Short answer
Miami-Dade County had 4,083 law offices with paid employees in 2023, employing 20,615 people at an average annual pay of $140,440, according to Census County Business Patterns. That's 23.7% of Florida's law offices. Most are tiny: 3,226 have fewer than five employees and only 19 have 100 or more. Another 4,801 legal services businesses in the county have no employees at all.
- 4,083 law offices and 20,615 employees in Miami-Dade County in 2023, with $2.9 billion in annual payroll.
- 79% of offices have fewer than five employees, against 72% nationally; the average office has 5.0 employees.
- 4,801 legal services businesses with no employees outnumber the offices that have staff.
- Average pay of $140,440 is 20% above Florida's law office average of $117,439.
- Florida admits lawyers only after they pass the Florida Bar Examination, the state's Board of Bar Examiners says.
On this page
This report is for people trying to find or size up law firms in Miami: someone who needs a lawyer, a company choosing counsel for a Florida or Latin American matter, a job seeker, or a vendor that sells to law firms. It uses federal counts for Miami-Dade County, explains what they include, and turns them into a way to shortlist firms and to reach them.
A market of very small offices
| Employees per office | Miami-Dade offices | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 3,226 | 79.0% |
| 5 to 9 | 468 | 11.5% |
| 10 to 19 | 201 | 4.9% |
| 20 to 49 | 132 | 3.2% |
| 50 to 99 | 37 | 0.9% |
| 100 to 249 | 16 | 0.4% |
| 250 to 499 | 3 | 0.1% |
The 500-to-999 and 1,000-plus cells are left blank for the county, yet the classes in the table already total 4,083, so Miami-Dade has no law office that large. Nationally, 71.8% of law offices have fewer than five employees; in Miami-Dade it's 79.0%. Put another way: 3,895 offices under 20 employees, 169 between 20 and 99, and 19 at 100 or more.
Miami-Dade in numbers
County Business Patterns 2023, offices of lawyers (NAICS 541110), Miami-Dade County, Florida:
| Measure (2023) | Miami-Dade County |
|---|---|
| Law offices (establishments) | 4,083 |
| Employees | 20,615 |
| Annual payroll | $2,895,168,000 |
| Average employees per office | 5.0 |
| Average annual pay | $140,440 |
| Share of US law offices | 2.47% of 165,491 |
| Share of Florida law offices | 23.7% of 17,261 |
Pay is high for offices this small: $140,440 on average, against $117,439 for Florida law offices and $125,580 for the US. The big offices pull the average up, so a typical small practice pays less.
What these counts mean. An establishment is a single office with paid employees. A firm with offices in Brickell and Coral Gables counts twice, and a national firm's Miami office counts once. Employees include everyone on payroll, not just lawyers, and partners who own the firm aren't employees.
Solo practices outnumber staffed offices
County Business Patterns leaves out businesses with no employees. The Census Bureau's Nonemployer Statistics count them: Miami-Dade had 4,801 legal services businesses with no paid staff in 2023, with $435.2 million in combined receipts, about $90,600 each. That code (legal services, NAICS 5411) is wider than law offices and includes title abstract and paralegal businesses, but it shows the shape of the market: there are more one-person legal businesses in the county than law offices with staff, 8,884 in all.
For a buyer of legal services, that means plenty of choice for routine matters and wide variation in quality. For a seller, it means thousands of accounts where the lawyer is also the office manager, the bookkeeper and the IT department.
The international side
The Miami-Dade Beacon Council, the county's official economic development partnership, says more than 60 banks operate in Brickell and describes it as the second-largest international banking center in the US after New York. It also says one-third of US exports to Latin America originate from Miami. If you're looking for counsel on a banking, trade or Latin American matter, or selling to the firms that handle that work, this client base is where to start your research; most of the county's 4,083 offices serve individuals and small businesses instead.
Choosing a Miami lawyer
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Admission to The Florida Bar | The Florida Board of Bar Examiners, an agency of the Supreme Court of Florida, says an applicant must pass the Florida Bar Examination to be admitted. Look the lawyer up in The Florida Bar's member directory at floridabar.org. |
| Practice focus | In a market this fragmented, many lawyers take a bit of everything. Ask how many matters like yours they handled last year. |
| Who does the work | At a two-person office, the lawyer you meet is the lawyer you get. At a large office, ask for the names and rates of the team. |
| Language | Ask whether the lawyer works in Spanish, Portuguese or Haitian Creole if you need it, and whether documents will be translated. |
| Fees in writing | Get the fee arrangement (hourly, flat or contingency) and the cost of a first consultation in writing before you start. |
The Cuban American Bar Association, a network of judges, lawyers and law students, runs a pro bono legal assistance project for people who can't afford a lawyer.
Selling to Miami's small firms
At 3,694 offices with fewer than ten employees, the buyer is almost always the lawyer who owns the practice. They decide fast, pay by card, cancel fast and judge everything by whether it brings in or saves billable work. The 19 large offices buy through administrators, IT and procurement, as large firms do everywhere; see the guide to selling to law firms.
Illustrative example. The company, percentages and results are invented.
Brisa Intake (brisa-intake.example) answers phones after hours in English and Spanish for small law practices. It targets Miami-Dade offices with fewer than ten employees: 3,694. It keeps those handling consumer matters, where clients call at night (personal injury, immigration and family law), an illustrative 30%, or about 1,108 offices. With one decision maker per office, a 3% reply rate over a month of calls and emails gives about 33 conversations, and if one in five starts a free trial, six or seven trials.
The research is in the qualifying: practice areas, languages on the website, whether the firm already advertises a 24-hour line. Describe that segment to Bebop and it returns matching practices with a playbook for each.
Hi [first name], it's [your name] from [company]. I noticed [firm]'s site says you handle [practice area] and take calls in Spanish. Most firms your size miss the calls that come in after 6 p.m., and those are often the urgent ones. We answer them for you in English and Spanish and send you the intake by text. I'll email you a one-page summary; my number is [number].
Where to look
- Miami-Dade Beacon Council: the county's economic development partnership, with economy, trade and finance data.
- Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce: founded in 1907 as the Miami Board of Trade, with a searchable member directory.
- Cuban American Bar Association: a network of judges, lawyers and law students with a pro bono project.
- Florida Board of Bar Examiners: admission requirements for Florida lawyers.
- Census County Business Patterns and Nonemployer Statistics: the counts in this report, free to download by county.
For the rest of the state, see law firms in Orlando and the NAICS code for a law firm, which explains what the Census code covers.
Next step: if you're building a list of small practices, read how to sell to small businesses before you write the first email.
Sources
- County Business Patterns (CBP), 2023, US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- Nonemployer Statistics, 2023 (NAICS 5411, counties), US Census Bureau, accessed 30 October 2026
- Florida Board of Bar Examiners, Florida Board of Bar Examiners, accessed 30 October 2026
- Miami-Dade Beacon Council: economy, trade and finance, Miami-Dade Beacon Council, accessed 30 October 2026
- Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, accessed 30 October 2026
- Cuban American Bar Association, Cuban American Bar Association, accessed 30 October 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
How many law firms are there in Miami?
Miami-Dade County had 4,083 law offices with at least one paid employee in 2023, and together they employed 20,615 people, according to the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau also counted 4,801 legal services businesses in the county with no employees, businesses run by their owners alone, such as solo lawyers. Offices aren't the same as firms: a firm with three offices in the county counts three times.
What are the biggest law firms in Miami?
We don't rank them here because we couldn't open a published ranking to cite. Census data shows how few large offices there are: 19 Miami-Dade law offices had 100 or more employees in 2023, and none had 500 or more. To compare large firms, look at each firm's own Miami office page for its lawyer count and practices, and check the date of any headcount you rely on.
How do I know if a Miami lawyer is licensed in Florida?
Look the lawyer up in The Florida Bar's member directory on floridabar.org. To be admitted to The Florida Bar, an applicant must show good moral character and pass the Florida Bar Examination, according to the Florida Board of Bar Examiners. If a lawyer is licensed only in another state or country, ask how they will handle the Florida parts of your matter.
How much do law firm employees earn in Miami?
Miami-Dade law offices paid an average of $140,440 per employee in 2023, according to Census County Business Patterns, against $117,439 across Florida and $125,580 nationally. That's an average across all payroll staff, legal assistants as well as associates; owners' draws aren't in it. Because a few large offices pay far more, the typical small practice pays less than the average.