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Dallas Legal Job Market

Dallas' market for law firm and
in-house job opportunities

The Dallas legal market is a rich combination of large Dallas-based law firms and national firms with significant Dallas offices. The combination of two large international airports allows attorneys to easily commute in and out of Dallas daily by air. As a result, many corporations and law firms are based in Dallas or have large Dallas offices. The attorney salaries are high in Dallas, many paying the same as the California and New York firms. This is very attractive for attorneys practicing in Dallas because they get very high salaries while enjoying a much lower cost of living. The legal climate in Dallas is very diverse, and many practice areas are strong and thriving such as litigation, energy, finance, real estate, banking, corporate and securities, environmental, tax, labor & employment, health care, insurance, and intellectual property.

There is a long and storied history of law firms setting root in Dallas, going back to the late 1800s. Firms such as Locke Lord Bissell and Liddell started from a small two partner firm and now employ hundreds of attorneys nationwide. These firms have grown considerably and offer a diverse range of practice areas. Distinguished firms headquartered in Dallas include Akin Gump, Strasburger & Price, Winstead, Gardere, Haynes & Boone, and Munsch Hardt.

Over the last few decades, many national firms have also opened offices in Dallas, as the legal community has been very strong and experiencing consistent growth. These firms include:

Fish & Richardson; Greenberg Traurig; Baker & McKenzie; Baker Botts; Fulbright & Jaworski; Vinson & Elkins; Hunton & Williams; Weil, Gotshal & Manges; Andrews Kurth; Jones Day; DLA Piper; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; K&L Gates; and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. This is due in a large part to the fact that the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex as a whole has the largest concentration of corporate headquarters in the United States, and the firms want to be located in close vicinity to their major clients. Additional companies internationally headquartered in the Metroplex include Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, RadioShack, Neiman Marcus, 7-Eleven, Brinker International, ENSCO Offshore Drilling, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Chuck E. Cheese, Zales and Fossil. New additions to the list include AT&T, which relocated its corporate headquarters to Downtown Dallas from San Antonio, and Comerica Bank, which relocated in 2007 from Detroit. Suburban Irving is home to four Fortune 500 companies of its own, including Exxon Mobil, the most profitable company in the world and the second largest by revenue, Kimberly-Clark, Fluor, and Commercial Metals. Corporate headquarters in the northern suburb of Plano include EDS, Frito Lay, Dr Pepper Snapple, and JCPenney.

Dallas is a young and vibrant city. The Dallas metroplex has sports teams with a passionate fan base such as the Dallas Cowboys (with their amazing new stadium), Texas Rangers, and Dallas Mavericks. The art scene in Dallas is great with many art museums, galleries, concerts, plays, and operas. The shopping is phenomenal in Dallas, with the large Dallas Galleria and numerous upscale boutiques. Dallas has several major medical schools, and as a result has some of the best health care in Texas. It is home to a major medical center that has 50 hospitals and is an international medical center for burns and trauma care. There are also many educational hospitals in Dallas that rank among the top in the country, including Baylor Medical Center and Southwestern Medical Center.

Moses Legal Search can assist in Dallas to find the right fit because with so many major corporations and law firms, there can be an abundance of legal positions. Connections and relationships are of upmost importance in this city, and without the proper connections, finding a legal job that matches your skills may prove to be extremely difficult, especially in this legal climate. Many positions are not publicized, and are filled directly through recruiter connections and other personal relationships. The recruiters at Moses Legal Search can help simplify and streamline the process and get your resume to the top of the pile.