Lateral Counsel Hiring in 2026: Defense and Employment Firms Lead

Most law firms hiring lateral counsel do it now and then; a handful do it as a matter of course. Sartori & Partners data show counsel made 12.7% of lateral moves in the 12 months to October 2026, against 27.7% for partners and 58.5% for associates. At five large firms, counsel were about 25% to 30% of lateral hires, up to 2.4 times the market share. Four of the five hire most heavily into litigation or employment work, one is a transactional firm, and the practices they hire into carry counsel shares above the market. For a firm planning senior hires below partner, these are the regular buyers of the same candidates.

The firm figures count individual lateral hires. Lawyers who joined as one team in the same quarter sit in the market totals but not in a firm's profile or rank. Each firm's level mix is rounded to the nearest five points, so it reads as a profile rather than an exact split. The records behind every figure are public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly, and the market comparison covers 14,091 lateral moves.

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani and Womble Bond Dickinson each took about 30% of their 12-month lateral hires at the counsel title. At Davis Polk & Wardwell, Jackson Lewis and Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker the figure was about 25%. Against a market share of 12.7%, the first pair hired counsel at 2.4 times the market rate and the other three at 2.0 times.

These are not small firms whose mix swings on a few hires. All five are firms of 1,000+ lawyers, and most hire in volume. Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani is the 7th most active lateral hirer in the market. Jackson Lewis ranks in the 11-25 group of hirers, Womble Bond Dickinson and Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker in the 26-50 group, and Davis Polk & Wardwell in the 51-100 group. The counsel share also holds over a longer span: across 3 years it was about 25% at Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani and about 25% at Jackson Lewis, against 12.1% for the whole market.

That steadiness is the point. A counsel share this far above the market, year after year, is a hiring policy, not an accident of one season. For a firm recruiting senior litigators or employment lawyers below partner, these five are the standing competition, and a counsel candidate in those fields will often hold an offer from one of them to set against yours.

The five firms use the title in two different ways. At Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, partners were about 5% of lateral hires and counsel about 25%. At Jackson Lewis, partners were about 10% and counsel about 25%. Both partner shares sit far under the market figure of 27.7%. At these firms counsel is the senior lateral hire, and the partner hire is the exception.

Womble Bond Dickinson runs the other model. Partners were about 45% of its lateral hires, well over the market share, counsel about 30%, and associates only about 30%, against 58.5% market-wide. Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani sits between the two: about 25% partners, 30% counsel and 45% associates. Here counsel arrive next to partners and take places that associates fill at most firms, which points to senior teams built around the partners rather than associate leverage.

The model matters when you compete for a candidate. Against a firm that hires counsel in place of partners, the counsel title is the most senior offer on the table, and a partner title from you is a real difference. Against a firm that hires counsel next to partners, the candidate is weighing a seat on a senior team that is still growing: net partner flow at Womble Bond Dickinson was positive. There the pitch has to be about the work and the route to partnership, not the title alone.

The practices behind these firms explain part of the pattern. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, counsel made 16.2% of insurance and reinsurance moves and 15.2% of employment moves over 12 months, 3.5 points and 2.5 points over the market figure. Corporate and M&A came in at 11.3%, 1.4 points under the market.

The gap is not one year's noise. Over 3 years, counsel were 15.9% of insurance moves and 13.8% of employment moves, against 12.1% for the market. The counsel-heavy firms draw on those practices: about 90% of Jackson Lewis hires carried employment work, while Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker hires carried product liability work in about 60% of cases and insurance work in about 20%. On the insurance hiring list, Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani ranks 4th and Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker ranks 7th; on the employment list, Jackson Lewis ranks 1st.

Demand differs as well. Employment hiring rose 6.9% across the settled 12-month windows, from 1,438 to 1,537 moves, while insurance hiring held flat (+2.5%), from 643 to 659. A firm building an insurance or employment bench should plan counsel as a standard level in the search, not a fallback when the partner candidate falls through. In corporate work the title is rarer among movers, so a counsel opening there draws on a thinner pool of lawyers who already hold it.

The one transactional firm in the group took about 25% of its lateral hires as counsel, against 11.3% in corporate and M&A across the market. Its 12-month hires carried banking and finance work in about 30% of cases and capital markets work in about 20%, and about 65% of them joined in New York.

Its supply line looks nothing like the defense firms'. About 90% of its 12-month lateral hires came from firms of 1,000+ lawyers, while only about 15% of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani hires came from firms of that size. Across the market over 3 years, firms of 1,000+ lawyers supplied 56.6% of lateral hires. Partners were about 15% of its hires, and it ranks in the 101-200 group of partner hirers. For a transactional firm the lesson is that counsel can be a deliberate lateral level, recruited from peer large firms, rather than a title kept for lawyers promoted from within. The candidates are senior associates and counsel at other large firms, and the rival bidders are those same firms.

The firm profiles add a second signal. Measured against the market, time to partner is longer at Womble Bond Dickinson, longer at Jackson Lewis, longer at Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker and in line at Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani. Where partnership takes longer, a firm needs a senior title for lawyers on the way, and counsel fills it. It is also a title a lateral candidate can be offered on arrival.

Title step-ups are part of the same route. Sartori & Partners figures show that in 12.9% of lateral moves market-wide the lawyer arrived with a more senior title than before, a share that mixes associates who became counsel with associates and counsel who became partners. In insurance it was 16.5%, in employment 13.5% and in corporate and M&A 12.4%, so among these three practices the step up is most common in the one with the most counsel.

Retention is the other side. Against the market, the yearly rate at which lawyers leave reads above at Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, above at Davis Polk & Wardwell, above at Jackson Lewis, above at Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker and in line at Womble Bond Dickinson. Net partner flow, lateral partners hired against partners who left for another firm over 12 months, was positive at Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani and positive at Davis Polk & Wardwell, and balanced at Jackson Lewis and Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker. A counsel candidate from one of these firms is often weighing a long partner track; a written timetable to partnership is a stronger offer than pay alone.

Budget counsel as a standard level in insurance and employment searches. Counsel make 16.2% and 15.2% of moves in those practices, so a search that targets only partners and associates ignores a large part of the senior pool. Name the rival model before the search starts: firms that hire counsel in place of partners will match on title, and firms that hire counsel next to partners will sell a seat on a team.

In transactional work, look for counsel at peer large firms: about 90% of the transactional firm's hires in this group came from firms of 1,000+ lawyers. In defense and employment work, look further down the size classes, where about 15% of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker hires started. Price the title: a step up came with 12.9% of lateral moves, so a senior associate will often expect the counsel title as part of the move. Write down the route to partnership, with timing, before the offer goes out.