250+ Legal & Compliance Jobs in Boston, MA

Observed local pay is strong: BLS puts Boston legal occupations at $84.93 per hour on average, with a $135,160 median annual wage, $176,660 mean wage, and a $86,020 to $218,880 25th-to-75th percentile range. The newer proxy signals are directionally similar rather than definitive: posted local salary ranges center on about $133k to $190k, and Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows a Massachusetts mean offered salary on new openings of about $137,197 (n=142).

Full September 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 233 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $96,190 at the 25th percentile, $145,000 at the median and $211,500 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of October 15, 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 250+ openings.

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What our analysts see this month

Competitive market | next 3-6 months

Boston is still a worthwhile market for Legal, Compliance & Risk, but it is a selective one. Massachusetts legal, compliance & risk postings were up 17.8% year-over-year in September and statewide category employment was up 2.8%, even while Boston professional and business services employment was down -0.9667% year-over-year in August and only about 10% of sampled postings were entry level. That mix points to real demand for targeted candidates, especially in legal services, life sciences, investigations, privacy, and regulated-industry compliance, rather than an easy market for generalists.

Best positioned: Candidates with several years of experience in investigations, privacy/cyber/compliance, labor and employment, life-sciences transactions, or financial-services compliance have the best odds, especially if they are open to hybrid or on-site roles that make up about 90% of the sample.

Main caution: The biggest mistake is assuming Boston's high salary headlines mean broad access; pay is strong, but the market skews mid-career and remote roles are scarce.

From the September 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 287 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. Mass: 6 open roles
2. Ropes & Gray LLP: 6 open roles
3. K&L Gates LLP: 5 open roles
4. Boston: 4 open roles
5. MASSACHUSETTS CHAPTER OF THE NTL ACADEMY OF ELDER LAW ATTYS INC: 4 open roles
6. Morgan & Morgan, PA: 4 open roles
7. Robinson & Cole LLP: 4 open roles
8. Ascendion: 3 open roles
9. Axon Enterprise: 3 open roles
10. Coastal Wave Recruiting: 3 open roles

Where the openings are

• Boston: 165
• Cambridge: 21
• Waltham: 14
• Burlington: 9
• Quincy: 6
• Andover: 6
• Framingham: 5
• Woburn: 5

Work arrangement

hybrid 142 (51%), on-site 123 (44%), remote 16 (6%)

Where the demand is

Most real opportunity sits in legal-services employers first: about 30% of sampled postings are in legal services, about 20% in law practice, and about 15% in "legal" employers. That core is reinforced by recent Boston partner additions in labor and employment, investigations, regulatory compliance, and life-sciences transactions. The second cluster is in Boston's regulated industries. Biotechnology research and financial services each account for about 10% of the sampled posting mix, which makes this a better market for people who can pair legal training with industry fluency than for pure generalists. Because hiring is fragmented across employers and skewed to mid and senior levels, you should search the long tail of firms, in-house teams, and risk/compliance employers rather than waiting on a short prestige list.

• Law firms and legal services (high): This is the core local demand block: legal services account for about 30% of sampled postings, law practice about 20%, and "legal" employers about 15%.
• Life sciences and biotech (high): Biotechnology research accounts for about 10% of the sample, and Freshfields added a Boston life-sciences transactions partner focused on pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medtech clients.
• Financial services compliance and risk (moderate): Financial services make up about 10% of the sample, supporting demand for regulated-industry compliance, internal controls, and risk candidates.
• Remote generalist legal support (limited): Only about 10% of sampled openings are remote, so the market is much thinner for candidates who want broadly remote legal or compliance work.

Where to focus: Focus first on hybrid mid-career roles in legal services, biotech and life sciences, and financial services where compliance, investigations, transactions, or privacy expertise maps directly to the employer's business.

Roles worth searching next

• Legal operations / CLM specialist: CLM implementation and legal operations are explicitly called out as in-demand in legal hiring, making this a natural bridge for contracts-heavy candidates.
• eDiscovery project manager: eDiscovery is a growing hiring focus, and document review was the leading reported AI impact area at 63%, pushing demand toward people who can run the workflow, not just do the review.
• Regulatory affairs specialist in biotech or medtech: Boston hiring signals tilt toward life sciences and health care, and a Freshfields Boston addition targeted pharma, biotech, and medtech transactions.
• Legal engineering / legal innovation specialist: Hybrid legal-tech roles are becoming more visible as "legal technologist" demand grows and Harvey expands in Boston.

What postings ask for

• State bar admission (table_stakes | immediate): Only less than 5% of sampled postings explicitly list state bar admission, but the highest-paying local attorney paths still sit in licensed firm roles, including first-year associate salaries reported at $225,000 to $235,000. Who: Attorneys, recent J.D. grads, and anyone targeting counsel or associate titles.
• Legal research and legal writing (table_stakes | immediate): They are the most commonly requested hard skills locally, with legal research in about 30% of sampled postings and legal writing in about 15%. Who: Entry-level applicants, paralegals, litigators, and anyone moving into firm-side roles.
• Regulatory compliance and risk management (differentiator | immediate): Regulatory compliance appears in about 15% of local skill mentions and risk management in about 10%, while Boston demand signals highlight compliance and governance expertise. Who: Compliance managers, risk analysts, contracts professionals, and career switchers from regulated industries.
• Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) and legal operations (premium | near-term): CLM implementation is called out as a top in-demand specialized skill, and legal operations is also rising in importance in hiring. Who: Contracts managers, legal ops candidates, and in-house legal applicants.
• Data privacy, cybersecurity, and AI governance (premium | immediate): Boston and national hiring signals both point to privacy, cybersecurity, compliance, and AI governance, and 64% of 309 surveyed legal and governance leaders said AI governance and oversight will be critical over the next three years. Who: Mid-career lawyers, compliance leaders, privacy professionals, and GRC-adjacent candidates.
• CIPP (differentiator | near-term): CIPP is recommended for professionals in legal, compliance, information management, and data governance, making it one of the cleanest ways to signal privacy depth. Who: Privacy-minded attorneys, compliance analysts, HR-compliance professionals, and career switchers into data governance.

Questions about this market

What do Legal, Compliance & Risk roles pay in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH?

Observed local pay is strong: BLS puts Boston legal occupations at $84.93 per hour on average, with a $135,160 median annual wage, $176,660 mean wage, and a $86,020 to $218,880 25th-to-75th percentile range. The newer proxy signals are directionally similar rather than definitive: posted local salary ranges center on about $133k to $190k, and Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows a Massachusetts mean offered salary on new openings of about $137,197 (n=142). Boston can pay well above ordinary white-collar levels, but the market median is not the same thing as elite law-firm compensation. The local legal median already sits far above the Massachusetts all-occupation mean offered salary of about $75,045, which is why employers can demand real specialization before paying at the top end.

Where is demand for Legal, Compliance & Risk roles in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH concentrated?

Most real opportunity sits in legal-services employers first: about 30% of sampled postings are in legal services, about 20% in law practice, and about 15% in "legal" employers. That core is reinforced by recent Boston partner additions in labor and employment, investigations, regulatory compliance, and life-sciences transactions. The second cluster is in Boston's regulated industries. Biotechnology research and financial services each account for about 10% of the sampled posting mix, which makes this a better market for people who can pair legal training with industry fluency than for pure generalists. Because hiring is fragmented across employers and skewed to mid and senior levels, you should search the long tail of firms, in-house teams, and risk/compliance employers rather than waiting on a short prestige list.

Which employers are hiring the most Legal, Compliance & Risk talent in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH?

Recent postings show the most activity from New Haven County Bar Association (15 postings), Morgan & Morgan, PA (5 postings), Flagship Pioneering, Inc. (5 postings), Kiernan Trebach, LLP (5 postings), Boston (5 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Legal, Compliance & Risk roles in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 10% are remote and 45% hybrid, with 45% 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 Massachusetts openings by job title

• Associate Director: 123 open roles statewide

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