Capital Markets Deals in 2026: Two Firms Hold a Band of Their Own

Ask which capital markets deals law firms win most often and the answer narrows faster than in any other deal type. Sartori & Partners data show 12,366 dated capital markets deals in the 12 months to October 2026, about one in four of all dated deals (25.7%). The total is large, but the top of the adviser list is narrow: two firms stand above everyone else, at a level of activity that no firm reaches in M&A, disputes, private equity or any other type. For a law-firm leader weighing a capital markets hire, that shape matters more than the total. It decides whose partners carry real deal flow, where a challenger can realistically compete, and what a lateral candidate gives up by moving.

Davis Polk & Wardwell and Latham & Watkins rank first and second by capital markets deals advised, both in the 701-1200 band. The firms ranked third to sixth, starting with A&O Shearman, sit one band lower at 401-700, and the last four places of the top 10 sit at 251-400. Across every other deal type in the Sartori & Partners records, no firm list opens in the 701-1200 band; the highest first place anywhere else is 401-700, in M&A.

Volume alone does not explain the gap. Disputes and investigations carry 12,054 matters on record, a count close to capital markets, yet the most active disputes adviser sits in the 251-400 band. Capital markets mandates gather around a few advisers in a way that court and agency work does not.

For a firm that wants issuer or underwriter mandates, the two desks at the top are a fixed point, not a target for next year. Partners trained there have worked at a deal pace no adviser in any other type matches. That pace is what a hiring firm buys when it recruits from either desk, and it is what those candidates weigh against any offer.

The M&A list has a different shape. Latham & Watkins ranks first in the 401-700 band, Kirkland & Ellis second at 251-400, and the eight firms ranked third to tenth all sit together at 151-250. Three firms appear on both top 10 lists: Latham & Watkins, White & Case and Sidley Austin. The other seven capital markets advisers, Davis Polk & Wardwell first among them, do not appear in the M&A top 10.

Repeat business is one reason the top is so tight. Capital markets deals came from 4,831 distinct clients in 12 months, M&A deals from 5,239. That works out at 2.6 capital markets deals per client against 1.8 in M&A: issuers come back within the year, and they tend to come back to counsel they already use. Ticket size runs the other way. Where a value is published, the median capital markets deal is $600 million against $1,200 million in M&A, with a value disclosed on 28.6% of capital markets deals and 10.3% of M&A deals.

The M&A playbook of building a broad corporate bench and adding headcount does not transfer. Capital markets work is frequent, smaller per deal and recurring, so it stays where the issuer relationship already sits. A new desk wins it by bringing a relationship in, not by adding lawyers.

Inside firms, capital markets is close to a single-practice deal type. In the Sartori & Partners deal records, lawyers from the Capital Markets practice appear on 98.5% of capital markets deals. M&A is staffed less narrowly: Corporate & M&A lawyers appear on 90.2% of M&A deals, and funds, projects and private equity lawyers each show up on a small share of them. Corporate & M&A lawyers appear on only 0.6% of capital markets deals.

The client base is just as pointed. Pharma and biotech companies appear in 13.9% of capital markets deals and banks and financial institutions in 13.5%. In M&A the most frequent client group, technology and software, appears in 10.6% of deals. Shares overlap because a deal can involve several industries, so they are compared, never added.

A lateral capital markets partner therefore has to arrive as a capital markets lawyer with issuers or underwriters in one of those two client groups. The deal records give little support to covering offerings with a corporate generalist: the work is staffed from the specialist group almost without exception.

On settled windows, the capital markets deal count rose 10.0%: 11,541 matters in the 12 months to September 2025, 12,698 in the 12 months to September 2026. All dated deals rose 10.6% over the same windows, from 43,590 to 48,216, and M&A rose 8.9%, from 8,475 to 9,226. Capital markets kept pace with the wider deal market.

The senior bench did not follow the work. Lateral partner hiring in capital markets held flat (+1.1%), with 185 partners in the latest settled 12 months against 183 in the 12 months before. Lateral hiring at all levels in the practice held flat (+6.7%) too, at 609 moves against 571, and partners make up 31.5% of the practice's lateral moves.

More matters now land on a partner group of about the same size, and the firm list says many of them land on the same few desks. A firm that tries to hire from those desks asks a partner to leave a seat that got busier this year. Plan for long conversations and a case built on the clients the partner will serve, not on deal volume.

The firms that hire capital markets partners are mostly not the firms that advise on the most capital markets deals. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Greenberg Traurig rank first and second among partner hirers, each in the 6-10 band of hires. Of the top 10 advisers, only Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and White & Case also appear among the top 10 partner hirers. Latham & Watkins, second on the adviser list, ranks first among capital markets hirers at all levels, in the 21-40 band.

Partner recruiting in the practice is spread wide. The top 10 partner hirers took 25.3% of capital markets partner moves, and 201 firms hired at least one capital markets lawyer at any level in 12 months. New York took 25.0% of the practice's lateral moves and Hong Kong, with a smaller count, runs at an index of 535 against the market.

This is where a challenger has room. The two firms at the top of the deal list are not among the busiest partner recruiters, so a firm that targets partners at the advisers ranked third to tenth, where the bands sit close together, competes with other hiring firms rather than with the two desks above them.

Treat the top of the list as settled. The two firms at 701-1200 sit a full band above the next four, and a single lateral hire will not close that distance. Compete for the mandates one level down, where the firms ranked third to tenth sit at 401-700 and 251-400, and where one well-connected partner can change a firm's position.

Hire specialists, and hire for clients. With Capital Markets practice lawyers on 98.5% of capital markets deals and 2.6 deals per distinct client, the asset in a lateral move is the issuer or underwriter relationship that returns within the year. Test that in diligence before the headline numbers.

Start before the pipeline needs the hire. Deals rose 10.0% while partner hiring held flat (+1.1%), so the candidates worth having are busier than a year ago and their current firms have every reason to keep them.