Real Estate and Construction Lawyers Go In-House Below Market Rate

A developer, landlord, lender or contractor looking for in-house real estate counsel is recruiting from a part of the bar that leaves law firms for companies less often than the rest. Sartori & Partners data show that 86 real estate lawyers moved from a firm to a company between May and October 2026, or 11.3 for every hundred lateral moves the practice made between firms in those months. Construction lawyers went in-house at 9.4 per hundred, and the market as a whole at 13.1. Both benches sit below the market at a time when firms still want them: real estate lateral hiring rose 7.9% year on year, partner moves in the practice held flat (-8.6%), and real estate deals rose 6.8%. What follows sets the two practices against the market and against construction and engineering deal flow, and closes with what a company should expect from the search.

The gap is modest in size but consistent in direction. Real estate sits 1.8 points below the market rate and construction 3.7 points below it. The mix of all moves to companies points the same way. Real estate work appears in 9.0% of the moves from firms to companies over the six months to October, and construction in 4.0%, while the two practices account for 10.6% and 6.0% of lateral moves between firms over 12 months.

Two cautions apply. The construction count, 38 moves, is small enough that its rate is a size rather than a precise rank. And moves to companies are tracked in full only from May 2026, so no earlier period exists to compare against. The practical reading for a company is still clear: an approach to a real estate or construction lawyer at a firm converts somewhat less often than the average approach across practices, so the long list has to be longer and the first calls should go out earlier.

Law firms hired 1,520 real estate lawyers laterally in the 12 months to September 2026, against 1,409 a year earlier: hiring in the practice rose 7.9%, close to the market's own rise of 9.0%. Partner moves did not follow. Firms took on 435 real estate partners over the same 12 months, against 476 before, so partner hiring held flat (-8.6%) while partner moves across the market rose 8.4%. The extra demand therefore landed below partner level. Associates made 56.4% of real estate lateral moves and counsel 14.6% in the 12 months to October 2026.

This matters because companies hire mostly at associate level: associates made 76.7% of all moves from firms to companies between May and October 2026. The tier where firms are adding real estate lawyers is the tier a legal department usually wants, so a company will meet firm competition on pay and on title. The ten most active hirers took 16.4% of individual real estate hires, against 12.9% for the market, which means a small group of firms sets the going rate for the profile.

Construction is quieter. Its lateral moves held flat (-1.8%), at 851 against 867, and partner moves held flat (-4.7%). A construction company is not bidding against a hiring wave in firms; its harder problem is that fewer of the lawyers it approaches are inclined to leave private practice at all.

Demand from the companies themselves is growing. Sartori & Partners recorded 2,138 dated real estate deals in the 12 months to September 2026, against 2,001 a year earlier, so deal volume rose 6.8%. Construction and engineering deals rose 30.8%, from 416 to 544. Property transactions made 36.3% of real estate sector deals and capital markets work 26.4%; in construction and engineering, M&A made 39.2% and disputes 27.8%.

The lawyers who do this work are not moving more to meet it. Counted by their own focus rather than by practice group, lateral partner moves among real estate lawyers fell 12.3%, to 413 from 471. Lawyers focused on construction and engineering made 363 lateral moves against 407, a count that held flat (-10.8%).

More deals and a steady stream of movers add up to busy lawyers who have reasons to stay. A company that is itself adding transactions competes with its own outside counsel for the same people, and a lawyer with a full docket rarely answers the first call. The search should open before the company's own pipeline peaks, not after the outside legal bill has already grown.

The two benches carry different skills. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, 79.4% of construction lateral moves over 12 months also carried litigation and disputes work, while 33.4% of real estate moves also carried banking and finance. A contractor or engineering group that wants a lawyer to run claims and arbitrations will find most of the construction bench trained on that side. A developer that wants someone to close acquisitions and financings should look at real estate lawyers with finance work behind them.

Construction lawyers also sit in smaller firms. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 34.0% of construction lateral moves over 12 months, against 53.6% across the market, and firms of under 150 lawyers took 16.1% against 9.7%. Moves to companies lean the other way: 59.3% of the lawyers who went in-house between May and October 2026 left a firm of 1,000+ lawyers.

A company that recruits only from the largest firms sees a minority of the construction bench, and mid-sized and regional firms hold much of the rest. Title is part of the offer too: 16.8% of construction lateral moves came with a higher title, against 12.9% in the market. Expect a construction candidate to ask for a step up, not a sideways move.

Location shapes both searches. Houston took 5.2% of construction lateral moves over 12 months, an index of 221 where the market's own share scores one hundred. Denver scored 262, Atlanta 161 and Miami 149, while New York, the largest market overall, scored only 58 for construction.

Real estate tracks the market more closely in the big centers: New York scored 95 and London 109. Its over-index sits in regional markets, with Manchester at 182, Charlotte at 146 and Denver at 135, and Washington, a large legal market, scored just 39. Relocation is ordinary in both practices: 21.9% of construction lateral moves and 20.4% of real estate moves involved a change of city, against 20.5% for the market. A property company in the Southeast or the Mountain West has a deeper local bench than its home market's size suggests; a builder elsewhere should budget for a move.

Plan for a longer list. With real estate lawyers going to companies at 11.3 per hundred lateral moves and construction lawyers at 9.4, against 13.1 overall, more approaches end in a no than in the average in-house search. Start with associates and counsel, the bulk of in-house hires, and price the offer knowing that firms are adding real estate lawyers at exactly that level.

For a senior hire, the partner market is calmer: real estate partner moves held flat (-8.6%) and construction partner moves held flat (-4.7%). A partner who is not being courted by other firms can be approached on the merits of the role. For construction roles, widen the search beyond firms of 1,000+ lawyers, look first in Houston, Denver, Atlanta and Miami, and be ready to discuss title. Time the search against the deal cycle: with construction and engineering deals up 30.8% year on year, the lawyers a company wants are billing at full stretch. Moves to companies have been tracked only since May 2026, and the next editions will show whether the gap to the market holds.