Ranking: Tallahassee among best cities for lawyers

TaMaryn Waters
Tallahassee Democrat
Tallahassee is ranked among the top cities in the country for lawyers, according to 2019 AdvisorySmith study.

Tallahassee is flush with job opportunities for lawyers, according to a new study that examined 322 cities across the country. 

AdvisorySmith, a New York-based financial services startup, ranked the capital city as No. 1 for mid-size cities and No. 3 in the nation, falling behind Houston and Washington, D.C., out of the top 50 cities listed. Most of the top ranked cities are large and maintain populations of 500,000 or more. 

Rankings are based on the cost of living index for each city, average annual salaries for lawyers and the density of jobs in the city. 

"Attorneys in Tallahassee had salaries of $118,010 on average. Although this is below the national average salary, attorneys in the city benefit from a cost of living that is 7% below the national average," the study said. "Jobs for lawyers in Tallahassee are plentiful, as the city has a location quotient of 2.85, meaning there are 185% more jobs for lawyers on a per-capita basis compared with the U.S. average."

Some of the notable law firms mentioned in the study were Baker Donelson, Gunster and Akerman LLP.

Based on reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2018 there were about 2,200 lawyers in Leon County in 331 establishments with total annual wages of $232.3 million, according to the Tallahassee-Leon County Office of Economic Vitality. 

Contact TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com or follow @TaMarynWaters on Twitter.