Updated October 16, 2026

PERM occupation, SOC 23-1011, #193 of 1,410 by filings

Lawyers

13,565 H-1B LCAs

Biggest sponsor: LATHAM WATKINS LLP · 6% of its filings
Busiest state: NY · 44% of its filings
Major group: Legal · SOC 23

Weighing an offer for this job?

Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.

Compare my offer DOL's wage levels for this job

This rate is level with the field

Over 218 decided filings, this rate can't be told apart from the field in either direction.

Why

The 95% interval runs up to a 8.8% denial rate, which still covers the 3.20% the field as a whole records.

Median wage

$215,000

all PERM $103,272

Filings

222

#193 of 1,410

Approval

95.0%

field 96.8%

Median days

385

92 faster than the field

What it pays

Where its median offer sits among every occupation, then the whole ladder of certified offers by year and by state.

Position in the field 535 occupations with 30+ decided

Median offered wage

$215,000above 97%

$18k $500k

Approval rate

95.0%ahead of 37%

49% 100%

Median days to decision

385 daysahead of 89%

323d 536d

Each bar counts occupations at that value. More

Each bar counts occupations at that value. PERM runs two labour markets through one process, which is why the wage axis is two humps rather than a bell. The line marks this one.

DOL PERM disclosure files

Who files it

The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, the places the work sits, and who the workers were.

Sponsors filing it

How this is counted

The employers with the most applications under this code. 41 of 222 filings, 18% of the total.

Firms filing it

Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen Loewy, LLP 50 filings · 98.0% approved
Miller Seid LLP 13 filings
Kramer Levin Naftalis Frankel LLP 9 filings
Berry Appleman Leiden LLP 8 filings
Kauff McGuire Margolis LLP 5 filings
BARST MUKAMAL KLEINER LLP 3 filings

How this is counted

The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 88 of 222 filings, 40% of the total.

Where the jobs are

New York 98
California 38
District of Columbia 13
Florida 12
Texas 10
Illinois 9

How this is counted

The worksite state on the application, which is where the job is and not where the company is headquartered. Volume by state across everyone is on the state map. These 6 states cover 180 of 222 filings.

Where the work is

New York, NY 89
Washington, DC 13
San Francisco, CA 9
Chicago, IL 7
Houston, TX 7
Los Angeles, CA 6

How this is counted

The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 131 of 222 filings.

Who filled these jobs, FY2016 to FY2023

From DOL's old form; the form in use since mid-2023 doesn't carry them. Top six of each.

Country of citizenship

China 407
Canada 321
South Korea 225
India 116
United Kingdom 98
Venezuela 79

Worker's education

Other 1,605
Master's 301
Bachelor's 102
Doctorate 102
None 3
Associate's 2

Visa held when filed

H-1B 1,394
TN 162
F-1 119
L-1 111
E-3 53
E-2 42

Schools

HARVARD LAW SCHOOL 88
COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL 52
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW 52
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 43
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 42
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW 31

Fields of study

LAW 1,636
JURIS DOCTOR 36
LAWS 33
LEGAL STUDIES 31
MASTER OF LAWS 14
JURIS DOCTORATE 12

The job itself

What O*NET says the work is, what the market pays it by BLS's survey, its outlook, and DOL's wage levels year by year.

What the job pays outside PERM BLS May 2025, DOL wage year 2026-27

United States
754,500 jobs
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
New York
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
Washington
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
San Francisco
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
Chicago
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX
Houston

$100k$200k$300k$400k

middle half of pay (BLS)
median
10th to 90th percentile
DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
median PERM offer

Market pay and DOL wage levels, by area
Area	BLS median	Level I	Level II	Level III	Level IV
United States	$159,670
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$208,880	$106,662	$165,464	$224,245	$283,046
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	$195,190	$129,605	$177,944	$226,304	$274,643
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$212,500	$115,648	$176,051	$236,454	$296,858
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN	$165,660	$95,534	$141,253	$186,971	$232,690
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX	$157,980	$93,558	$143,229	$192,899	$242,570

How these figures fit together

BLS surveys employers on what they pay everyone in a job; DOL builds its four levels from the same survey a year later (the July 2026 wage year uses BLS's May 2025 estimates). DOL publishes levels by area, not nationally, so the United States line has none. Levels are hourly in DOL's tables; here they're shown a year at 2,080 hours, as DOL computes them. The metros are the ones holding the most of this job's PERM filings, placed by Census's county files.

The block is the middle half of what employers report paying everyone in this job, citizen or not; the ticks under it are DOL's four prevailing wage levels for that metro, the floors a PERM or H-1B offer is held to. More

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics; DOL OFLC wage tables

DOL's levels for this job in New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ, year by year

Each July DOL resets the four levels from BLS's newest survey. A determination keeps the figures of the year it was issued in.

DOL wage levels by wage year, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
Wage year	Level I	Level II	Level III	Level IV
2026-27	$106,662	$165,464	$224,245	$283,046
2025-26	$98,114	$156,832	$215,530	$274,248
2024-25	$93,662	$153,254	$212,826	$272,418
2023-24	$95,222	$143,998	$192,795	$241,571
2022-23	$96,262	$139,859	$183,435	$227,032
2021-22	$87,880	$134,014	$180,170	$226,304

Every area and both wage tables in the wage-level tool.

What the job is

Represent clients in criminal and civil litigation and other legal proceedings, draw up legal documents, or manage or advise clients on legal transactions. May specialize in a single area or may practice broadly in many areas of law.

Preparation: Extensive Preparation Needed; O*NET Job Zone 5
DOL's education basis: Doctoral or professional degree; Wage year 2026-27, on DOL's Appendix A list
Jobs, 2025 to 2035: +4.7%; About 28,700 openings a year (BLS)
Typical entry: Doctoral or professional degree; BLS

Bright Outlook O*NET OnLine lists this job for rapid growth.

The work, most important first

Interpret laws, rulings and regulations for individuals and businesses.
Analyze the probable outcomes of cases, using knowledge of legal precedents.
Gather evidence to formulate defense or to initiate legal actions by such means as interviewing clients and witnesses to ascertain the facts of a case.
Represent clients in court or before government agencies.
Evaluate findings and develop strategies and arguments in preparation for presentation of cases.
Advise clients concerning business transactions, claim liability, advisability of prosecuting or defending lawsuits, or legal rights and obligations.

The education workers in it report

First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.

23%
Doctoral Degree

77%

Titles people use for it

Attorney, Attorney General, Counsel, Lawyer, Attorney at Law, County Attorney, District Attorney, General Counsel.

Related jobs: Judicial Law Clerks, Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers, Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates, Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators, Equal Opportunity Representatives and Officers, Claims Adjusters, Examiners, and Investigators.

This section includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database and O*NET OnLine by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. PERM Tracker has modified some of this information (the shares are rounded and only the top tasks are shown); what changed. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Against other jobs

Where this sits in the ranking

Ranked 193 of 1,410 by volume: 192 filed at least as many filings, and 1,217 filed no more.

Just above: Software Developers, Non R&D 224 filings
Just below: Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Including Fast Food 222 filings

Other legal roles

Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. More

Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. Wages inside a group still swing hard, because the group holds every seniority level and every metro.

The same job on H-1B

13,565 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $215,000 a year; the middle half ran $140,000 to $255,000. By state and year in the salary explorer.

Notes on these numbers

Reading the wage

A floor, not a salary survey: every level and metro mixed. DOL's four wage levels for this job, by area.

What the median is

The median wage employers committed to in federal filings for this occupation. It mixes every experience level and every metro, and it's a floor: the employer must offer at least the prevailing wage DOL determines for the occupation, level and county. Across all PERM filings the middle half of offered wages runs $45,178 to $141,357, so a figure inside that band is unremarkable whichever occupation it belongs to. The levels page reads DOL's OFLC wage search live.

What these numbers don't say

4 notes

The code is the identity: This one is SOC 23-1011. Two SOC codes can carry the same job title, so a title that looks duplicated on the ranking is two different occupations. Match on the code when you're checking a specific filing.
A median isn’t an offer: It's the middle of all 222 wages committed to for this occupation across the country, entry level and principal alike. The same role's medians swing hard by worksite, which the state map shows directly.
Approval isn’t about the occupation: The denial rate moves with what happened in the filing rather than with the job title, so nothing here is a property of Lawyers. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
Nothing here is pending: All 222 counted here carry a decision date, because every case in DOL's disclosure files does, so a case still waiting is in none of them. The largest filer of this occupation is LATHAM WATKINS LLP. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.

The window these figures cover: DOL's PERM disclosure files for fiscal years 2024 to 2026, through the third quarter of 2026, 373,939 decided cases. Nothing pending is counted here. How each figure is built

Weighing an offer?

Compare it against this median, then check the state map, where the same occupation's medians swing hard by worksite.

Setting one?

All 1,410 occupations sort together on the wages page, and denial rates show how outcome moves with the offered wage.

Filings newer than DOL's last published file can't be attributed to this occupation until DOL publishes them. The live list on the case search page carries them by employer.

Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly

Employers and firms: Derived from DOL's disclosure files · data through Jun 30, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly load

O*NET occupation data: O*NET Database, USDOL/ETA (onetcenter.org) · data through Aug 16, 2026 · twice a year

BLS market pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (bls.gov) · data through May 31, 2025 · yearly, each spring

BLS employment projections: BLS Employment Projections (bls.gov) · data through Dec 31, 2025 · yearly, each autumn

DOL wage tables: DOL OFLC wage data downloads (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jul 1, 2026 · yearly, each july

What each source includes

Case data: Decided PERM cases only. A case still waiting isn't in here, so counts and durations describe finished cases.

Employers and firms: Employers, law firms and occupations ranked from decided cases only.

O*NET occupation data: What O*NET says each occupation is and takes: its description, tasks, Job Zone and the education workers report. A description of the job everywhere, not of any one employer's opening.

BLS market pay: What employers report paying everyone in each job, nationally, by state and by metro, from BLS's yearly survey (May of the year named). Citizens and immigrants alike; not PERM offers.

BLS employment projections: BLS's ten-year projection of each job's employment and yearly openings, and the entry education it calls typical. A projection, not a count.

DOL wage tables: The four prevailing wage levels DOL publishes for every job in every area, each wage year from 2021-22, as DOL's own tables print them. The floors an offer is held to, not what anyone was paid.

Cite this page

Waiting on a PERM case?

When it'll likely be decided
An email when DOL moves it