Law firms in Pittsburgh: 1,050 offices and a big-firm core in Allegheny County

This report is for anyone deciding which Pittsburgh law firms to approach: a business or family hiring counsel, a lawyer or paralegal comparing employers, a researcher, or a company selling to law firms. It sets out the Census count of law offices, how they split by size and county, where to find and check a lawyer, and how to prospect a market whose big buyers fit on one page.

Big offices in a mid-size market

The 250-or-more figures for Seattle and Houston are the total less the published size classes, because the Census Bureau doesn't publish those cells there. Pittsburgh's large offices pull its average office up to 8.3 employees, against 6.6 for US law offices. Its average pay, $121,344, sits a little below the US law-office figure of $125,580, and below Houston ($140,513) and Seattle ($145,504).

For someone hiring a firm, the practical point is choice at both ends. A matter that needs a deep bench can stay in Pittsburgh, and a routine one can go to one of the 966 offices with fewer than 20 people.

Pittsburgh's law offices in Census data

Grouped, that's 966 offices with 1 to 19 employees, 71 with 20 to 99 and 13 with 100 or more. The figures are County Business Patterns for the Pittsburgh, PA Metro Area (CBSA 38300) under NAICS 541110, offices of lawyers.

How to read them: each figure is an office with at least one paid employee, not a firm, so a firm with a Grant Street office and a Cranberry office is two. Lawyers who work alone without staff aren't counted, and nor are lawyers employed by companies, government or the courts. Payroll and average pay cover employees; partners who own the firm are paid from profits and fall outside them.

Allegheny and the surrounding counties

Fayette County's employee count is published with the Census Bureau's high-noise flag, meaning the noise added for confidentiality changed it by 5% or more, so it's left out here (it's still inside the metro total). Allegheny holds 65% of the offices and 85% of the employees. Outside it, 363 offices employ 1,345 people, about 3.7 each: small practices spread across the county seats of Greensburg, Washington, Butler and Beaver and the towns around them.

Finding and checking a Pittsburgh lawyer

1. Ask the county bar for a referral. The Allegheny County Bar Association runs the Allegheny County Lawyer Referral Service for the public.
2. Or use the statewide service. The Pennsylvania Bar Association runs its own Lawyer Referral Service.
3. Confirm the license with the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, which keeps the official attorney records.
4. Ask what the Pittsburgh office does. For a national firm, the local office may be the headquarters or a small branch. Ask how many lawyers here handle matters like yours, not how many the firm has worldwide.
5. At the largest offices, clear conflicts first. A firm that represents banks, health systems and manufacturers may already act for the other side.

Selling to Pittsburgh law firms: 28 accounts

Only 28 offices in the metro have 50 or more employees (15 + 8 + 4 + 1). That's an account plan, not a campaign: research each office, map the people, and write to each one about something specific. The other 1,022 offices are owner-run practices where a partner decides, usually on a short call.

Illustrative example. The company, percentages and results are invented.

Three Rivers Records (threerivers-records.example) offers off-site records storage, scanning and secure destruction. It builds an account plan for the 28 offices with 50 or more employees, with three contacts at each: the records manager, the director of operations and the partner who chairs the records or risk committee. That's 84 people. Over a quarter, if an illustrative 12% of accounts take a meeting, that's three or four meetings; in this illustration each large office's archive is a multi-year contract, so a few meetings matter more than hundreds of small-firm calls. For the 966 small offices it runs a simpler offer, scanning of closed client files, by email.

Finding which offices are moving, renewing a lease or merging, and who runs records at each, is the slow part. Bebop researches each account and writes a playbook for it. For the general approach to a short list of large accounts, see account research.

Subject: Closed files before [firm]'s [move, lease renewal or merger]

Hi [first name],

I read that [firm] is [the dated event and where you saw it]. Moves and mergers are usually when closed-file storage gets reviewed, because nobody wants to pay to move boxes twice.

We store, scan and destroy client files for law offices across Allegheny County, with a chain-of-custody record for every box. I can send our retention checklist and a sample inventory report.

Would a 20-minute call on [day] be useful?

[Your name]

Pittsburgh sources

Next step: turn the 28 large offices into researched accounts with the account research template.