Client industry · November 2026
Asset Management & Funds: who advises the sector
Dated deals for asset management & funds clients over the last 12 months, the practices and firms behind them, and how lawyers with this focus moved.
The last 12 months: November 2025 to October 2026
- 2,337
- Dated deals, 12 monthsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- +0.6%
- Year on yearSettled 12-month windows
- $750m
- Median disclosed value
- 1,244
- Distinct clients
What the data show
From November 2025 to October 2026, Sartori & Partners recorded 2,337 dated deals for Asset Management & Funds clients. On settled 12-month windows the deal count showed no clear change: 2,349 against 2,335 (+0.6%). The deal market as a whole moved +10.6% over the same windows.
By practice, Funds & Investment Management is involved in 33.6% of these deals and Corporate & M&A in 14.8%. By deal type, M&A is involved in 16.9% of these deals and Capital markets in 15.7%.
Deal value was disclosed on 14.8% of them; where disclosed, the median was $750 million. 1,244 distinct clients appear across the window.
Dechert ranks first among advising firms, in the 151-250 band; the full top 10 follows as ranks and bands.
Lawyers whose work centers on Asset Management & Funds changed firm 803 times in the same window. Partners were 50.2% of those moves, against 27.7% across the lateral market. Year on year those moves changed +10.4%.
For a general counsel in Asset Management & Funds, these are the firms and practices that see the most of the sector's work: the bench to brief, and the bench in-house hires come from.
Firms by rank and band
Each firm appears as a rank and a band, never an exact count, and only with at least 10 moves in the window.
| Rank | Firm | Deals (band) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dechert | 151-250 |
| 2 | Kirkland & Ellis | 101-150 |
| 3 | Simpson Thacher & Bartlett | 101-150 |
| 4 | Ropes & Gray | 61-100 |
| 5 | Latham & Watkins | 61-100 |
| 6 | Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath | 61-100 |
| 7 | Clifford Chance | 61-100 |
| 8 | DLA Piper | 41-60 |
| 9 | Willkie Farr & Gallagher | 41-60 |
| 10 | Sidley Austin | 41-60 |
Related monitors and reports
Deal types
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Up one level
Working with us
Reports
- Asset Management Legal Work Holds Flat in 2026: Room to Press on Fees
Deal work for asset managers and funds held flat while the whole deal market grew. The work splits across funds, M&A, capital markets and real estate, one firm sits alone in the highest adviser band, and disclosed values run high.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Where Asset Managers Find In-House Lawyers: A Transatlantic Bench
Among lawyers with an asset management focus who changed firms, London and Paris over-index more than New York, and funds lawyers dominate the flow. Their moves rose this year while the sector's deal work held flat, but every one of those moves was to another firm: an in-house offer competes with lateral offers and has to reach lawyers where they sit.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026
Edition November 2026. Window: November 2025 to October 2026. Source: Sartori & Partners, from public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly. Methodology. Spot an error? [email protected].
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