Midsize Law Firms: Absent From the Top 10, Ahead on Narrower Lists

Sartori & Partners data show that firms of 400-999 lawyers took 23.4% of lateral hires over the last 12 months, counting the moves where the size of the joining firm is known. That makes midsize law firm lateral hiring the second-largest block of the market, behind the 53.6% taken by firms of 1,000+ lawyers. Yet the most-cited ranking, the ten firms that hired the most lawyers, holds no midsize firm at all. The class shows up on narrower lists: net partner gains, partner promotions and the hiring tables of single cities. The firms named on those lists share a profile that matters for anyone competing with them for a partner: their lateral hires lean heavily to partners, and their hiring sits in a few cities.

The ten most active hirers account for 12.9% of all lateral moves, out of 1,291 firms that hired at least one lawyer in the period. Each of the ten sits in the 1,000+ lawyers class. Firm lists in this report count individual hires; lawyers who arrived as one team in the same quarter are in the market totals but not in a firm's rank.

A volume ranking rewards headcount: a firm with several thousand lawyers replaces departures at a scale no midsize firm can match, so a midsize firm will rarely appear here however active it is. For a managing partner of a midsize firm, the useful benchmark is not this table. It is the narrower lists below, which measure partner gains, promotions and city share, where firms of 400-999 lawyers do appear.

Net partner flow sets lateral partners hired against partners who left for another firm over 12 months; associates are left out, since firms that train their own associates lose some of them sideways by design. On that measure Spencer Fane ranks 8th, in the 11-20 band, and its size class reads 400-999 lawyers. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database it is the only midsize firm on the list.

The firm gets there without a large overall intake. It ranks in the 51-100 group of hirers by all lawyers, but in the 11-25 group by partners, and about 55% of its lateral hires were partners, 2.0 times the market's 27.7%. About 30% of those hires came from firms under 150 lawyers, and its intake is spread across Washington, DC, Tampa, Nashville and Kansas City rather than one home office. Firm-level shares here are rounded to the nearest five points. For a rival firm, the lesson is that partner growth at this size comes from targeted partner hiring, often out of smaller firms, not from matching the volume of the largest platforms.

Promotion lists run from June 2025 to May 2026, the last complete month. FBT Gibbons ranks 10th by lawyers promoted to partner, in the 21-40 band, the one firm of 400-999 lawyers on a list otherwise made of firms with 1,000+ lawyers. Across the market, firms made 0.79 new partners from within for each lateral partner they hired.

This firm is the exception to the partner-heavy pattern. About 55% of its lateral hires were associates and about 40% partners, and its time to partner reads in line with the market. Its intake is spread across Los Angeles, Columbus, New York, Newark, Philadelphia and Houston at about 10% each. A partner candidate weighing an offer from a firm like this should expect internal candidates for the same seat; a firm competing for its associates should expect a promotion track that is a real alternative to a lateral move.

City lists are where midsize firms rank first. In Detroit, Honigman Attorneys & Counselors is first, in the 6-10 band, and about 40% of the firm's lateral hires joined there. Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 29.7% of Detroit hires, 6.3 points above their market share. Detroit hiring held flat (+16.1%), 65 moves against 56.

Leeds goes further. Hill Dickinson heads its list in the 6-10 band, with about 20% of its hires placed in the city, and Knights, another firm of 400-999 lawyers, closes the top 10. Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 44.6% of Leeds hires, the largest share of any size class there. Both cities are small and concentrated: the ten most active hirers took 67.2% of Detroit moves and 58.8% of Leeds moves, against 12.9% for the market. In a market that concentrated, one midsize firm's hiring plan sets the price of a local partner.

Set side by side, the firms named above hire far more partners than the market does. About 80% of Honigman Attorneys & Counselors lateral hires were partners, about 60% at Knights and about 55% at Spencer Fane, against 27.7% across all firms. Hill Dickinson splits its intake evenly between partners and associates, as the table shows.

Turnover does not explain the pattern. The median firm of 400-999 lawyers saw 13.2% of its lawyers leave in a year, against 14.8% for firms of 1,000+ lawyers. Honigman Attorneys & Counselors and Hill Dickinson read in line with the market on that measure, and all five firms in this report show a net partner flow that reads positive. The sources differ: about 70% of Honigman Attorneys & Counselors hires came from firms of 1,000+ lawyers, while Knights drew about 30% from firms under 150 lawyers.

First, judge a midsize competitor by the lists it can appear on. Sartori & Partners data place firms of 400-999 lawyers at 23.4% of hires with no seat in the volume top 10, so a firm that tracks only that ranking will miss the rivals it actually meets for partners in Detroit, Leeds or a regional hub. Second, expect partner-level competition from these firms: when a firm's partner share runs up to 2.9 times the market's 27.7%, each of its moves is a book of business, and a partner-heavy hirer can outbid on role and title where it cannot match pay. Third, in a concentrated city the first-ranked firm sets the local terms. Before opening a search in Detroit or Leeds, map what the midsize firm at the head of the list is hiring, which practices and from which size of firm, because its next partner hire is likely drawn from the same short list you are working from.