U.S. law firms recorded double-digit revenue growth and strong demand in the first half of 2026, according to new survey results from Citi Global Wealth at Work's Law Firm Group. Most large firms also met or exceeded the financial projections they set for themselves at the start of the year, based on Law.com's Q2 2026 Law Firm Performance Survey. For attorneys evaluating their next move, a growing market changes the calculation considerably.
Key Takeaways:
Law Firms Are Having a Strong Year: U.S. firms posted double-digit revenue growth and rising demand through the first half of 2026, even with expenses climbing from AI investment and return-to-office costs.
Large Firms Are Meeting or Exceeding Expectations: Law.com's Q2 2026 survey found most respondents reporting results at or above the projections they set for the year.
Certain Practice Areas Are Seeing Significant Hiring: National security law has emerged as a notable area of hiring activity, with several major firms adding attorneys to their practices in recent months.
A Strong Market Shifts Leverage Toward Candidates: When firms are growing and competing for talent, attorneys weighing a lateral move have more room to negotiate than they did a year ago.
U.S. law firms are having a strong year. The more interesting question for attorneys is what that growth actually means for the people firms are trying to hire.
U.S. firms recorded double-digit revenue growth and strong demand in the first half of 2026, and some of the practice areas benefiting from that demand are actively adding attorneys. That changes who has leverage in a conversation about a new role. In the practice areas and markets where firms are actively competing for talent, that leverage is increasingly shifting toward the attorney.
Law Firms Had a Strong First Half of 2026
The topline numbers back this up clearly. Citi Global Wealth at Work's Law Firm Group found that U.S. law firms posted double-digit revenue growth alongside strong demand growth through the first half of the year, even as expenses climbed from AI investment and a broader push back toward in-office work. Growth and rising costs aren't mutually exclusive, and this year both are happening at once.
The financial picture holds up at the firm level too. Law.com's Q2 2026 Law Firm Performance Survey found that large U.S. firms entered the second half of the year in relatively strong financial condition, with most respondents reporting results that met or exceeded the projections they set for themselves at the start of 2026.
Where the Growth Is Concentrated
Growth in a professional services industry rarely spreads evenly across every practice group, and this year is no exception. Several large firms have been hiring aggressively in their national security practices over just the past two months, a pace of activity that stands out even against a generally strong year. National security work covers a wide range of matters right now, from export control compliance and sanctions enforcement to the CFIUS reviews that come attached to nearly every meaningful cross-border deal. Firms that invested in those capabilities over the past several years are now positioned to capture work that used to go almost exclusively to a handful of specialist boutiques. What was once a relatively specialized practice has become a more significant area of investment for firms responding to increased demand, and firms are hiring to build out benches that can handle a volume of work that simply didn't exist three years ago.
Geographic expansion is telling a similar story from a different direction. Firms are opening offices in markets they hadn't previously prioritized, and the moves tend to be tied to a specific practice strength they want to establish there rather than a broad, unfocused push into a new city. A firm that decides it wants a real healthcare practice in a state where it's never had an office isn't just adding headcount to an existing team. It's building a team from scratch, in a market where it likely has few existing relationships, and that combination tends to mean more lateral opportunities and more room to negotiate for the attorneys willing to help build it out.
Practice areas tied to regulatory complexity in general are riding a similar wave. Cross-border trade work, data privacy and cybersecurity counseling, and antitrust and regulatory practices have all been absorbing a meaningful share of the demand growth firms are reporting this year, as clients navigate a regulatory environment that keeps adding new obligations rather than removing old ones. None of this shows up as a single dramatic headline the way a mass layoff does. It shows up as a string of individual hiring decisions, made quietly, one practice group and one lateral hire at a time, which is exactly why so few attorneys outside those specific groups ever hear about it.
What a Strong Market Means If You're Weighing a Move
A growing, competitive market changes the leverage in a lateral conversation more than most attorneys realize. When firms are actively building out practice groups and expanding into new markets, they're not just filling a single open seat. They're competing with other firms for a limited pool of attorneys who can help them execute on that growth, which puts real negotiating room on the table around compensation, practice focus, and even where you're based.
That's also true for attorneys who aren't actively unhappy where they are. A strong market is exactly the moment to find out what's actually available, because attorneys have more options when firms are actively competing for talent. We've written before about what changes for an attorney moving from a law firm into an in-house role, and the same logic applies to lateral moves between firms: the best time to explore is while the market is working in your favor, not after it's cooled off again.
What Attorneys Should Look For Right Now
None of this growth shows up on a job board in a way that's easy to find. Firms expanding a practice group or opening in a new market are rarely posting those moves publicly ahead of time, and by the time a role is posted, the firm has often already been in conversation with several candidates for months. A few specific signals are worth watching for if you're trying to figure out where the real opportunity is right now.
Practice groups receiving new investment. Hiring tends to follow revenue. If a firm is adding partners, expanding an office, or building out a practice group, attorneys with relevant experience may have more leverage in that conversation than a standard job posting would ever suggest.
Firms entering a new market. A new office or practice expansion can create opportunities for attorneys who want more responsibility or want to help build a practice rather than step into an established book of work.
Roles where a firm is competing for specialized talent. Regulatory, national security, cybersecurity, transactional, and other specialized practices tend to give candidates more negotiating leverage, simply because the qualified talent pool for that work is limited.
Knowing where the growth is happening before it becomes public is one advantage a recruiter who works this market every day can offer. A confidential conversation can give an attorney a clearer picture of which firms are hiring, which practices are expanding, and where there may be room to negotiate, without alerting the attorney's current firm.
Begin Your Next Step Forward.
The Agency Recruiting places legal professionals nationwide, and every conversation about your next move stays confidential from start to finish. If you're curious what a strong market actually means for you, contact us to find out what's out there right now.
