Home-Market Firms vs National Platforms: Who Tops City Hiring

Ask who wins in regional law firms vs national firms lateral hiring and the answer depends on the city. Sartori & Partners data show that in Charlotte the firm that hired the most lateral lawyers over 12 months, Moore & Van Allen, placed about 85% of all its lateral hires in Charlotte. In Nashville the list is headed by Kirkland & Ellis, which placed about 10% of its hires there. Those are two different competitors, and a firm recruiting in either city needs to know which one it faces.

This report sorts six cities by the kind of firm at the top of the 12-month hiring list. We call a firm home-market when most of its lateral hires land in the city it leads, measured only by where its hires arrive. Firm lists count individual hires; lawyers who joined as one team in the same quarter are in the city totals but not in a firm's rank. Firm mixes are rounded to the nearest five points.

In three cities the first name on the list belongs to a firm whose hiring is concentrated in that city. Moore & Van Allen put about 85% of its 12-month lateral hires in Charlotte. Calfee, Halter & Griswold put about 65% in Cleveland and about 30% in Columbus. Smith Gambrell & Russell placed about 50% in Atlanta, with London and New York taking most of the rest.

None of the three is large on the national stage. Each ranks in the 101-200 group of hirers across the whole market, and they sit in the 400-999 lawyers and 150-399 lawyers classes. They win their home lists by putting most of a modest hiring budget in one place. In Charlotte and Cleveland the second name is also a firm with deep local roots: Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein and Taft Stettinius & Hollister.

The position is not new in two of the three cities. Over 3 years, Moore & Van Allen also heads the Charlotte list and Calfee, Halter & Griswold heads Cleveland. Atlanta is less settled: on the 3-year list Bradley Arant Boult Cummings comes first, and the top 10 in Atlanta took only 34.6% of the city's moves in the latest 12 months. For a regional firm, a city like Charlotte or Cleveland means a known local rival with a steady pipeline; Atlanta is open enough that a sustained push can reach the top of the list.

The other pattern is a single firm spread across many offices. Kirkland & Ellis is first in New York, first in Houston and first in Nashville, and first on the market-wide list as well. Its own hiring is spread wide: New York took about 25% of its lateral hires, Houston about 10% and Nashville about 10%. No single city carries the firm's hiring the way Charlotte carries the Charlotte leader's.

Nashville is the city where the change is recent. On the 3-year list Bass, Berry & Sims comes first; over the latest 12 months it is second, behind Kirkland & Ellis, whose Nashville band of 21-40 hires sits above every local firm. The national platform also heads the Nashville list for partner hires. Nashville lateral moves rose 40.0% in the settled windows, from 80 to 112, so the new entrant arrived in a market that was growing.

In Sartori & Partners figures, Houston follows the same pattern with a bigger field: 109 firms hired at least one lateral lawyer there, against 34 in Nashville. A regional firm in these cities is bidding against a platform for which the city is one office among many, so it can pay for a single hire without weighing it against the rest of its local bench.

Firm size classes show how far the leader's profile reaches. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 58.9% of lateral moves in Houston and 62.6% in New York, both above the market's 53.6%. There, the platform at the top matches a city where large firms take most hires.

Nashville does not fit that picture. Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 47.8% of its moves, against 23.4% in the market, and the largest class took less than its market share. The national platform heads the list, but most Nashville laterals join firms outside the 1,000+ lawyers class.

Cleveland leans the other way. Firms of 150-399 lawyers took 40.5% of its lateral moves, about 3.0 times the market share, the class its leader belongs to. Charlotte sits close to the market: firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 49.6% of moves there, while firms of 400-999 lawyers took 28.9%. The lesson for a hiring partner is to read the size mix before the list: Nashville looks like platform territory at the top and like a midsize market underneath.

Each home-market leader concentrates on the work its city is known for. Banking and finance was involved in 45.9% of Charlotte lateral moves, an index of 329 against the market, and it was involved in about 45% of the Charlotte leader's hires. In Cleveland, corporate and M&A indexes at 127, and it was involved in about 65% of the Cleveland leader's hires. Atlanta's litigation index is 127, and litigation was involved in about 45% of the Atlanta leader's hires.

The national platform's mix is set by its firm-wide strategy rather than any one city: corporate and M&A was involved in about 35% of its lateral hires and private equity in about 20%. Practice shares overlap, since one hire can carry several. For a competing firm the consequence is clear: in Charlotte a banking lateral will hear from the local leader first, while in Nashville a corporate or private equity lateral is the platform's natural target.

Where the hires come from separates the two models. About 80% of the national platform's 12-month lateral hires came from other firms of 1,000+ lawyers. The home-market leaders draw wider: about 30% of the Cleveland leader's hires came from that class, and the Atlanta leader took about 15% of its hires from firms under 150 lawyers. The Charlotte leader sits between, with about 50% from the largest firms.

Partner flow, which counts lateral partners hired against partners who left for another firm, also separates the home-market leaders. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, net partner flow was positive at the Cleveland leader, positive at the Atlanta leader and balanced at the Charlotte leader. None of the three hired fewer partners than it saw leave for other firms, so a partner candidate in these cities is weighing a stable partnership.

First, identify which kind of firm heads your city's list before you set a lateral budget. In Charlotte and Cleveland the leader's hiring is concentrated on the city and has been for 3 years, so expect the same rival on every banking or corporate search there. Plan for a long courtship, and look to the second and third names for candidates who may want a different platform.

Second, in New York, Houston and Nashville do not compete with the platform on its own pool. It drew about 80% of its hires from the largest firms; a regional firm will do better with lawyers from midsize and smaller firms, where the platform recruits far less. Nashville, where firms of 400-999 lawyers took 47.8% of moves, is the clearest case of a market that is midsize underneath a national name at the top.

Third, the trend matters for timing. Charlotte lateral moves rose 30.9% in the settled windows, Cleveland moves rose 55.2%, and Atlanta hiring held flat (-10.4%) against a market that rose 9.0%. Growing home-market cities reward moving before the local leader's next hiring round; Atlanta, where the 12-month and 3-year leaders differ, rewards persistence over speed.