City monitor · November 2026
Columbus: lateral market monitor
Lawyers who joined a new firm in Columbus over the last 12 months: how many, at what level, in which practices and with which firms.
The last 12 months: November 2025 to October 2026
- 55
- Lateral moves, 12 monthsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- +36.6%
- Year on yearSettled 12-month windows
- 23.6%
- Partner share of moves
- 24
- Firms that hired
What the data show
From November 2025 to October 2026, Sartori & Partners recorded 55 lateral moves in Columbus, 0.4% of all lateral moves we tracked. On settled windows the count went from 41 to 56 (+36.6%), a change inside the noise of the two counts, so we read it as flat.
Partners account for 23.6% of movers, near the market's 27.7%. 14.5% of movers stepped up a level when they changed firm, against 12.9% for the market.
- Partner23.6%
- Counsel10.9%
- Associate63.6%
Lateral hires in Columbus were spread across 24 firms. Ten firms account for 70.9% of arrivals, against 12.9% across the market: concentrated. First on the hiring table is Calfee, Halter & Griswold, with arrivals in the 6-10 band.
By practice, Litigation & Disputes comes first, involved in 45.5% of arrivals here (39.9% across the market). 25.6% of movers also changed city, against 20.5% market-wide.
For a firm planning a hire in Columbus, a flat market means candidates are not being pulled by a wave: the case for a move has to come from the platform.
Firms by rank and band
Each firm appears as a rank and a band, never an exact count, and only with at least 10 moves in the window.
| Rank | Firm | Moves (band) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calfee, Halter & Griswold | 6-10 |
| 2 | Taft Stettinius & Hollister | 6-10 |
| 3 | FBT Gibbons | 3-5 |
| 4 | Roetzel & Andress | 3-5 |
| 5 | Ogletree Deakins | 3-5 |
| 6 | Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease | 3-5 |
| 7 | Thompson Hine | 3-5 |
| 8 | Shumaker Loop and Kendrick | 3-5 |
| Rank | Firm | Moves (band) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taft Stettinius & Hollister | 6-10 |
| 2 | Roetzel & Andress | 3-5 |
Related monitors and reports
Practices in Columbus
- Litigation & Disputes25 moves
Other cities
- New York
- London
- Washington, DC
- Los Angeles
- Chicago
- San Francisco
- Boston
- Dallas
- Houston
- Miami
- Philadelphia
- Paris
- Atlanta
- Denver
- Seattle
- Toronto
- Charlotte
- San Diego
- Brussels
- Manchester
- Nashville
- Sydney
- Dubai
- Hong Kong
- Austin
- Minneapolis
- Frankfurt
- Milan
- Amsterdam
- Tampa
- Singapore
- Montreal
- Cleveland
- Munich
- Bristol
- Pittsburgh
- Raleigh
- Leeds
- Detroit
- Phoenix
- Portland
- St. Louis
- Orlando
- Calgary
- Warsaw
Hiring in this market
Reports
- Columbus Lateral Partner Market 2026: Big Firms Supply Few Hires
Columbus rarely recruits out of the largest firms: over three years 19.4% of its lateral hires left a firm of 1,000+ lawyers, against 56.6% in the market and 58.0% in Chicago. Most hires were already in Columbus, and volume was flat.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026
Edition November 2026. Window: November 2025 to October 2026. Source: Sartori & Partners, from public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly. Methodology. Spot an error? [email protected].
For law firm leaders
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