Environment Lawyers Go In-House; Firms Chase Projects Partners

A company that wants in-house environmental counsel, or a projects lawyer to carry its build-out, recruits from two law-firm benches that behave very differently. Sartori & Partners data show that environment lawyers left firms for companies at 21 for each hundred lateral moves between May and October 2026, and projects lawyers at 17.8, both above the all-practice rate of 13.1. The two part ways at partner level. Lateral hiring of projects partners held flat (+16.5%) year on year, while hiring of environment partners held flat (-6.2%). Behind both sits the demand of energy companies themselves: power and renewables deals rose 27.6% over the same comparison. This report reads the two benches side by side, places them against the market and against oil and gas, and ends with what the numbers mean for a general counsel's next hire.

In the six months from May to October 2026, Sartori & Partners counted 38 environment lawyers who left a law firm for a company. Set against the lateral moves the practice recorded in the same months, that is 21 moves to companies per hundred moves between firms, 1.6 times the all-practice figure of 13.1. Projects lawyers sit between the two at 17.8, or 1.4 times the market. The same tilt shows in the mix of who goes in-house: environment work appears in 4.0% of all moves to companies over those six months, but in only 2.4% of lateral moves between firms over 12 months.

Two cautions apply. The environment count is small, so the rate is a size, not a precise ranking. And moves to companies are tracked in full only from May 2026, so there is no earlier period to set it against. Even so, the direction is clear enough to act on: an approach to an environment lawyer at a firm is more likely to end in a yes than the average approach across practices, and a company does not need to wait for a partner to become restless before opening the conversation.

Environment lateral moves lean senior. Over the 12 months to October 2026, partners made 32.9% of the practice's lateral moves and associates 46.4%, against 27.7% and 58.5% across the market. In a full year that leaves 155 associate moves for the whole practice, a thin stream for a company that wants a mid-level lawyer to run permits, audits and remediation files day to day.

Moves to companies run the opposite way: across all practices, associates made 76.7% of them between May and October 2026. A company that follows the usual pattern and hires an associate out of a firm is therefore fishing in the smallest part of the environment pool. Partner hiring tells the other half. Firms hired 106 environment partners in the 12 months to September 2026 against 113 a year earlier, a flat result (-6.2%). Across the market, lateral partner hiring rose 8.4% over the same windows.

For a general counsel, this is the opening. Environment partners are not the subject of a bidding war among firms, the practice already sends lawyers to companies readily, and partners make up a larger share of the movers than in the market. A senior environment hire, partner or counsel, is a more realistic search here than in most practices; the scarce profile is the mid-level associate.

Projects partners are the contested profile. Firms hired 212 of them in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 182 a year earlier: partner hiring in the practice held flat (+16.5%). Total projects lateral moves held steady over the same windows (+1.3%), so the increase is concentrated at the top of the ladder. Partners made 38.6% of projects lateral moves over 12 months, against 32.9% in environment.

The buyers are large firms. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 71.1% of projects lateral moves over 12 months, against 53.6% across the market. The ten most active hirers took 27.4% of individual projects hires, against 12.9% for the market, so a handful of firms set the price of a projects partner.

A company that wants a projects partner in-house is bidding against large firms that are adding them at pace. The willingness is there, since projects lawyers already move to companies at 17.8 per hundred lateral moves. The realistic target for most legal departments is one rung below: the counsel or senior associate who has closed project financings, where counsel made 12.2% of the practice's lateral moves.

Company demand explains why these searches open. Sartori & Partners recorded 2,009 dated power and renewables deals in the 12 months to September 2026, against 1,575 a year earlier: deal volume rose 27.6%. Oil and gas deals held flat (+5.3%) over the same windows, at 1,012 against 961. Projects lawyers worked on 32.9% of power and renewables deals over the last 12 months, against 5.9% of oil and gas deals.

The supply of movers has not kept pace. Lawyers whose own focus is power and renewables made 291 lateral moves in the 12 months to September 2026, against 308 a year earlier, a flat count (-5.5%). Environment law appears in 15.8% of those moves, an over-index of 667 where the market's own share scores one hundred. Oil and gas runs the other way: deal volume held level, but lateral moves by lawyers with that focus rose 27.6%, and partners made 56.2% of them.

The reading differs by sector. A power or renewables company competes for the same projects lawyers its outside counsel need to staff a rising deal count, so its search runs against firm demand. An oil and gas company sees more experienced lawyers in motion, most of them partners, with less deal pressure behind them, which makes a senior hire easier to time.

Where to search depends on the bench. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, Houston took 9.6% of projects lateral moves over 12 months, an index of 409 against the market, and London took 13.6%. Environment arrivals over-index in San Francisco, at an index of 205, and in Washington, at 144, where federal regulators keep a large environmental bar busy.

An energy company in Texas will find projects candidates close to home, and one with a European portfolio will find them in London. A company that needs environment counsel will often do better recruiting from the regulatory bar in Washington or from California than by starting in the largest commercial markets.

For in-house environmental counsel, approach firm lawyers directly and early. The practice moves to companies at 1.6 times the all-practice rate, and its partners are not being bid up, so a partner or counsel hire is within reach. Plan for a longer search at associate level, where the practice's lateral stream is narrow: associates made only 46.4% of its moves.

For projects roles, expect to compete with large firms at partner level, where hiring held flat (+16.5%). Most legal departments will get further targeting counsel and senior associates, and searching Houston and London first. A company in power and renewables should open the search before its own deal count, up 27.6% year on year, pulls its outside counsel into the same pool. Moves to companies are tracked only from May 2026; the next six months will show whether the environment rate holds.