2026 legal hiring trends

Schedule a walk-through

Job seekers: Explore opportunities and grow your career.

Legal teams face mounting pressure as focus intensifies on priorities such as growth, efficiency and technology adoption. Legal departments and law firms both aim to implement more technology in 2026, particularly AI-driven tools, while also managing additional priorities like budget optimization and client acquisition. Together, these competing priorities increase the strain on already stretched teams.

These initiatives require talent with both legal expertise and tech fluency—a combination of skills that is not easy to find. Without the right mix, teams risk slower service delivery, compliance challenges and missed opportunities for innovation. A specialized staffing firm can help employers bridge gaps quickly, providing professionals who strengthen client relationships, manage risk and leverage technology to keep legal operations competitive and future-ready.

Hiring managers: Get customized insights and workforce strategies from a Robert Half talent solutions professional.

Strategic priorities for 2026

Leaders of corporate legal departments and law firms shared their strategic priorities for 2026. Expect demand—and competition—to increase for professionals with the specialized skills needed to advance these critical initiatives.

AI and legal tech implementation

Cost control and budget optimization

Regulatory compliance and risk mitigation

Client acquisition and relationships

AI and legal tech implementation

Data privacy and cybersecurity

Legal departments and law firms face skills shortfalls that can stall critical initiatives. Only 1% of legal leaders reported having the necessary capabilities to accomplish priority projects, and 58% said they need to upskill current team members.

Flexible staffing solutions also can help teams gain the necessary expertise to keep operations running smoothly.

Legal
technology Legal
operations and
workflow Soft skills
and
leadership Specialized
practice
areas Legal
research and
analysis Legal
technology Legal
operations and
workflow Soft skills
and
leadership Specialized
practice
areas Legal
research and
analysis

Understand the data. Remove the guesswork. Hire with confidence.

A report walk-through delivers deeper insights

You’ll learn what the data means for your team, local trends shaping hiring and strategies to strengthen your workforce. Schedule a walk-through

Build your team

We connect you with skilled professionals who are ready to step in and support your business from day one. Hire talent

Looking for work?

We’ll help you find opportunities where your skills and experience can make an immediate impact. Find a job

Critical
thinking and
problem solving Adaptability
and continuous
learning Creativity and
innovation Communication Emotional
intelligence Critical
thinking and
problem solving Adaptability
and continuous
learning Creativity and
innovation Communication Emotional
intelligence

Key technical competencies

Recruiting professionals with specialized abilities and expertise enables leaders to advance strategic initiatives. An analysis of thousands of job postings over the past year shows which technical competencies employers value most in legal—making a competitive hiring strategy essential.

Technical skills

AI literacy

Compliance

Contract management

eDiscovery

Estate planning

Ethics and corporate governance

Litigation

Mergers and acquisitions

Practice area proficiencies

Commercial law

Employment and labor law

Intellectual property law

Family law

Immigration law

Real estate law

Hiring plans for 2026

61%

of leaders of law firms and legal departments said finding skilled professionals is more challenging than a year ago.

72%

plan to increase permanent headcount in the first half of 2026.

71%

plan to increase contract or temporary hiring in the first half of 2026.

Roles shaping hiring strategies

The following positions have been experiencing above-average sequential growth and consistent demand throughout the past 12 months, according to an analysis of thousands of job postings and Robert Half placements:

Compliance analyst – legal

Contract administrator

General counsel

Lawyer/attorney, 2-3 years’ experience

Legal operations specialist

Paralegal

At Robert Half, we know talent

Our mission: bringing great companies and skilled talent together to help build successful businesses and rewarding careers. Innovation and high ethical standards have made us the world’s largest specialized talent solutions and business consulting firm with offices across the globe. Hire talent

Looking for a job? Search open roles now

More to explore

Labor market overview Stay on top of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and job posting data to learn about today’s hiring market.

Small business recruitment trends Get up to speed on small business staffing trends and find out what it takes to attract and hire top talent.

2026 Salary Guide Explore the latest data for roles across 7 professional fields and what you should pay or earn in local and national markets.

2026 Legal job market: In-demand roles and hiring trends Discover the top legal hiring trends in 2026, from AI integration to evolving workplace expectations. Learn what roles are in demand and how to stay competitive.

The surveys cited were developed by Robert Half and conducted by an independent research firm. Results may not total 100% due to rounding or allowing for multiple responses. Respondents included executives, hiring managers and workers from small (10-99 employees), midsize (100-999 employees) and large (1,000+ employees) businesses in private, publicly listed and public sector organizations across the U.S.

Over 1.5 million new positions from more than 9,000 independent job boards and company websites are represented in this report, including thousands of placements from Robert Half. Positions are categorized into more than 430 job titles within Robert Half’s Salary Guide using a proprietary mapping methodology that employs state-of-the-art large language models. This dataset includes roles across the finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, administrative and customer support, non-clinical healthcare, and human resources professions.