Short answer
San Francisco County had 1,171 law offices with paid employees in 2023, employing 14,495 people at an average annual pay of $198,156, according to Census County Business Patterns. The average office has 12.4 employees, nearly twice the US figure of 6.6, and 26 offices have 100 or more. California's State Bar counted 201,374 active licensees as of 29 October 2026; check any lawyer's status with its free attorney profile search.
- 1,171 law offices and 14,495 employees in San Francisco County in 2023, with $2.87 billion in annual payroll.
- Average pay of $198,156 is 43% above California's law office average of $138,538.
- 26 offices have 100 or more employees: 2.2% of the county's offices, against 0.7% nationally.
- 1,544 legal services businesses in the county have no employees, with average receipts of about $141,000.
- The State Bar of California lists 201,374 active licensees and offers free attorney profile, certified specialist and certified referral service searches.
On this page
Use this report if you're choosing, researching or selling to law firms in San Francisco: a startup or company looking for counsel, someone with a personal legal problem, a job seeker comparing employers, or a vendor whose customers are law firms. It covers the City and County of San Francisco, which are one and the same, and compares it with California and the US.
Fewer, bigger and better-paid offices
County Business Patterns 2023, offices of lawyers (NAICS 541110):
| Measure (2023) | San Francisco County | California | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| Law offices | 1,171 | 22,821 | 165,491 |
| Employees | 14,495 | 148,867 | 1,093,331 |
| Average employees per office | 12.4 | 6.5 | 6.6 |
| Average annual pay | $198,156 | $138,538 | $125,580 |
San Francisco's annual payroll was $2,872,274,000. The county has 5.1% of California's law offices and 9.7% of its law office employees, and 0.71% of the country's law offices.
The size mix
| Employees per office | Offices |
|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 734 |
| 5 to 9 | 159 |
| 10 to 19 | 110 |
| 20 to 49 | 102 |
| 50 to 99 | 40 |
| 100 to 249 | 22 |
| 250 to 499 | 4 |
No office reaches 500 employees: the two largest classes are blank in the Census release, and the seven classes shown already total 1,171. Collapsed into three tiers: 1,003 offices below 20 employees, 142 from 20 to 99, and 26 of 100 or more.
That top band is what sets San Francisco apart. Across the US, 0.7% of law offices have 100 or more employees; here it's 2.2%. Some of them will be local offices of firms headquartered elsewhere, where the decision about a purchase may sit in another city.
Limits of the count. These are establishments, not firms: each office counts once, wherever the firm is headquartered. Employees include all staff, not just lawyers, and partners who own the firm aren't counted as employees. Lawyers with no employees are left out. The Census Bureau's Nonemployer Statistics add 1,544 legal services businesses in the county with no paid staff in 2023 and $217.7 million in combined receipts, about $141,000 each. That code (NAICS 5411) is broader than law offices and includes paralegal and title businesses.
California's lawyers by license status
The State Bar of California licenses and disciplines the state's lawyers from its main office at 180 Howard Street in San Francisco. Its public demographics page, current as of 29 October 2026:
| License status | Licensees |
|---|---|
| Active | 201,374 |
| Inactive | 75,431 |
| Judge | 2,318 |
| Not eligible to practice law in California | 22,599 |
| Total | 301,722 |
The same page shows how local the profession's roots are. UC Hastings (now UC Law San Francisco) has more graduates admitted to the State Bar than any other school, 18,135, and the University of San Francisco (8,244) and Golden Gate University (6,571) are also in the top 15. The State Bar doesn't publish a county breakdown on that page, so we don't give one.
Finding and checking a San Francisco lawyer
- Check the license. The State Bar's attorney profile search shows a lawyer's license status. Make sure it says active: 100,348 of the 301,722 licensees on the books are inactive, judges or not eligible to practice law in California.
- Use a certified referral service if you need a name. The State Bar certifies lawyer referral services and lists them on its site. In the city, the Bar Association of San Francisco runs the SF-Marin Lawyer Referral and Information Service, reachable at (415) 989-1616 on weekdays or through an online form, covering about 20 practice areas from bankruptcy to workers' compensation.
- Look for a certified specialist if the matter is technical. The State Bar certifies specialists and has a search for them.
- Match the firm's size to the matter. A venture financing or an IPO points to one of the 66 offices with 50 or more employees; a lease dispute or a family matter is better handled by one of the 893 offices with fewer than ten.
- Ask about fees and staffing. At a large office, the partner who pitches is rarely the person who drafts. Ask for names, roles and rates.
Selling to San Francisco law firms
With 164 offices of 20 to 249 employees, San Francisco has a deep middle tier, and that's where most vendors win their first accounts. Those offices are big enough to have a firm administrator, an IT lead and often a knowledge management or innovation role, and small enough that a practice group leader can sponsor a pilot.
| Office size | Offices | First conversation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 9 employees | 893 | The owner |
| 10 to 49 employees | 212 | Managing partner or firm administrator |
| 50 to 249 employees | 62 | Director of operations, IT or knowledge management, plus a practice group leader |
| 250 or more | 4 | Firm-level IT, innovation and procurement, often outside San Francisco |
Illustrative example. The company, percentages and results are invented.
Clausewell (clausewell.example) sells an AI drafting assistant for transactional lawyers. It targets San Francisco offices with 20 to 249 employees (164) and keeps those with a corporate, venture or technology transactions practice, an illustrative 45%, or 74 offices. It contacts two people at each, the practice group leader and the head of knowledge management or IT: 148 contacts. A 5% reply rate gives seven conversations; three pilots would be a good first quarter. Every pilot will start with the firm's security review, so the security documentation goes in the first email, not the fourth.
Knowing which offices do venture work and who owns innovation at each is the slow part; Bebop finds firms that match a description and writes a playbook for each account. The selling to law firms guide covers the confidentiality rules behind those security reviews.
Hi [first name], it's [your name] from [company]. I'll be brief. I'm calling because [firm] closed [number or type of] venture financings this year, and teams doing that volume tell us first drafts of the closing set eat most of an associate's week. We cut that in half for [similar type of firm]. Is that a problem worth fifteen minutes next week, or is it already solved for you?
Sources to keep
- State Bar of California attorney demographics: licensees by status, age and law school, with a current-as-of timestamp.
- State Bar of California: attorney profiles, certified specialists, certified lawyer referral services and discipline.
- Bar Association of San Francisco: the city's bar association and its referral service.
- Census County Business Patterns and Nonemployer Statistics: the counts above, by county.
Next step: turn the size table into a named list with how to build a prospect list.
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
- Attorney demographics, State Bar of California, as of 29 October 2026, accessed 30 October 2026
- Attorney licensee search, State Bar of California, accessed 30 October 2026
- SF-Marin Lawyer Referral and Information Service, Bar Association of San Francisco, accessed 30 October 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
How many law firms are in San Francisco?
San Francisco, a single city and county, had 1,171 law offices with employees in 2023 (14,495 people on their payrolls), per Census County Business Patterns. That counts offices rather than firms, so a national firm's San Francisco office is one establishment. Another 1,544 legal services businesses in the county had no employees, which includes many solo lawyers, so the number of practices is more than twice the office count.
How many lawyers are licensed in California?
The State Bar of California's demographics page listed 201,374 active licensees as of 29 October 2026, out of 301,722 in total. The rest were inactive (75,431), judges (2,318) or not eligible to practice law in California (22,599). Check that a lawyer's status is active in the State Bar's attorney profile search before you hire them.
How do I find a lawyer in San Francisco?
If you don't have a recommendation, use a lawyer referral service; the State Bar of California lists the services it certifies. The Bar Association of San Francisco runs the SF-Marin Lawyer Referral and Information Service, which covers about 20 practice areas and takes requests by phone at (415) 989-1616 or online. Whoever you choose, check their license in the State Bar's attorney profile search first.
Why do San Francisco law firms pay so much?
Census data shows San Francisco law offices paid an average of $198,156 per employee in 2023, 43% above California's law office average and 58% above the national one. The county has an unusual share of large offices: 26 of its 1,171 offices have 100 or more employees, against 0.7% of offices nationally, and large offices pay more. The average covers all staff, not just lawyers.