General Attorney
Drawn directly from OPM FedScope (June 2026), this page tracks headcount, average salary, tenure, and pay comparison for the General Attorney occupation series (code 0905).
The verdict
General Attorney is a major federal occupation: 35,986 employees (1.8% of the federal civilian workforce) in the Legal and Kindred Group family. At an average salary of $177,921 it pays well above the federal average, and headcount declined from the prior period.
- Headcount change
- -1.8%
- Pay change
- +0.1%
- Avg tenure
- 13.6 yrs
- Rank in family
- #1 of 18
FedScope read on General Attorney (dense series)
On pay, the move between reporting periods was a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change. On length of service, this series shows a mid-length average tenure, reflecting a mix of career employees and those who transfer or exit mid-career. Headcount moved down versus the prior period, a useful gauge for job seekers on USAJOBS trying to assess whether this role is expanding government-wide or contracting under hiring freezes and attrition.
Code 09, the Legal and Kindred Group family, is where the federal government classifies General Attorney alongside 17 related occupations. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for General Attorney postings should also review these sibling occupations in the Legal and Kindred Group family. Across the Legal and Kindred Group family, 110,958 employees work in 18 occupations; General Attorney is 32.4% of that headcount. Its average salary ranks in the top half (88th percentile) of pay among Legal and Kindred Group occupations.
Salary context · rich-pay series
How General Attorney pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$177,921
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
+51.6%
Where General Attorney ranks on rich federal pay
General Attorney earns more on average than 97% of federal occupation series (527 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where General Attorney sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks General Attorney.
Related Occupations in Legal and Kindred Group
10 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact Representative | 29,201 | $64,454 | 9.3 yrs |
| Veterans Claims Examining | 18,099 | $92,511 | 13.3 yrs |
| General Legal and Kindred Administration | 8,711 | $82,876 | 12.3 yrs |
| Paralegal Specialist | 5,165 | $107,719 | 15.8 yrs |
| Legal Assistance | 3,326 | $69,159 | 12.5 yrs |
| Hearings and Appeals | 3,231 | n/a | 15.9 yrs |
| Passport and Visa Examining | 2,035 | $92,682 | 11.3 yrs |
| Legal Instruments Examining | 1,261 | $73,021 | 11.7 yrs |
| Administrative Law Judge | 1,189 | $208,642 | 20.7 yrs |
| Claims Assistance and Examining | 925 | $67,330 | 18.9 yrs |
Nationwide peers near this dense headcount
Two peer sets for General Attorney outside the Legal and Kindred Group family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar dense headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (35,986 here).
Similar rich average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($177,921 here).
Key takeaways
- Place General Attorney pay in context with the pay-rank chart above, then compare it with another occupation.
- Turn an average salary into a grade: the GS pay grade tables show how grades and steps map to pay.
- Browse the Legal and Kindred Group family occupations in the table above, or search current General Attorney postings on USAJOBS.
OPM FedScope and Federal Workforce Data figures are federal civilian headcounts, average salaries, and length-of-service statistics - not job-quality scores, hiring advice, or a live vacancy listing. A larger or higher-paid agency is not a better employer.