Aircraft Finance Counsel in 2026: The Movers Are Banking Lawyers

A general counsel at an airline or a leasing company who goes looking for aircraft finance lawyers will meet two different groups. Sartori & Partners data show capital markets lawyers worked on 38.1% of aviation deals in the 12 months to October 2026, 115 of 302 matters on record, more than any other practice. Yet the lawyers with an aviation focus who changed firms in the same months were mostly recorded under banking and finance, at an over-index of 403, and they joined firms in London at an over-index of 352. On this scale the market's own share scores a hundred, so banking and finance runs at about four times its usual weight and London at about three and a half. The practice that signs the offerings and the practice whose aviation lawyers are on the move are not the same. For a company, that gap decides where a lateral search for in-house talent or a new outside adviser will actually find people.

Capital markets lawyers were on 38.1% of aviation deals, corporate and M&A lawyers on 20.9%, banking and finance lawyers on 10.3% and litigation lawyers on 8.6%. Across all dated deals the capital markets share is 26.4%, so aviation leans toward the practice by 11.7 points. Banking and finance sits at 6.3% of all deals, a smaller tilt. A single deal can carry several practices, so the shares overlap; many deals carry no practice label at all, and the shares are never added. By deal type the picture is the same: capital markets deals were 35.8% of the sector's deals and banking and lending deals 7.6%. Where a value was disclosed, on 23.2% of aviation deals, the median was $747.5 million, against $563.2 million for capital markets deals overall. The working conclusion for a company: when the sector goes to market, the lawyer at the table is most often an offering lawyer, and the tickets are large.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, 80 lawyers with an aviation focus joined a new firm in 12 months. Of those, 56.2% were recorded under banking and finance, more than half of the group, for an index of 403 against the market. That is the only practice with enough movers to publish for the 12 months, so nothing is said here about the others. The deal record points the other way: banking and finance lawyers were on 10.3% of aviation deals, against 38.1% for capital markets lawyers. The two figures measure different things, deals in one case and lawyers changing firms in the other, so they are set side by side, not subtracted. Over 3 years the pattern holds, with banking and finance at 49.8% of aviation-focused moves. The plain reading is that aviation expertise travels with finance lawyers. A company that wants a lawyer who knows aircraft will find the movable candidates in finance teams, not in offering teams.

Aviation-focused movers who joined a firm in London were 32.5% of the group, an index of 352. London is the only city with a published 12-month figure for these movers. The deal side looks different. Lawyers in New York worked on 38.6% of aviation deals with a known lawyer location, lawyers in London and in Washington on 18.0% each, and lawyers in Chicago on 8.6%. One deal counts in every city where lawyers worked on it, so these shares show where the work is done and are never added. New York carries the largest share of the deal work, roughly 2.1 times London's, while London carries the movers. For a company recruiting aviation talent, London is the deeper pool of people changing seats; for a company picking counsel for a deal, New York holds the largest share of the sector's deal work.

Partners were 28.8% of aviation-focused movers in 12 months, against 31.5% of all capital markets laterals, a gap of 2.7 points. Associates were 60.0% of the aviation group and counsel 11.2%. Over 3 years the partner share was higher, at 37.1%. Partner moves among aviation lawyers held steady year on year, at 27 against 26 (+3.8%, flat). So the extra movement in the group came below partner level. A company hiring a senior aviation lawyer in-house is fishing in a small pond of partners; a company building a team can find associates and counsel more easily.

Aviation deals rose 23.6% year on year, from 250 to 309 in the settled 12-month windows. Capital markets deals in every sector rose 10.0%, from 11,838 to 13,024, close to the 10.6% rise for all dated deals. The aviation count covers every practice on the sector's deals; there is no separate trend for capital markets work on aviation deals alone, so this sets sector against practice. On the people side, lateral hiring in the capital markets practice held flat (+6.7%), at 609 moves against 571. Moves by aviation-focused lawyers rose 58.2%, from 55 to 87, on small counts. None of these hiring figures is offered as the cause of the deal rise. For a company, a sector growing faster than its main practice means more aviation issuers calling on the same capital markets partners, so book counsel before the timetable is fixed.

No list ranks firms on capital markets work for aviation deals alone. The aviation list covers all the sector's deal work, in every practice, and the capital markets list covers all of the practice's deals, in every sector. Checked name by name, four firms are on both: Latham & Watkins, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Clifford Chance and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Each firm shows as a rank and a band of deals advised: the first firm on the aviation list sits in the 11-20 band, the first on the capital markets list, Davis Polk & Wardwell, in the 701-1200 band. A company building a panel can start with those four names and ask each for its own record of aviation deals over the past 12 months.

First, separate the mandate from the hire. For an offering, the lawyers already on the sector's deals are capital markets lawyers, on 38.1% of them. For an in-house hire or a new relationship partner with aircraft knowledge, look in banking and finance, where aviation-focused movers index at 403. Second, search London first for people and New York first for deal teams. Third, expect associates and counsel to be easier to find than partners: partners were 28.8% of the movers. Fourth, plan early, because aviation deals grew faster than the practice that serves them. Sartori & Partners builds these figures from public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly.