Ukraine's legal sector breaks records: more companies were created in 2025 than in the entire previous year

The Ukrainian legal services market is demonstrating a steady recovery after the war recession. As of October 1, 2025, 45,042 legal entities and individual entrepreneurs (IEOs) working in the field of law were registered in Ukraine. In the first nine months of this year, more new law firms were created than in the entire year of 2024. This data is provided by the analytical platform YouControl.

During 2021–2025, the industry experienced several waves of change. Before the full-scale invasion, in 2021, the market growth rates were stable - 617 legal entities and 2,688 IEOs were registered. However, in 2022, the war dramatically changed the situation: the number of new law firms decreased by 63%, and IEOs by 17%. Despite this, there was no mass exit from the market - the number of terminations remained low: 42 companies and 979 individual entrepreneurs, which is even less than in 2021.

In 2023, the sector began to recover: 330 legal entities were registered (+44% compared to 2022) and 3,026 individual entrepreneurs (+36%). The number of terminations remained moderate - 45 companies and 1,235 individual entrepreneurs. The following year, 2024, the market stabilized - 334 companies and 2,983 individual entrepreneurs were created, although a noticeable increase in the number of terminations among individual entrepreneurs (up to 1,415) slightly reduced the net growth of business.

The current year, 2025, became a record for the legal business. In nine months, 399 new legal entities were registered (+58% compared to the same period last year) and 2,617 individual entrepreneurs (+6%). This means that in three quarters alone, the number of newly created companies has exceeded the figure for all of 2024 by 19%. The number of liquidations among legal entities remains small — only 43 cases, however, a wave of mass terminations was observed in the individual entrepreneur segment at the beginning of the year. Because of this, the net growth of individual entrepreneurs in the legal sector is currently the lowest in the last five years.

Geographically, the legal business in Ukraine is distributed very unevenly. The absolute leader is Kyiv, where 9,801 law firms operate, which is 45% of the total. This is followed by Dnipropetrovsk (1,352), Odesa (1,328) and Kharkiv (1,307) regions — approximately 6% each. The six leading regions also include Lviv region (1,137) and Kyiv region (999). Together, these regions concentrate about 71% of all law firms in the country.

At the same time, the situation in the frontline and smaller regions is noticeably different. In the Kherson region, only 308 companies remain, and in the Poltava region, about 460 are operating. In the western and northern agrarian regions, such as Ternopil and Volyn, the number of law firms does not exceed 200. Analysts note that war risks have increased the concentration of legal business in the capital and large cities, which remain the main centers of business activity.

A similar picture is observed among individual entrepreneurs in the field of law, although the distribution here is somewhat more even. There are 6,253 private lawyers working in Kyiv (28% of the total number), another 1,692 in Kyiv region (7.6%). The “big six” also include Kharkiv (1,522), Odesa (1,492), Dnipropetrovsk (1,463) and Lviv (1,433) regions. These regions concentrate almost two-thirds of all sole proprietor lawyers in Ukraine.

Overall, 2025 confirms that the Ukrainian legal sector has not only withstood the challenges of the war, but has also begun to expand. The growth in the number of companies and the gradual increase in the share of women among founders indicates a structural renewal of the industry. The legal business is increasingly integrated into the country's economic recovery, forming the institutional basis for post-war development.