Legal Jobs in Austin, TX

Official Austin wage data for the broader legal occupational group shows a $105,010 median annual wage, a $138,240 mean, and a $73,980 to $167,990 span from the 25th to 75th percentile in 2025. BLS also reported a $66.46 average hourly wage for Austin legal occupations, versus $35.85 across all occupations locally. More current opening-based signals are higher and more selective: sampled local posted salary ranges center on about $130k to $200k, and Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows mean offered pay on new Texas legal, compliance & risk openings at about $120,758 in September 2026 (n=601).

Full September 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 118 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $91,835 at the 25th percentile, $121,180 at the median and $173,750 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of November 10, 2026

Senior roles | Entry level | Remote | Posted this week

Live from the Callings.ai index of over 13 million postings, refreshed hourly and re-checked here nightly. Roles that close are dropped at the next refresh.

Showing 30 of 184 openings.

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What our analysts see this month

Competitive market | next 3-6 months

Austin is a workable but selective market for Legal, Compliance & Risk right now. Metro unemployment was 3.9% in August 2026, Austin professional and business services employment rose 1.9587% year over year, and Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows Texas legal, compliance & risk employment up 2.3% year over year. The catch is openings look tighter than headcount: Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows Texas active postings in the category down 3.6% year over year, while the local posting mix is heavily mid-career and mostly on-site or hybrid. This is a good market for experienced specialists, but a harder one for entry-level, remote-only, or sponsorship-dependent candidates.

Best positioned: The best odds belong to a Texas-barred or bar-eligible mid-career candidate with depth in regulatory work, commercial contracts, privacy, IP, litigation, or legal operations, plus comfort using AI-assisted legal workflows.

Main caution: The biggest mistake is reading the high salary bands as broad access; pay is strong, but the sample skews toward mid-to-senior roles and only about 15% of postings are entry level.

From the September 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 184 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. Your Texas Benefits: 11 open roles
2. Daniel Stark LLP: 8 open roles
3. THOMAS: 7 open roles
4. Travis: 7 open roles
5. Ashurst Perkins Coie Group: 6 open roles
6. TX-HHSC-DSHS-DFPS: 6 open roles
7. Jackson Walker, LLP: 5 open roles
8. Austin, Texas: 4 open roles
9. Bryan Fagan: 4 open roles
10. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.: 3 open roles

Where the openings are

• Austin: 170
• Round Rock: 2
• Chicago: 2
• New York: 1
• Rollingwood: 1
• Palo Alto: 1
• Wilmington: 1
• San Jose: 1

Work arrangement

on-site 105 (58%), hybrid 67 (37%), remote 9 (5%)

Where the demand is

Most real opportunity is clustered rather than evenly spread. In the local posting mix, about 30% of openings sit in legal services and about 20% in law practice, while government administration accounts for about 15% and government & public sector about 10%. The employer base is fragmented rather than dominated by one buyer, with more than 250 postings across more than 150 companies over the last 90 days. The strongest local motion is in specialized law-firm work, not generic generalist hiring. September brought visible Austin expansion in patent litigation at Jackson Walker, restructuring at Munsch Hardt, corporate/M&A/securities at Norton Rose Fulbright, healthcare litigation at Norton Rose Fulbright, and emerging-companies and venture-capital work at Pillsbury. At the same time, the top recurring employers in the posting sample include the Texas Attorney General's Office, TX-HHSC-DSHS-DFPS, Your Texas Benefits, and Ashurst Perkins Coie Group, which shows that public-sector and institutional employers still matter alongside private firms. There is also a smaller but important in-house lane. About 30% of sampled postings come from enterprise employers, and Austin startup funding reached at least $5.6 billion through September, an indirect sign that scaling companies may need more contracts, governance, privacy, and internal legal support over time. The Austin head-of-legal-operations hire is especially notable because it signals demand for people who can combine legal judgment with process, tooling, and vendor management.

• Specialized law-firm practices (high): Best for candidates with litigation, patent, restructuring, healthcare disputes, M&A, securities, or venture work. Recent firm moves point to targeted expansion in these areas rather than broad-based junior intake.
• State government and public-sector legal work (moderate): A meaningful share of hiring sits with agencies and state-linked employers, which can be attractive for candidates with regulatory, administrative, investigations, benefits, or public-interest experience.
• In-house counsel, compliance, and legal operations (moderate): This lane is smaller than law-firm hiring but valuable for candidates who can handle contracts, policy, privacy, AI governance, workflows, and cross-functional execution.

Where to focus: Focus first on specialized mid-career law-firm or in-house roles where you can show one clear domain edge, then use government and public-sector openings as a second lane rather than a fallback.

Roles worth searching next

• Contract operations or CLM implementation specialist: It is a natural bridge for candidates with contract negotiation experience because CLM implementation is being rewarded in legal hiring and maps well to in-house workflow needs.
• eDiscovery project manager: Discovery and trial preparation show up in local skill demand, and eDiscovery is still treated as a specialized, compensation-relevant capability.
• Legal operations analyst or manager: Austin produced a real head-of-legal-operations hire, and 2026 legal-tech commentary treats legal ops as a strategic function rather than back-office support.
• AI governance or privacy program manager: Texas privacy and AI rules changed in 2026, and employers are explicitly prioritizing AI governance and oversight skills.

What postings ask for

• Texas Bar admission or bar eligibility (table_stakes | immediate): The most common explicitly named credential in the local posting sample is Texas bar status or membership in good standing with the State Bar of Texas. Who: Attorneys, counsel candidates, and litigators moving into Texas.
• Legal research and legal writing (table_stakes | immediate): These are the clearest baseline skills in Austin postings, with legal research appearing in about 50% of the sample and legal writing in about 25%. Who: Entry-level candidates, litigators, paralegals, and career switchers who need proof of legal readiness.
• Regulatory compliance with Texas privacy and AI-law fluency (differentiator | immediate): Regulatory compliance appears in about 15% of local postings, and Texas changed its privacy and AI rules in 2026 through the TDPSA amendment and TRAIGA. Who: Compliance managers, privacy candidates, in-house counsel, and risk analysts.
• Contract negotiation and commercial contracts (differentiator | immediate): Contract negotiation appears in about 15% of local postings, and Austin hiring signals also point to demand in commercial contracts and in-house work. Who: Commercial counsel, contracts managers, procurement-adjacent switchers, and in-house candidates.
• Data privacy and intellectual property (premium | near-term): Austin-specific hiring commentary highlights demand for data privacy and intellectual property, and recent local expansion in patent litigation reinforces that signal. Who: Attorneys, privacy professionals, and candidates targeting tech-heavy employers.
• AI fluency, prompt engineering, and AI oversight (premium | near-term): Legal-tech sources say AI fluency and prompt engineering are becoming core skills, and 64% of surveyed legal/compliance leaders rated AI governance and oversight among the most critical skills for the next three years. Who: Mid-career attorneys, legal ops professionals, compliance managers, and career switchers with technical aptitude.

Questions about this market

What do Legal, Compliance & Risk roles pay in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX?

Official Austin wage data for the broader legal occupational group shows a $105,010 median annual wage, a $138,240 mean, and a $73,980 to $167,990 span from the 25th to 75th percentile in 2025. BLS also reported a $66.46 average hourly wage for Austin legal occupations, versus $35.85 across all occupations locally. More current opening-based signals are higher and more selective: sampled local posted salary ranges center on about $130k to $200k, and Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows mean offered pay on new Texas legal, compliance & risk openings at about $120,758 in September 2026 (n=601). Austin can pay very well in this category, but much of the visible upside sits in attorney, counsel, contracts, and senior compliance work rather than broad-based junior hiring.

Where is demand for Legal, Compliance & Risk roles in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX concentrated?

Most real opportunity is clustered rather than evenly spread. In the local posting mix, about 30% of openings sit in legal services and about 20% in law practice, while government administration accounts for about 15% and government & public sector about 10%. The employer base is fragmented rather than dominated by one buyer, with more than 250 postings across more than 150 companies over the last 90 days. The strongest local motion is in specialized law-firm work, not generic generalist hiring. September brought visible Austin expansion in patent litigation at Jackson Walker, restructuring at Munsch Hardt, corporate/M&A/securities at Norton Rose Fulbright, healthcare litigation at Norton Rose Fulbright, and emerging-companies and venture-capital work at Pillsbury. At the same time, the top recurring employers in the posting sample include the Texas Attorney General's Office, TX-HHSC-DSHS-DFPS, Your Texas Benefits, and Ashurst Perkins Coie Group, which shows that public-sector and institutional employers still matter alongside private firms. There is also a smaller but important in-house lane. About 30% of sampled postings come from enterprise employers, and Austin startup funding reached at least $5.6 billion through September, an indirect sign that scaling companies may need more contracts, governance, privacy, and internal legal support over time. The Austin head-of-legal-operations hire is especially notable because it signals demand for people who can combine legal judgment with process, tooling, and vendor management.

Which employers are hiring the most Legal, Compliance & Risk talent in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX?

Recent postings show the most activity from Texas Attorney General's Office (20 postings), TX-HHSC-DSHS-DFPS (15 postings), Your Texas Benefits (10 postings), Ashurst Perkins Coie Group (10 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Legal, Compliance & Risk roles in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 5% are remote and 40% hybrid, with 55% on-site. Use the Remote filter above to see only remote openings.

How current are these listings?

Openings come from the Callings.ai live index of over 13 million jobs, refreshed hourly. This page searches postings from the last 30 days; run the search yourself to filter by anything else in plain language.

Browse Texas openings by job title

• General Manager: 551 open roles statewide
• Project Manager: 511 open roles statewide
• Branch Manager: 107 open roles statewide
• Senior Manager: 86 open roles statewide

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