Tech Companies' IP Counsel in 2026: IP Lawyers on Just 11.3% of Deals

A general counsel at a software or technology company who is comparing IP law firms for tech companies should first know how thin IP work is on the sector's deal record. Sartori & Partners data show that intellectual property lawyers worked on 11.3% of the 3,279 technology and software deals dated in the 12 months to October 2026. In consumer goods and retail the same practice sat on 31.9% of the sector's deals, in food, beverage and agriculture on 29.5%, and in media and entertainment on 26.3%. Corporate and M&A lawyers, by contrast, were on 47.8% of tech deals. A word on method: deal counts include disputes drawn from public court and trademark-office records, so they measure matters on record, not fees, and they never rank one practice against another.

Set the practice mix of technology deals beside that of consumer goods and the difference is plain. The IP share in tech is 20.6 points below the consumer goods figure, while the corporate and M&A share runs the other way: 47.8% in tech against 23.4% in consumer goods. Capital markets lawyers sat on 24.0% of tech deals and 20.9% of consumer goods deals. Across the whole deal record, IP lawyers worked on 11.1% of dated deals, so tech sits at the record's ordinary level, not above it. A single deal can staff lawyers from several practices; each share stands alone and none of them is added to another.

For a tech company this changes how outside counsel is staffed. Corporate lawyers appear on far more of the sector's deals than IP lawyers do, so an IP partner often joins a corporate team for one part of the work. Ask early who on the IP side will review the technology assets in a transaction, and whether that partner works with the corporate team on other matters or meets it for the first time on yours.

Read from the practice's side, technology and software is a steady client of IP lawyers. Of the 5,352 intellectual property deals in the Sartori & Partners deal record over 12 months, 372 had a technology or software client, 7.0% of the practice's deals and second on its list of twelve client sectors. Consumer goods and retail stands ahead at 8.8%, with food, beverage and agriculture at 6.5% and pharma and biotech at 6.3%. Yet tech's weight on IP work matches its weight in the record as a whole: it was the client sector on 6.8% of all dated deals. Consumer goods, by comparison, was the sector on 3.1% of all deals, well below its IP share.

So IP lawyers meet tech clients often, but no more often than tech's size alone would predict. A firm's general IP record will include technology work almost by default; ask instead for the technology matters its partners handled in the past 12 months, and how many of them sat inside a corporate deal rather than a standalone dispute.

The two records are built from different work. Technology and software deals lean transactional: M&A was the type on 30.0% of them, capital markets on 23.3%, disputes and investigations on 16.9% and venture and growth on 15.3%. Across all dated deals, M&A was the type on 19.3% and venture and growth on 3.8%, so tech over-weights both. The intellectual property practice looks nothing like that: disputes and investigations were the type on 95.3% of its deals and M&A on 0.6%. Some deals carry no type label, so the shares in the chart are never added up.

No published figure splits IP work inside tech by type, so these readings stay separate. The practical point for a tech buyer is that the IP practice's record is overwhelmingly contested matters, while the sector's own deals lean toward transactions. When a sale, an acquisition or a financing needs IP diligence, test whether the IP partner offered has done that kind of work recently, not only whether the firm has a large IP caseload.

The sector and the practice moved apart over the year. Technology and software deals held flat (+4.6%), from 3,136 in the 12 months to September 2025 to 3,279 in the 12 months to September 2026. Intellectual property deals in every sector rose 20.9%, from 4,399 to 5,319, and all dated deals rose 10.6%, from 43,590 to 48,216. There is no trend for IP work in tech alone; the two readings sit side by side and are not merged into one.

The lateral market for IP partners was steady. IP partner moves between firms held flat (+8.0%), with 326 partners changing firms in the 12 months to September 2025 and 352 in the 12 months to September 2026. Tech-minded IP lawyers do move, though: among lawyers with a technology focus who changed firms over 12 months, 41.8% were recorded under intellectual property. IP matters on record rose while partner moves held level, so settle the IP staffing of a deal before the timetable settles it for you.

No firm list covers IP work for tech clients alone. Two lists come near it, and each is wider than the pair. The first ranks advisers on intellectual property deals in every sector; it is headed by Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton and Greenberg Traurig, both in the 151-250 band of deals over 12 months.

The second ranks advisers on all technology and software deals, corporate, capital markets and disputes included, and is headed by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in the 151-250 band. Counted name by name, two firms are on both lists: Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton (1st on IP, 4th in tech) and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (9th on IP, 1st in tech).

The two top 10 lists share only two names, which fits the rest of the record: tech deal work and IP matters are counted on largely separate lists. A shortlist can open with the two names on both lists, then add one firm from each list and test it on the other axis, since a rank on either list rests on work the other list does not measure.

18.1% of the sector's deals were handled with lawyers in San Francisco, 10.5% with lawyers in Palo Alto and 9.7% with lawyers in Silicon Valley. In consumer goods and retail, San Francisco lawyers worked on 4.7% of deals, and in media and entertainment on 6.0%. New York still comes first in tech at 38.7%, ahead of Washington, DC at 19.6%. Sartori & Partners counts a deal in every city whose lawyers worked on it, and these shares cover all tech work, not only IP, so the Bay Area rows are never added together.

A Bay Area company can expect its deal team to be split between the West Coast and New York or Washington. Ask where the IP partner sits relative to the corporate partner, and whether a single office runs both sides of the matter.

Plan IP as a specialist input to corporate work. IP lawyers sat on 11.3% of tech deals and corporate lawyers on 47.8%, so the IP partner on your matter will often work inside a corporate deal team: name that partner in the engagement letter. Do not judge an IP bench by its caseload alone, since disputes were 95.3% of IP deals while M&A was 30.0% of tech deals; ask for transactional IP work done for technology clients. Fix IP staffing early: IP deals rose 20.9% while IP partner moves held flat. Start with the two firms on both lists, and add West Coast cover if your company sits in the Bay Area.