000 or more	83,000	86,665	—	9	4.0
By City:
Chicago	93,000	90,865	—	5	—
Dallas	86,375	83,106	—	6	3.5
Houston	72,250	76,917	—	6	—
Los Angeles/Orange County	90,000	88,636	—	7	4.0
New York City	87,250	90,790	79,750-100,000	12	4.5
Philadelphia	71,417	72,865	—	7	4.0
Washington DC/Northern VA	74,168	76,229	—	6	3.0
By Years in Field:
Less than 3 years	72,000	73,208	66,000-76,000	29	4.0
3-5.5 years	81,000	84,762	74,160-87,500	23	5.0
6 years or more	90,320	90,069	80,000-101,000	24	4.5
By Education:
BA/BS	78,500	81,801	71,000-90,000	61	4.5
MA/MS/MBA	74,000	80,524	73,125-87,500	10	4.0
*Professional Development Coordinators**
By Scope of Responsibility:
Global	80,000	85,800	—	8	3.0
National	75,040	76,534	62,418-90,000	11	4.0
By Size of Firm (Number of Lawyers in United States):
500 or fewer	87,000	89,996	75,040-97,000	10	4.0
501-999	68,500	73,665	—	8	4.0
1000+	80,000	86,000	—	6	3.0
By Region/Firm Size (Number of Lawyers in United States):
Mid-Atlantic	85,000	78,060	—	7	4.0
Southeast	74,000	74,300	—	5	4.0
Midwest	75,000	81,453	—	5	3.0
West/Rocky Mountain	87,000	100,019	—	5	—
By Years in Field:
Less than 3 years	63,000	75,500	—	7	3.0
3-5.5 years	80,020	84,143	—	6	—
6 years or more	86,000	88,356	74,000-90,000	11	4.0
By Education:
BA/BS	74,000	81,856	63,000-95,000	11	4.0
MA/MS/MBA	85,000	84,974	—	7	3.5
All Assistants
All Assistants	55,000	56,679	53,000-60,000	23	4.0

Note: The "coordinator" section of this table includes individuals whose titles include "administrator", "specialist", "analyst", "recruiter", and "coordinator." The "# Reporting Salary" column shows the number of full-time salary figures reported. Groupings with fewer than five salaries reported are not shown, and only medians and averages are shown if fewer than ten salaries were reported. The number of raises reported is slightly smaller. The median is based on individuals who were eligible for a raise, and reported a valid figure, which could be zero. About 10% of respondents reported they did not receive a raise from their current employer because of a job change and/or departing their previous employer before salary adjustments. About 5% of respondents who were eligible for a raise did not provide a raise figure. A dash in the raise column indicates that fewer than five raise percentages were reported for that group or subgroup. Examples of other job functions/responsibilities include general human resources duties or other duties related to lawyer personel management, in addition to small amounts of time on recruiting or professional development in many cases.

*The professional development category includes individuals whose jobs encompass alumni relations; diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; career coaching and attorney engagement and integration. There were not enough responses in order to report out coordinators with DE&I or alumni relations responsibilities separately.

**Coordinators whose title includes "Senior" are reported separately in this section of the table. These respondents are also included in the appropriate categories in the rest of the table.

Source: 2024 Survey of Legal Career Professionals in Law Firms and Employer Organizations

Chart 1. Median Legal Career Professional Salaries by Position (as of April 1, 2024)

Note: Salaries were reported as of April 1, 2024. The coordinator categories include individuals with titles of "coordinator", "administrator", "specialist", "analyst", or "recruiter."

Source: 2024 Survey of Legal Career Professionals in Law Firms and Employer Organizations

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