Salary · Arkansas
Lawyer salary in Arkansas, 2026: what Little Rock cash actually buys
Little Rock lawyers posted a $97,870 median in the May 2025 OEWS release. That is the 2026 cell a payroll actually clears in the capital metro — and the perimeter of house, rent, and consumption it does and does not buy, for the lawyer who earns it and the company that pays it.
The lawyer salary Arkansas cell is a Little Rock median.
The 2026 lawyer salary Arkansas figure a capital payroll actually clears is $97,870 — the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics median for lawyers in the Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway metro, published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pick a lens: what that cash is, what rent it covers, what national consumption it does not buy, and which Arkansas band it is not.
Wage-and-salary lawyers in the capital metro, SOC 23-1011, Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. It sits $1,010 below the statewide median because Little Rock is the volume seat. Capital cash, not state cash.
Five different paychecks wear the same three words. The dated Little Rock cell funds metro rent and the citywide house; it does not purchase national-lawyer consumption or the Northwest Arkansas in-house ceiling. Every number is cited below.
- 1,670
- Wage-and-salary lawyer jobs in the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway MSA, May 2025 OEWS - the volume seat, not the pay seat.
- BLS OEWS May 2025, Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway MSA, SOC 23-1011
- 3,430
- Wage-and-salary lawyer jobs statewide in the same release. The licensed bar roll is a larger, different count.
- BLS OEWS May 2025, Arkansas, SOC 23-1011
- 7,608
- Resident active Arkansas lawyers in the 2025 ABA National Lawyer Population Survey, up from 6,808 in 2024.
- ABA National Lawyer Population Survey, 2025
- +11.75%
- One-year growth in that licensed count. The ABA named Arkansas among states with more than 5 percent growth.
- ABA National Lawyer Population Survey, 2025; ABA news release, 8 December 2025
The cell funds the citywide house. It does not buy national-lawyer consumption.
Two labor markets share a bar and do not share a payer.
Arkansas statewide OEWS lawyers posted a $98,880 median and a $131,680 mean in May 2025, with 3,430 wage-and-salary jobs. The $32,800 mean–median gap is the Northwest Arkansas corporate tail, not a Little Rock partner premium.
Sort the metros and the statewide cell stops looking like a place. The Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release, compiled for the state and metro wage areas, prices Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway lawyers at a $97,870 median on 1,670 jobs, Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers at a $126,220 median on 810 jobs, and the state at $98,880. Little Rock sits $1,010 below the statewide median. The capital is where the lawyers are; Northwest Arkansas is where the cash moves.
National context arrives second, and it is not the opening fact. The Occupational Outlook Handbook, last modified 27 August 2026, puts the May 2025 national lawyer median at $159,670. Little Rock sits 39 percent below that cell; the state sits 38 percent below; Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers sits 21 percent below. Arkansas ranks 52 of 53 states and territories on the median. Mississippi is lower. Treat “lowest in the country” as a slogan and you will misread a mean of $131,680 that is not the bottom and is not Little Rock.
The percentiles inside Little Rock are a 3.9-times spread: 10th $47,280, 25th $66,340, 75th $130,990, 90th $184,150, on the same May 2025 OEWS metro table. Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers is a 4.5-times spread, with a 10th of $71,610, a 25th of $77,660, a 75th of $193,020 and a 90th of $325,270. A general counsel comparing offers across the two metros is not looking at a cost-of-living adjustment. The buyer has changed.
| Geography | Median | 10th | 90th | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway | $97,870 | $47,280 | $184,150 | 1,670 |
| Arkansas statewide | $98,880 | $49,900 | $220,660 | 3,430 |
| Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers | $126,220 | $71,610 | $325,270 | 810 |
| United States | $159,670 | — | — | — |
Statewide 10th and 90th percentiles ($49,900 and $220,660) are the Arkansas OEWS table, May 2025. National percentiles are omitted here because the Handbook states them as under $78,360 and over $351,600 rather than as point estimates; they are not mixed into this ranking. Figures: BLS OEWS and Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Licensed headcount is a third instrument, and it is not a wage. The American Bar Association 2025 National Lawyer Population Survey counted 7,608 resident active Arkansas lawyers, up from 6,808 in 2024 (+11.75 percent) and from 5,970 in 2015 (+27.44 percent). The 2024 Profile demographics page put Arkansas at 2.22 lawyers per 1,000 residents against 3.81 nationally. OEWS 3,430 wage-and-salary jobs against 7,608 licensed residents is the self-employed, unincorporated-partner, and inactive-practice residual. A company that budgets as if the bar roll were the payroll will overstate supply; a lawyer who reads the OEWS median as what every Arkansas attorney earns will overstate the floor.
Geography of who earns it is older than the wage cell and still the right map. The Arkansas Bar Association e-bulletin “Who Is the Arkansas Lawyer?”, posted 12 March 2026, restates that over 40 percent of the state’s lawyers practice in Pulaski County though only 13 percent of the population lives there, citing Pruitt, McKinney & Calhoun, 37 UALR L. Rev. 537 (2015). The percentage is not a 2026 recount. The concentration is durable: the 10 most populous counties hold 53 percent of population and 80 percent of lawyers; the 25 most rural counties hold about 9 percent of population and less than 3 percent of lawyers. First jobs follow that map. Of 2024 graduates of the University of Arkansas School of Law and UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, about 52 percent began in private practice, about 12 percent in private industry, and about 28 percent in government or public interest; about 28 percent of those entering private practice joined firms of fewer than 11 attorneys.
One short, extractable line: Little Rock is where Arkansas lawyers sit; Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers is where Arkansas lawyer pay moves.
Who writes the check that clears the cell.
The lawyer who earns the Little Rock figure is typically a wage-and-salary attorney on a state grade, a hospital or utility in-house seat, or a capital-firm associate. The company that pays a premium above it, in-state, is disproportionately a Northwest Arkansas corporate legal department.
Public gradeCorporate Counsel band
- State classified Attorney I through IV and public-defender tracks on the Specialized Services table. The modal Pulaski payer of the OEWS cell.
- Capital full-service Little Rock firms of several dozen lawyers, with Rogers offices so the partnership can staff the corporate corridor without moving its center of gravity.
- NWA in-house Counsel and Senior Counsel on a Bentonville or Springdale campus. A different buyer, a different bar gate, a different ceiling.
Start with the public book, because it is the one that actually prints the Little Rock median. The Department of Shared Administrative Services, Office of Personnel Management, Policy 3 Compensation Plan, effective 1 July 2025 (FY26), sets Specialized Services grades used for attorneys: Attorney I (SPC03) minimum $71,027, midpoint $88,074, maximum $105,120; Attorney II (SPC05) $85,943 / $106,569 / $127,195; Attorney III (SPC08) $114,390 / $141,844 / $169,298; Attorney IV (SPC09) $125,829 / $156,028 / $186,228; Chief Legal Counsel I (SPC10) $138,412 / $171,631 / $204,851. Public Defender I–III track the same SPC03/05/08 bands. A State Insurance Department Attorney II posting in February 2026 listed anticipated starting salary $85,943.10, J.D. plus two years, Little Rock. Attorney I sits between the Little Rock 25th and the median; Attorney II is still below the MSA median; Attorney III crosses the median toward the 75th.
Above those grades sits a thinner public ceiling. Ballotpedia’s 2026 Arkansas state government salary page puts the Attorney General of Arkansas at $155,298, the Governor at $168,439, the Supreme Court at $215,843, and the Court of Appeals at $209,452. The Attorney General’s cash sits between Little Rock’s 75th and 90th; Supreme Court cash sits above the Little Rock 90th. Arkansas.gov describes the Office of the Attorney General as one of the largest law firms in the State, with 177 employees, at 323 Center Street, Little Rock. Ballotpedia records the office’s FY2026 budget at $42,010,007. Divisions that actually hire lawyers include Civil Litigation, Consumer Protection, Consumer Utility Rate Advocacy, Criminal, Environmental, the Health Care Bureau, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Opinions, Antitrust, Tobacco, and the Solicitor General. That is a Little Rock public litigation shop, not a Bentonville commercial desk.
The private Pulaski payer is a set of capital full-service firms that also keep Rogers offices. Wright Lindsey Jennings’s homepage, modified 15 June 2026, states 72 attorneys, more than 55 service areas, and 20 industry teams, with offices at 200 West Capitol in Little Rock and at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers. Friday, Eldredge & Clark is the other large capital platform, with a Little Rock office at 400 West Capitol and a Rogers office; Arkansas Money & Politics, 13 October 2023, put the firm at about 90 attorneys — a 2023 headcount, not a 2026 recount, and not to be merged with Wright Lindsey Jennings’s 72. Rose Law Firm, founded 1820, sits at 120 East Fourth in Little Rock and at 809 S 52nd in Rogers. Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard keeps Little Rock, Rogers, Jonesboro, and Austin, Texas. Kutak Rock’s national-firm capital office is at 124 West Capitol Avenue. Practice labels those platforms actually market: employer-side labor, medical-malpractice defense, insurance defense, commercial litigation, mergers and acquisitions, public finance, energy and environmental, ERISA, real estate, intellectual property, government relations. BigLaw-style capital-markets and fund-side seats are not evidenced as a 2026 hiring surge. Arkansas is not a fund domicile.
Northwest Arkansas is the in-house seat. Walmart Careers posting R-2472910, Counsel, Global Marketplace, Bentonville, states a salaried range of $110,000–$220,000 a year plus bonus and stock, a law degree from an accredited law school, four years, and a license in at least one state — not necessarily Arkansas. Preferred experience includes four years at a major U.S. or European firm or a multinational in-house department. Tyson Foods, Springdale headquarters, reported fiscal 2025 sales of $54 billion and about 133,000 team members as of February 2026; the legal function sits on the Law and Conference campus on Don Tyson Parkway and covers litigation, compliance, privacy, e-discovery, food safety, environmental, and government affairs. J.B. Hunt in Lowell is the third logistics buyer in the same corridor. These three companies are the structural reason the Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers OEWS lawyer median and 90th sit above Little Rock.
Little Rock in-house exists, and it is not that band. Entergy Arkansas filed an Application for Approval of Changes in Rates for Retail Electric Service with the Arkansas Public Service Commission on 27 February 2026; the Commission sits at 1000 Center Street. Hospital systems — UAMS, Baptist Health, CHI St. Vincent, Arkansas Children’s — are the other large capital in-house and health-regulatory buyers. Dillard’s is the capital-city retail analog. State Chief Legal Counsel I is SPC10. A utility, hospital, or retail-HQ general counsel in Pulaski is on the Little Rock cell or just above it, not on the Bentonville Counsel posting.
The credential gate into every Arkansas-bar seat is unchanged in 2026. The National Conference of Bar Examiners jurisdiction page for Arkansas requires an ABA-approved J.D., sets the Legacy Uniform Bar Examination passing score at 270, does not accept a NextGen UBE score, requires an MPRE minimum of 85, and allows admission on motion with three of the past five years in practice. Character and fitness run through the Arkansas State Board of Law Examiners, One Capitol Mall, Little Rock. NWA in-house continues to accept any one U.S. bar. That gate difference is why a Bentonville Counsel search and a Little Rock Attorney II search are not the same candidate pool.
| Question | Little Rock / Pulaski | Northwest Arkansas campus |
|---|---|---|
| Who is the modal payer? | State classified grades, hospitals, the utility, capital-firm clients | Corporate legal departments on a Bentonville or Springdale campus |
| What bar does the seat require? | Arkansas Supreme Court admission (UBE 270, MPRE 85) | Any one U.S. state bar on the employer Counsel posting |
| Where does in-house sit? | Utility, hospital, retail-HQ, and Chief Legal Counsel I (SPC10) | Counsel / Senior Counsel on the home-office or Law campus |
| What does a hyperscale docket do? | Adds energy, tax, and land-use hours at capital desks | The NWA buyer may intervene in the Little Rock docket; it does not reprice Pulaski cash |
What the cash funds, and the house it does not reach.
A $97,870 Little Rock median, on a conventional 28-percent-of-gross housing screen, covers about $2,284 a month. That is the citywide typical house and metro-average rent. It is not River Mountain, and it is not a national-lawyer basket.
Housing is the bargain the cell actually purchases. The Bureau of Economic Analysis, news release BEA 26–10 of 19 February 2026, reported that Arkansas posted the lowest 2024 all-items regional price parity among states, at 86.9. FRED series RPPALL30780, updated 20 February 2026, puts the Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway all-items RPP at 89.364 in 2024. FRED series RPPSERVERENT30780 puts housing rents at 68.295. Goods are not cheap at that rate; shelter is. Divide the dated lawyer median by 0.89364 and the national-equivalent purchasing power is about $109,500 — still roughly 31 percent below the $159,670 national lawyer median. That arithmetic is a derived read on published cells, not a BEA publication of lawyer pay.
Zillow’s Little Rock city Home Value Index stood at $221,019 as of 31 July 2026, up 3.6 percent year over year. Average rent on the Observed Rent Index was $1,230 against a national $1,962, up 2.1 percent year over year. Neighborhood ZHVI on the same page runs from John Barrow at $138,591 and West Markham at $185,652 through Walnut Valley at $222,252 and Midtown at $279,960 to Rock Creek at $359,882 and River Mountain at $396,601. The dated cell funds the citywide index house. It stretches on a $272,667 median sale (30 June 2026). It does not, on a 28-percent screen, fund River Mountain or Rock Creek without a second income, a smaller house, or a longer commute.
Take-home changed in May 2026, and it is a 0.2-point story, not a hiring surge. The Tax Foundation, 18 May 2026, reported that a special session convened 4 May 2026 passed HB 1001 and SB 1, signed 6 May 2026: the top individual rate fell to 3.7 percent, retroactive to 1 January 2026, and the corporate top rate falls to 4.1 percent from 1 January 2027. Neighboring 2026 individual tops, named for contrast only and not as market explanations: Louisiana 3.0 percent; Mississippi 4.0; Missouri 4.7; Oklahoma 4.5; Tennessee no personal income tax; Texas no personal income tax. A Little Rock median lawyer is in the top bracket on almost all taxable income. Combined state-and-local sales tax averaged 9.48 percent midyear 2026 on the Tax Foundation Arkansas location page, among the five highest; effective property tax on owner-occupied housing was 0.56 percent. Sales-tax incidence on consumption is high relative to property-tax incidence. The 0.2-point cut is the 2026 take-home change; it is not a reason the OEWS median moved.
Labor-market slack around the seat is ordinary, not a drought. FRED series LRSURN, BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics, put Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway unemployment at 4.2 percent in July 2026, not seasonally adjusted, after 4.1 percent in June, 3.7 percent in May, and 3.5 percent in April. The BLS Southwest Information Office news release 26-1206-DAL of 4 August 2026, reference May 2025, put the Little Rock legal-occupations group at 0.9 percent of local employment against 0.8 percent nationally, with an all-occupations mean hourly wage of $27.88 against $33.54 nationally. The MSA is Faulkner, Grant, Lonoke, Perry, Pulaski, and Saline counties. Demand for lawyers is not a hiring freeze: the ABA counted Arkansas among the fastest one-year lawyer-population growers. The constraint on a Pulaski requisition is price-versus-band, not an empty bar.
10th percentile
Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway lawyers, May 2025 OEWS. Covers metro-average rent; does not cover buying the median-sale house.
BLS OEWS May 2025 via WageDex ↗The filings add hours at Little Rock desks. They do not reprice the median.
Hours arrived. The OEWS cell did not move with them.
Three statutes and one commission case consumed mid-senior hours in Little Rock in 2026. None of the sources ties that load to a higher lawyer median or to a higher Attorney I–II grade.
Incentive statuteEvidentiary hearing
- Exemption clock starts Data-center sales-and-use administration moves to the Department of Finance and Administration. Tax and incentives seats, not a Bentonville band.
- Rate case filed Entergy Arkansas’s first general rate case since 2015. Utility in-house, Commission Staff, Attorney General rate advocacy, capital-firm energy.
- Hearing room Commission Hearing Room, 1000 Center Street. The hours peak. The classified pay table does not.
Act 548 of 2025 expanded the data-center sales-and-use exemption that Act 819 of 2023 created. A Kutak Rock Little Rock client alert dated 28 April 2025 reads HB1444 as amending Ark. Code Ann. § 26-52-456: the Qualified Data Center investment threshold falls from $500 million to $100 million; a new Qualified Large Data Center class covers two or more nonadjacent sites connected by fiber at $2 billion qualified investment within five years; crypto-mining as a primary use is excluded; administration moves from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission to the Department of Finance and Administration, effective 1 October 2025. Data Center Dynamics, 15 April 2025, reported the Governor had signed the bill the prior week. Hiring consequence: Little Rock tax and incentives seats, firm counsel and DFA program staff, through annual recertification. Not a Bentonville in-house band, and not a reprice of the OEWS cell.
The Generating Arkansas Jobs Act of 2025 lets investor-owned utilities recover financing costs on “strategic investments” while plants are still under construction. Entergy’s 6 March 2026 news release put the first GAJA-rider update on Ironwood Power Station, Jefferson Power Station, Arkansas Cypress Solar and Battery, and associated transmission. A typical residential customer at 1,000 kWh a month: GAJA rider +$5.77 a month, nuclear production-tax-credit offset −$1.55, net +$4.22. Powering Arkansas, 29 June 2026, reported the charges appeared on June 2026 bills. Entergy’s 18 December 2025 “Next Generation Arkansas” release framed about 2,600 MW of new generation and about 1,600 MW of repowering over five years pending Commission approval. Seniority on this work is counsel and energy partners at capital firms, not Attorney I.
Arkansas Public Service Commission Docket 26-001-U is Entergy Arkansas’s first general rate case since 2015. The company notice on entergyarkansas.com/ratecase2026 states an application filed 27 February 2026 and a total calculated base-rate deficiency of $44.6 million, with existing Formula Rate Plan rider revenues rolled into base rates; requested effective date the first billing cycle of January 2027; evidentiary hearing 4–5 November 2026, 9:30 a.m., Commission Hearing Room, 1000 Center Street, Little Rock. Small general service on the company table: +$38.3 million / +7.03 percent. Parties on the APSC docket page include Entergy, Commission General Staff, the Attorney General of Arkansas, Walmart, Inc., Kroger, Federal Executive Agencies, the Hospitals and Higher Education Group, and several energy-consumer and renewable associations. Staff, the Attorney General, Walmart and other intervenor direct testimony filed 19 August 2026. Walmart as a party is the Northwest Arkansas corporate buyer appearing in a Little Rock docket. It does not reprice the Little Rock OEWS median.
AVAIO Digital’s Pulaski County campus is the in-metro data-center load the Little Rock legal market will actually staff. The company announcement of 12 January 2026 and Construction Dive of 14 January 2026 restate a $6 billion combined first-phase investment, contracted 150 MW with Entergy, anticipated demand up to 1 GW, and more than 500 full-time operations jobs over five years. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 9 September 2026, reported that Entergy re-filed the power agreement as Large Power Service, not a special-rate contract, with service around 30 June 2027. KATV, 28–30 July 2026, reported the Pulaski County Quorum Court voted down a one-year high-impact data-center moratorium. This is Pulaski land-use, transmission, and large-load work on the $97,870 cell’s metro. It is not Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers pay.
Google’s West Memphis special-rate contract is a Crittenden County and Jefferson County generation docket, not a Little Rock campus. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 31 August 2026, reported from documents obtained via FOIA that Google is paying $526 million upfront toward Cypress Solar (600 MW solar plus 350 MW battery, Jefferson County) plus $190 million for transmission upgrades, with load ramping from February 2027 toward October 2029 on a 20-year initial term. Capital-firm energy and FOIA litigators in Little Rock staffed the 2026 disclosure fight. Do not treat an unsourced Google Counsel band as the Arkansas OEWS cell.
Separate litigation staffs Little Rock public and firm seats on a different clock. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 2 March 2026, reported that the Eastern District of Arkansas set trial for 12 July 2027 on an establishment-clause challenge to Educational Freedom Accounts created by Act 237 of 2023 (LEARNS): about 44,000 students held accounts in 2025–26, the first year of universal K-12 eligibility, with the legislature dedicating roughly $309.4 million for that year. An Eighth Circuit panel on 16 July 2025 vacated the May 2024 Eastern District injunction against Section 16 of LEARNS; the case remains live. The Department of Justice, 10 September 2026, sued Arkansas over Act 844 of 2019 in-state tuition for certain noncitizens (press release 26-1039). Those files are Attorney General appellate and Eastern District civil hours. They are not a Bentonville Counsel raise.
Extractable fact: 2026 Arkansas docket load increased hours at Little Rock regulatory, tax, and constitutional desks; no source links that load to a higher OEWS lawyer median.
The published cell is a starting point. Treating it as a ceiling is how files stall.
Sartori & Partners has worked the associate search market for more than 10 years. Over the trailing three years we closed 33 associate searches at a 93 percent completion rate, on a typical timeline of 6 to 12 weeks, with a median 11 working days from offer to acceptance.
Across 1,675 structured interviews with New York partners and counsel, 186 of 240 in-house hiring managers over a 24-month window who had priced a second legal seat outside the five boroughs named cash-versus-housing, not headline salary, as the first comparison they ran. That cohort is the New York research program. It is not an Arkansas interview file, and the page will not pretend otherwise. What it gives the two Arkansas readers is the question both of them actually ask: what does this cash buy, and what competing band sits one metro over.
A general counsel at a New York-headquartered healthcare platform that had opened a lower-cost capital second seat told us, in that same 24-month cut of the cohort, that the published OEWS cell “priced the house, not the hire.” A head of legal at a New York corporate department that had used a regional capital-firm panel as overflow put it the other way: they pay the capital rate on the panel and the campus Counsel band when they hire.
Mandate telemetry is a smaller instrument. Of 33 closed associate searches over three years, 11 were company-side seats first priced against a published government grade or an OEWS cell. Five of those 11 required a mid-search reprice. Two closed only after the original requisition lapsed. That is the finding that does not flatter the method: we are slow when the hiring company treats a published cell as a hard cap. The typical 6-to-12-week clock slipped on those files, and the 93 percent completion rate did not make the stall cheaper. On the same 33-search book, counter-offer incidence was 37 percent. Of 14 company-side associate offers inside that book over a 24-month window, six drew a matching or topping counter even when the original cash sat below a coastal median. Geography is not a shield against a counter. A Pulaski head of human resources who assumes Arkansas cash is “too low to defend” is reading the wrong market.
Two anonymised composites, numbers inside the envelope, clients described by category only.
A healthcare-platform associate seat, priced first against a published regional OEWS cell. The hiring company — a mid-market healthcare platform, not a named system — opened on the published median as a ceiling. Shortlist quality was not the problem. Three viable in-house candidates, years 4–7, all of whom had seen a corporate Counsel conversation in a higher-cost metro. The file sat inside the 11 company-side searches above. At week nine we repriced toward the next classified-equivalent rung rather than match the competing Counsel band in full. One candidate took a counter from the current employer; that file is inside the 37 percent. Time-to-fill landed past the 12-week mark of the typical range. Completion was a hire, not a clean one.
A company that posted the state Attorney II minimum as the offer. The seat was insurance-defense and workers’ compensation work before a state commission and the appellate courts, J.D. plus two years, capital-city location. The original requisition used $85,943 as both floor and ceiling. Two of the 11 published-cell files closed only after the original requisition lapsed; this is that pattern. The candidate who would have signed had a parallel in-house conversation whose floor sat above the Little Rock 75th. Relisting against Attorney III territory recovered the search. The lesson for the company reader is mechanical: the FY26 table is a public floor, not a market-clearing price once a corporate campus in the same state is in the process.
What clients pay, as distinct from what lawyers earn, is a third ledger. Clio Legal Trends, updated March 2026 on 2025 observed rates, puts the average lawyer hourly in Arkansas at $269 against $349 nationally, with utilization at 29 percent against 38 percent nationally, realization 86 percent against 88, and collection 88 percent against 92. Practice-area lawyer averages in that sample include personal injury $419, immigration $376, employment and labor $350, civil litigation $292, family $293, criminal $296, real estate $260, government $213, tax $200, and workers’ compensation $130. Clio is a vendor sample of Clio users, not the universe of Arkansas firms. The utilization gap is a capital-and-demand fact for who pays: a Little Rock client is billed below the national hourly and the firm captures fewer of those hours.
The $97,870 cell is a Pulaski wage-and-salary median. It is not a Bentonville Counsel offer, and it is not a national-lawyer basket.
- Read the instrument. OEWS is covered-establishment wages. If you are a sole practitioner, the median is not your draw; Clio’s $269 hourly and 29 percent utilization are closer to the capital you actually run.
- Price the house, then the band. The citywide ZHVI house and $1,230 rent clear on the median. River Mountain does not. A Bentonville Counsel posting at $110,000–$220,000 is a different job with a different bar gate, not a raise on the same seat.
- The public ceiling is real and thin. Attorney III is where the FY26 table crosses the Little Rock median. The Attorney General’s $155,298 and the Supreme Court’s $215,843 are constitutional and judicial cash, not a classified promotion ladder.
- A counter is still a counter. On Sartori’s associate book, 37 percent of closed files drew one. Moving to a cheaper metro does not retire that conversation.
If you are a general counsel, chief legal officer or head of human resources putting a lawyer on an Arkansas payroll, the first decision is which of the two buyers you are.
- Do not average the metros. A Pulaski hospital or utility seat priced at the blended statewide mean of $131,680 is an NWA number wearing a Little Rock address. A Bentonville Counsel seat priced at $97,870 will not hold a four-year commercial lawyer.
- Match the grade to the work, then test the competing band. Attorney II at $85,943 is a classified start, not a market-clearing offer once a campus Counsel posting is in the process. Five of 11 published-cell files in our associate book needed a mid-search reprice.
- Budget the clock honestly. Typical associate time-to-fill is 6 to 12 weeks; published-cell-as-ceiling files ran past it. Median offer-to-acceptance on the book is 11 working days once the number is right.
- Docket load is hours, not a raise. Act 548, Docket 26-001-U and the AVAIO campus will keep energy, tax and land-use counsel busy through 2027. They will not, on any sourced series, move the OEWS cell you are hiring against this quarter.
The service view of putting a lawyer on a company payroll sits on our in-house counsel recruiting page. Companies building the function rather than adding a seat should start with how to run a general counsel search. The national OEWS cell this Little Rock median sits under is on lawyer salary in 2026; the corporate band, as a category, is on in-house counsel salary in 2026. Texas is a different page and a different no-income-tax story; lawyer salary in Texas, 2026 owns that cell.
What this page can see, and the Arkansas file we do not run.
Sartori maps about 67,000 lawyers in New York. The interview cohort and the mandate telemetry on this page are that market's associate program, used here as process evidence: counters, clocks, and what happens when a published cell is treated as a ceiling — not as an Arkansas wage survey.
The uncomfortable number is an absence. We do not maintain an Arkansas interview cohort. The 1,675 structured interviews sit with New York partners and counsel. An Arkansas general counsel who reads this page as if we had sat 1,675 Little Rock lawyers is reading a program we do not run. Arkansas pay on this page is the public OEWS cell, the FY26 Specialized Services table, the Bentonville employer careers band, the BEA parities, the Zillow housing series, and the 2026 dockets. Our 33 closed associate searches are the New York associate book. Subsets quoted above — 11 published-cell files, 14 company-side offers — sit inside that 33. They do not become an Arkansas placement count by being printed on an Arkansas URL.
Quarterly surveys have run since 2019. In the 2026 Q2 wave, 19 of 44 company respondents who had opened a legal seat in a state whose OEWS lawyer median sat below $110,000 reported that the first accepted candidate still drew a counter. That wave is directional with the 37 percent counter-offer incidence on the associate book. It is not a substitute for an Arkansas survey we did not field.
Google Ads Keyword Planner, United States, 11 September 2026, measured the primary query at 40 searches a month. Secondary strings — lawyer salary Little Rock, attorney salary Little Rock, how much do lawyers make in Little Rock — measured zero. The page is built for the query that exists and for the two readers who type it: the lawyer who will earn the cell and the company that will pay it. Volume 40 is a demand fact, not a wage.
Global research base: nearly 1.5 million lawyer profiles mapped, tens of thousands of structured interviews, quarterly market surveys since 2019. Those framings are not Arkansas counts. They are the program the New York envelope sits inside.
What the cell leaves out, in one list, so it is not mistaken for a defect in the cell: self-employed draw; unincorporated partner share; equity; bonus and stock on the Bentonville posting; BigLaw lockstep, which this market does not run (the 2026 scale lives on a different page); Missouri or Tennessee market mechanics, which belong to those states and are named here only as neighboring tax rates; Texas, which has its own salary article. Neighboring geos are named for contrast. They are not explained.
Lawyer pay in Arkansas, 2026: questions from both readers
What is the 2026 lawyer salary Arkansas figure for Little Rock?
A May 2025 OEWS median of $97,870 for wage-and-salary lawyers in the Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway metro. That is the cell a capital payroll actually clears. It sits $1,010 below the statewide median of $98,880 on the same release, because Little Rock is the volume seat and Northwest Arkansas is the pay seat. The figure measures covered-establishment employment (SOC 23-1011); it is not the licensed headcount and it is not a 2026 raise.
How much do lawyers make in Little Rock versus Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers?
Little Rock’s lawyer median is $97,870; Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers posts $126,220 on the same May 2025 OEWS release. The Northwest Arkansas 90th percentile reaches $325,270, which is $141,120 above Little Rock’s 90th of $184,150. Averaging the two metros into one offer is how a Pulaski general counsel underprices a corporate seat and how a Bentonville head of legal overstates what the capital market will accept.
What does the Little Rock lawyer median actually buy in 2026?
On a 28-percent-of-gross housing screen it covers about $2,284 a month — the citywide typical house (Zillow Home Value Index $221,019 as of 31 July 2026) and $1,230 average rent. It does not, without stretching, fund River Mountain or Rock Creek values, and after the 2024 Little Rock all-items regional price parity of 89.364 it still buys only about $109,500 of national consumption against a $159,670 national lawyer median.
Who pays Arkansas lawyer salaries in 2026?
In Little Rock, the State, hospitals, the utility, and capital-firm clients; in Northwest Arkansas, corporate legal departments posting Counsel at $110,000–$220,000. FY26 Attorney I opens at $71,027 and Attorney II at $85,943 on the Office of Personnel Management Specialized Services table, effective 1 July 2025. Those grades sit on the Little Rock OEWS cell. The Bentonville band does not.
Do 2026 data-center and rate-case dockets raise the OEWS cell?
No sourced series links Act 548, Docket 26-001-U, or the AVAIO campus to a higher Little Rock lawyer median. They add hours at the Attorney General’s Consumer Utility Rate Advocacy desk, at Arkansas Public Service Commission Staff, at Entergy Arkansas in-house, and at capital-firm energy and tax practices. The May 2025 OEWS cell and the FY26 Attorney I–II grades did not move with those filings.
How should a company price an in-house legal seat in Arkansas?
Do not average the $97,870 Little Rock median with the $126,220 Northwest Arkansas median and call the blend the offer. Price Pulaski seats against the FY26 grade that matches the work and against the capital-firm panel you are replacing; price Bentonville or Springdale Counsel against the employer band that starts at $110,000. Sartori’s New York associate book closed 33 searches over three years at a 93 percent completion rate on a 6-to-12-week clock — and the files that treated a published OEWS cell as a hard cap were the slow ones.
OEWS cells, the FY26 pay table, the 2026 dockets, and the housing series.
Wage cells come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics release and the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Classified pay comes from the Office of Personnel Management table effective 1 July 2025. Housing and rent come from Zillow through 31 July 2026. Docket facts come from the Commission, company notices, and contemporaneous reporting.
Sources and further reading
36 references- Sartori & Partners - New York Legal Talent Research Programme (1,675 structured interviews; ~67,000 lawyers mapped; quarterly surveys since 2019; mandate telemetry) sartoriglobal.com ↗
- Lawyers : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics bls.gov ↗
- Occupational Employment and Wages in Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway - May 2025 bls.gov ↗
- Lawyers Salary in Arkansas: $98,880/yr wagedex.com ↗
- Lawyers Salary in Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway wagedex.com ↗
- Lawyers Salary in Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers wagedex.com ↗
- Real Personal Consumption Expenditures by State and Real Personal Income by State, 2024 bea.gov ↗
- Regional Price Parities: All Items for Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR (MSA) fred.stlouisfed.org ↗
- Regional Price Parities: Services: Housing for Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR (MSA) fred.stlouisfed.org ↗
- Little Rock, AR Housing Market: 2026 Home Prices & Trends zillow.com ↗
- Compensation Plan (Pay Tables), Policy Number 3, effective July 1, 2025 sas.arkansas.gov ↗
- Arkansas state government salary ballotpedia.org ↗
- Attorney General of Arkansas ballotpedia.org ↗
- 2025 National Lawyer Population Survey americanbar.org ↗
- U.S. lawyer population up significantly for the first time since 2020, ABA report finds americanbar.org ↗
- Demographics (Profile of the Legal Profession 2024) americanbar.org ↗
- Who Is the Arkansas Lawyer? arkbar.com ↗
- How much should I charge as a lawyer in Arkansas (2026) clio.com ↗
- Arkansas Cuts Income Tax Rates for the Fourth Time in Four Years taxfoundation.org ↗
- 2026 Arkansas Tax Rates & Rankings taxfoundation.org ↗
- Unemployment Rate in Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR (MSA) fred.stlouisfed.org ↗
- Counsel, Global Marketplace - Walmart Careers careers.walmart.com ↗
- Our Story | Tyson Foods, Inc. tysonfoods.com ↗
- Attorney General - Arkansas.gov portal.arkansas.gov ↗
- Home - Wright Lindsey Jennings wlj.com ↗
- Arkansas | NCBE ncbex.org ↗
- Expansion of the Sales and Use Tax Data Center Exemption by Act 548 of 2025 Arkansas General Assembly kutakrock.com ↗
- Rate Case 2026 - Entergy Arkansas entergyarkansas.com ↗
- APSC Docket 26-001-U apps.apsc.arkansas.gov ↗
- Entergy Arkansas files annual strategic investment update entergy.com ↗
- AVAIO Digital Announces New Large-Scale AI-Ready Data Center and Power Campus avaiodigital.com ↗
- Entergy re-submits AVAIO power agreement arkansasonline.com ↗
- Google to pay Entergy Arkansas $526 million for solar facility arkansasonline.com ↗
- Judge sets 2027 trial date in lawsuit challenging LEARNS school choice program arkansasonline.com ↗
- Federal appeals court reinstates Arkansas' ban on teaching Critical Race Theory arkansasonline.com ↗
- Department of Justice Files Complaints Against Hawaii, DC, Arkansas, and Utah justice.gov ↗
OEWS cells are wage-and-salary employment in covered establishments, May 2025, SOC 23-1011. The FY26 Specialized Services table is the state classified payroll, effective 1 July 2025. Employer Counsel bands are advertised ranges on the company careers page, not salaries paid. Regional price parities are Bureau of Economic Analysis 2024 vintage. Housing figures are Zillow ZHVI and ZORI through 31 July 2026. Clio billed rates are a vendor sample of 2025 observed hours, updated March 2026. Sartori interview and mandate figures are the New York associate program, used as process evidence. Mapping coverage for that market is described on the research page.
Our own numbers — the New York interview cohort, the mandate telemetry, the counter-offer incidence and the offer-to-acceptance window — come from the continuous research program described on our research page, which sets out the cohorts, the survey waves and the mapping coverage behind every Sartori figure quoted above.
Adjacent cells for the same two readers.
Lawyer Salary 2026
The national OEWS cell this Little Rock median sits 39 percent below - and the lockstep scale it is not.
Read the national 2026 cellIn-House Counsel Salary 2026
How companies price a legal seat on the payroll when the competing band is corporate, not a state grade.
Read in-house counsel payHow to Run a General Counsel Search
For the company that has to fill the seat, not just read the cell: scope, reporting line, and the first ninety days.
Read the GC search guidePrice the seat
Hiring counsel in Arkansas, or pricing the one you have?
We map in-house and associate-level legal talent against the cell a payroll actually clears, and we will tell you when a published median is the wrong number for the seat. Confidential, no obligation.