Skills employers ask for in legal jobs
In 2,061 legal jobs in the SkillDrift job index, the most requested skill is Legal research, named in 30.6% of postings. Legal drafting follows at 21%, then Contract drafting at 19.3%.
Based on 2,061 job postings in the SkillDrift job index, read on 1 October 2026.
The 8 skills named most often
Each share is the part of all legal jobs that name the skill. One posting usually names several skills, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
- 1Legal research30.6%631 of 2,061 postings
- 2Legal drafting21%432 of 2,061 postings
- 3Contract drafting19.3%397 of 2,061 postings
- 4Contract negotiation16%329 of 2,061 postings
- 5Contract review15.4%317 of 2,061 postings
- 6Regulatory compliance11.5%236 of 2,061 postings
- 7Stakeholder management10.4%215 of 2,061 postings
- 8Written communication9.7%200 of 2,061 postings
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The SkillDrift job index collects live job postings and reads the skills each one asks for. This page counts the postings in the legal role group, across all industries, and shows the share that name each skill. Skills appear as employers write them, so close variants such as Excel and MS Excel can both appear, because a posting may use either. The page is refreshed from the index, and the date above shows the last read.
Questions people ask
What is the most requested skill in legal jobs?
Legal research. It is named in 30.6% of the 2,061 legal jobs in the SkillDrift job index on 1 October 2026.
How many job postings is this based on?
2,061 postings, read from the SkillDrift job index on 1 October 2026. Each share is the number of postings that name the skill, divided by all postings in this group.