Real Estate Deals in 2026: No Firm Stands Clear of the Field

Look at which real estate deals law firms took on in the 12 months to October 2026 and no single adviser stands apart. Sartori & Partners data show 1,354 dated real estate deals in that window, from 820 distinct clients. The two most active firms both sit in the 41-60 band of deals advised, and the eight firms behind them all sit one band lower, at 21-40. M&A and capital markets open their lists several bands higher and fall away in steps. For a law-firm leader building or defending a real estate group, that flat shape is the main fact of the year. Position on this list is close, it can shift with one partner hire, and the firms in the middle compete with each other rather than with a single dominant desk.

Greenberg Traurig and CMS rank first and second by real estate deals advised, both in the 41-60 band. Jones Day, Dentons, Hogan Lovells Cadwalader and Clifford Chance follow, and the list closes with Latham & Watkins and Loyens & Loeff. All eight firms from third to tenth share the 21-40 band. A band is a range of deals, not a count, so the order inside one band is a fine distinction, not a gap.

The names matter as much as the bands. Five of the ten firms, Greenberg Traurig, Dentons, Hogan Lovells Cadwalader, Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod and Loyens & Loeff, appear in neither the M&A nor the capital markets top 10. Real estate deal flow sits with firms that have built a property practice, not simply with the firms that top the corporate tables.

For a firm just outside the top 10, the distance to the list is short. A partner who brings a steady book of owners and investors can move a firm into this group or up within it. In a deal type where the first firm stands several bands clear, the same hire would barely register.

The M&A list has three tiers. Latham & Watkins sits first in the 401-700 band, Kirkland & Ellis second at 251-400, and the eight firms from third to tenth at 151-250. Capital markets opens higher still: Davis Polk & Wardwell and Latham & Watkins share the 701-1200 band, four firms follow at 401-700 and the last four sit at 251-400. Disputes and investigations opens at 251-400 and closes at 101-150. No deal type with more matters on record keeps its whole top 10 inside two neighboring bands, as real estate does. Bands widen as counts grow, so this compares the shape of each list, not the size of any firm.

Corporate strength carries over only in part. Four firms appear on both the real estate and the M&A lists: CMS, Jones Day, DLA Piper and Latham & Watkins. Two appear on both the real estate and the capital markets lists: Clifford Chance and Latham & Watkins. Latham & Watkins, first in M&A, ranks 9th by real estate deals.

A corporate brand does not buy a place on the real estate list. When a firm hires a real estate partner from a large corporate platform, the question is what share of that platform's property work followed the partner personally, because the list rewards dedicated real estate groups more than overall size.

On settled 12-month windows, real estate deals rose 10.3%: 1,231 in the 12 months to September 2025 and 1,358 in the 12 months to September 2026. All dated deals rose 10.6% across the same two periods, from 43,590 to 48,216, and M&A rose 8.9%, from 8,475 to 9,226. Real estate grew at the pace of the whole deal market.

The senior bench did not grow with the work. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, real estate partner hiring held flat (-8.6%), with 435 partner moves in the latest settled 12 months against 476 in the 12 months before. Lateral hiring at all levels in the practice rose 7.9%, from 1,409 to 1,520 moves, so the extra movement came below partner level. Partners made up 28.9% of the practice's lateral moves over 12 months.

More real estate matters now sit with a partner group that did not get bigger. Candidates worth hiring are busier than a year ago, and their firms have more work to justify a counter-offer. Build the business case around the clients a partner serves, and allow time for it.

Repeat work counts for less in real estate than in the larger deal types. The 1,354 real estate deals came from 820 distinct clients, or 1.7 deals per client, against 1.8 in M&A and 2.6 in capital markets. With fewer return mandates per client, no firm builds a lead on a small set of repeat clients, which fits the flat adviser list.

Property companies and owners appear in 58.1% of real estate deals and asset managers and funds in 12.7%, with hospitality and leisure at 5.8% and financial sponsors at 5.1%. One deal can involve more than one industry, so these shares overlap and are read one by one, never added.

Real estate lawyers staff most of the work but not all of it. Real Estate practice lawyers appear on 80.5% of real estate deals, against 90.2% for Corporate & M&A lawyers on M&A deals and 98.5% for Capital Markets lawyers on capital markets deals. Corporate & M&A lawyers work on 11.4% of real estate deals and Banking & Finance lawyers on 7.8%.

A real estate group therefore wins on breadth of client relationships, not on one anchor client, and it needs corporate and finance partners who can take the share of the work that is structured as an entity deal or a financing. Plan real estate hires with those two benches in view.

Hiring and deal work point to some of the same firms, not all. Greenberg Traurig ranks first among real estate hirers at all levels, in the 41-60 band of hires, and Dentons, DLA Piper and CMS also sit on both top 10 lists. The other six hirers, Polsinelli first among them, do not appear among the top 10 deal advisers. Among partner hirers, only Greenberg Traurig and Dentons are also top 10 deal advisers.

Recruiting is as spread out as the deal work. Sartori & Partners figures show the top 10 hirers took 16.4% of real estate lateral moves, and 448 firms hired at least one real estate lawyer in 12 months. Most of the competition for a real estate partner comes from firms that are still building their position, not from the deal leaders.

Expect to meet those building firms in every search. They hire across levels and cities, and a candidate will often hold an offer from one of them before a deal leader calls.

Treat the list as open. With every firm from third to tenth in the 21-40 band, one partner with a steady client book can change a firm's place on it. That is not true in M&A, where the first firm sits at 401-700 and the third already at 151-250.

Hire for relationships across many owners. With 1.7 deals per distinct client, a real estate partner's value lies in the number of owners and investors who call, not in one large account. Test that breadth in diligence, and pair the hire with corporate and finance support for the deals that need it.

Move before the pipeline forces it. Real estate deals rose 10.3% while real estate partner hiring held flat (-8.6%), so the partners worth having are carrying more work than a year ago and their firms have every reason to keep them.