Restructuring Deals Fell in 2026 While the Deal Market Rose

For a firm leader reading the record of restructuring deals 2026, the first fact is direction. Sartori & Partners data show 526 restructuring and insolvency deals in the 12 months to September 2026, against 587 in the 12 months before: the count fell 10.4%. All dated deals moved the other way and rose 10.6%, from 43,590 to 48,216. No deal type with a larger record shrank. Lateral partner hiring in restructuring, measured on its own windows, rose 21.1%, from 237 to 287 hires. Firms are adding partners against a falling record. The counts are matters on record from firm announcements and public registers, not fees, so they measure how much distressed work surfaces, not what it pays.

Restructuring and insolvency is a small type in Sartori & Partners deal records: it appears on 1.1% of all dated deals in the 12 months to October 2026, or 521 deals. Size alone does not explain the fall, because every deal type with a larger record rose over the settled windows. Leveraged and acquisition finance, the type that sits closest to distressed credit, rose 18.8%, from 653 to 776. The only other type that fell was regulatory and antitrust, a smaller record still, which fell 19.2%, from 260 to 210. Restructuring went from 587 to 526, a fall of 10.4% in a market that grew 10.6%.

The yearly bars cannot carry the comparison: the current year is incomplete and the early years rest on fewer firms. The settled windows can, and they say restructuring work on record shrank in a year when nearly every other kind of deal grew. The rise in leveraged finance suggests credit stayed available, and available credit gives stressed borrowers room to refinance or amend before they file. For a hiring partner the consequence is timing: a restructuring partner hired today joins before the next wave of filings, not in the middle of one.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, restructuring partner hires rose 21.1% on settled windows, from 237 to 287. Partner hiring across all practices rose 8.4%, from 3,558 to 3,858, so restructuring partner hiring grew at 2.5 times the market's rate. Restructuring moves at every level rose 10.0%, from 638 to 702, so the growth is concentrated at the top of the bench. Partners made up 41.5% of restructuring laterals in the 12 months to October 2026.

Firms are paying for capacity they expect to need. Senior insolvency lawyers are few, and court-facing experience takes years to build, so firms hire when the partner is available rather than when filings peak. The cost of that choice shows up in the first year: a partner who joins while the deal record is falling may spend a budget cycle below target. Price that gap into the offer and the business plan before the first review, not after it.

Industry shares show where distressed work sits against the market. Consumer goods and retail companies appear in 8.6% of restructuring deals against 3.1% of all dated deals, 2.8 times their market share. Real estate appears in 6.7% of restructuring deals against 4.5% across the market. Healthcare providers and payors sit at 5.2% against 2.3%, 2.3 times their weight. Banks and financial institutions run the other way, at 5.4% of restructuring deals against 7.1% of all deals.

Many deals carry no industry and one deal can carry several, so the rows are read one at a time and never added. Industrial manufacturing, at 4.4% of restructuring deals, and hospitality and leisure, at 4.0%, also sit above their market shares of 2.0% and 1.4%. The pattern points to the book worth paying for. A partner with retail, property or hospital-system work, on the debtor or the creditor side, brings matters from the sectors that over-index in distress. A book built on bank clients covers a sector that restructuring under-weights.

White & Case, Davis Polk & Wardwell and Latham & Watkins sit in the 21-40 band of restructuring deals advised. The other seven firms on the list all sit in one band, 11-20, so the order from 4th to 10th place says little about who did more work. Four names also appear in the top 10 for all dated deals: White & Case, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis. Two appear among the ten most active restructuring partner hirers in the Sartori & Partners lateral database: Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Latham & Watkins.

A flat list means the adviser market below the first three names is open. Several firms advise on comparable volumes, and a single partner hire can move a firm within the band or out of it. For a firm building a restructuring practice, the entry cost is lower than in a concentrated market. For a firm defending a position, the shared band says rivals are close, and a departure would show in the record quickly.

Behind the 521 restructuring deals of the last 12 months stand 217 distinct clients, or 2.4 deals per client. Leveraged and acquisition finance shows 2.4 deals per client, from 327 clients and 776 deals. A distressed company rarely produces a single matter: a case brings financing, asset sales and claims work behind it. Values are seldom public. Only 11.5% of restructuring deals disclose one, against 30.5% in leveraged finance, and where a value appears the median restructuring deal is $1,150 million.

Client relationships, not single appointments, carry a restructuring book. When assessing a candidate, ask how many clients sit behind the matters and whether those clients would follow. A book of repeat debtors or creditor groups travels differently from a long list of one-off appointments, and with so few values published, the client list is the part of the case for the hire that can be checked.

Hire against the cycle on purpose. Restructuring deals fell 10.4% while all dated deals rose 10.6%, so the work on record is thinner than a year ago. Rivals are hiring anyway: restructuring lateral partner hires rose 21.1%, from 237 to 287. Measure a partner who joins now over more than one budget year, and give the partner finance or disputes work to carry the first months.

Recruit from the sectors that over-index. Consumer goods and retail appear in restructuring deals at 2.8 times their market share, and healthcare providers at 2.3 times. Partners with debtor or creditor work in those sectors bring the matters that are on record now.

Do not read the adviser list as a hierarchy below its first three names. With seven firms sharing the 11-20 band, one lateral partner can change a firm's position, and those firms compete for the same small pool of candidates. Move early, and test each book against its clients rather than its claimed deal sizes.