Infrastructure Capital Markets Counsel in 2026: Capital Markets First

An infrastructure owner putting together a panel usually starts with project counsel in mind, yet the deal record points first to infrastructure capital markets lawyers. Sartori & Partners data show 585 infrastructure deals in the 12 months to October 2026, and capital markets lawyers worked on 30.1% of them. Corporate and M&A lawyers came next at 22.1%, then banking and finance at 18.5% and projects and infrastructure at 15.0%. For a general counsel or finance director at a toll road, port, airport or network operator, the order matters: the bench that touches the largest share of the sector's work is the one raising money in the public markets, and the panel should be built around it.

The ranking of benches is clear at each step. Capital markets lawyers appeared on 176 infrastructure deals, corporate and M&A lawyers on 129, banking and finance lawyers on 108 and projects and infrastructure lawyers on 88. Real estate lawyers trail at 4.6%. These are matters on record, and one deal can involve several practices, so the shares overlap and are never added together. The deal labels tell the same story from another angle: capital markets deals were 29.2% of the sector's deals, project and infrastructure finance 19.8% and M&A 15.7%. An operator that returns to the capital markets each year will meet its capital markets team more often than its project team, so that relationship deserves the senior attention in a panel review.

Coming first in count is not the same as being specific to the sector. Across all dated deals in the Sartori & Partners deal record, capital markets lawyers appear on 26.4%, so their 30.1% in infrastructure is only 1.1 times the market rate. Projects and infrastructure lawyers sit on 2.4% of all deals and 15.0% of infrastructure deals, 6.2 times their weight elsewhere. Banking and finance runs at 2.9 times, while corporate and M&A sits close to its market share, 22.1% against 23.3%. The capital markets work is the volume; the projects and finance work is the specialism. A buyer can source capital markets counsel from any firm that runs offerings at scale, but the projects partner on the panel has to know concession and asset structures that generalists rarely see.

Infrastructure deals rose 49.1% year on year, from 385 to 574 in the settled 12-month windows. Capital markets deals across every sector rose 10.0%, from 11,838 to 13,024, and all dated deals rose 10.6%. Lateral hiring in the capital markets practice held flat (+6.7%), with 609 moves against 571 a year earlier. Set side by side, the sector's work grew fast while the pool of capital markets lawyers changing firms stayed about the same size. That is a comparison, not a cause, but the effect on a buyer is practical: the partners who know infrastructure issuers are carrying more matters than a year ago. Book the team early for any offering planned in the next 12 months, and ask how many live mandates the lead partner already holds.

New York carries the largest share: lawyers there worked on 44.8% of infrastructure deals with a known lawyer location. London follows at 26.4%, ahead of Washington at 18.6% and well ahead of Chicago at 9.4% and Houston at 9.2%. Continental Europe and Asia add Frankfurt at 6.4%, Paris at 6.0% and Singapore at 5.6%. A deal can involve lawyers in several cities, so these shares overlap; they show where the work is done, not where lawyers are counted. The London figure is the one that changes panel design. An owner with European assets or sterling and euro funding needs a London team that leads its own work, not one that only supports New York. Among infrastructure-focus lawyers who changed firms, London took 16.2% of the moves, an index of 175 against the market, so London also draws more than its share of these moves.

The deal record and the lateral record describe two different benches. Of the 241 lawyers with an infrastructure focus who changed firms in 12 months, 50.2% practiced projects and infrastructure, an index of 1,353 against the market's share, the strongest over-index on the list. Banking and finance follows at 36.1%, an index of 259, and construction at an index of 306. Capital markets lawyers were only 3.6% of these movers over three years. These moves held steady year on year, at 244 against 243. In short, the lawyers who brand themselves as infrastructure people are projects and finance lawyers, while the capital markets work on the sector's deals is done by lawyers who present themselves as issuer counsel. A company that searches the market for an infrastructure lawyer will find a projects partner; a company that needs capital markets work should look for capital markets partners with sector deals on their record.

The infrastructure list below ranks firms on all of the sector's deal work, every practice included, and the capital markets list ranks firms on all capital markets work in every sector. No list ranks capital markets work on infrastructure deals alone. Seven names sit on both: Clifford Chance, Latham & Watkins, White & Case, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Linklaters and A&O Shearman. The other three on the sector list, Milbank, Kirkland & Ellis and Cahill Gordon & Reindel, rank in the infrastructure ten without a place in the capital markets ten; the lists do not say which practice carried their sector work. The first-ranked firm on infrastructure deals sits in the 41-60 band. Sartori & Partners counts individual deals for both lists and shows bands, not exact totals. For a panel, the overlap is the natural shortlist for an offering, and the sector-only names are worth a call when the deal leans on asset or financing structure.

Start the panel with capital markets. With capital markets lawyers on 30.1% of the sector's deals, ahead of corporate at 22.1%, that relationship carries the most matters and should be priced as a standing program. Keep a separate projects partner: projects lawyers are 6.2 times more present on infrastructure deals than on deals overall, and that knowledge does not come bundled with an offering team. Check London depth, since lawyers there worked on 26.4% of the sector's deals. Plan for scarce time: infrastructure deals rose 49.1% while capital markets lateral moves held flat (+6.7%), so the same partners are spread over more work. When hiring in-house, expect the market to offer projects lawyers first and capital markets lawyers with sector experience to be harder to find. Sartori & Partners builds these figures from public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly.