Construction Lawyers Are Litigators: 85.7% Also Handle Disputes

A general counsel at a contractor who needs construction litigation lawyers should start from one fact: the lawyers with this focus are litigators. Sartori & Partners data show 349 construction-focused lawyers changed firms in the 12 months to October 2026. Nearly all of them, 95.1%, carry the Construction practice, and 85.7% also carry Litigation & Disputes, against 39.9% of all lateral moves. That is the bench a company draws on, whether it is hiring a claims lawyer for its own legal team or choosing outside counsel for a delay or defects dispute. It does not mirror the sector's deal work, and it looks nothing like the neighboring infrastructure bench.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, Litigation & Disputes sits on 85.7% of construction-focused moves, an index of 215 against the market. The pattern holds among partners: 81.6% of construction-focused partners who moved litigate, against 39.5% of all partners who moved. The smaller practices lean the same way. International arbitration appears on 6.9% of these moves, an index of 600. Insurance and reinsurance reaches 8.9%, an index of 187, and product liability and torts 12.0%, an index of 176. Real estate, at 11.5%, stays close to its weight in the market. A lawyer can carry several practices, so each share is read on its own.

The infrastructure bench sits at the other pole. Lawyers with an infrastructure focus who moved carry litigation on only 13.7% of their moves, an index of 34; projects and finance define that group. Insurance-focused movers stand nearer to construction, with litigation on 76.1%. For a company, this sets the search brief. A payment claim, a delay dispute or an arbitration over a defective plant is staffed from a pool trained in claims, arbitration and insured defense, and the projects lawyers who sit on the infrastructure side are a separate pool.

The transactional side of the industry has its own shape. M&A is the largest deal type in construction and engineering, on 39.2% of the sector's deals in 12 months, about two in five, while disputes and investigations sit on 27.8%. Corporate & M&A lawyers appear on 44.3% of those deals. These are shares of deals, and the practices above are shares of lawyers who changed firms, so the two are never merged into one figure. Read side by side, they show two practice mixes: the deal mix is led by Corporate & M&A, the mover mix by Construction and Litigation & Disputes. The deal advisers are covered in our companion report on construction and engineering law firms. The practical point for a general counsel is simple. A relationship built on acquisitions says little about who should run a claim, and the shortlist for claims counsel should be drawn up on its own.

Where these lawyers worked before the move is the second fact a search brief needs. Over the 36 months to October 2026, Sartori & Partners records place 19.8% of construction-focused movers in firms of under 150 lawyers before the move, 1.7 times the share for the whole market, 11.4%. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers supplied 37.8%, well under the market's 56.6%. Firms of 150-399 lawyers also weigh more, at 17.5% against 11.7%.

Infrastructure-focused lawyers come from the opposite end of the scale: 76.7% left firms of 1,000+ lawyers over the same window and 3.9% left firms of under 150 lawyers. The construction bench also lands in smaller firms. In the past 12 months 36.8% joined firms of 1,000+ lawyers, against 53.6% of all movers, and 21.8% joined firms of 150-399 lawyers, against 13.3%. The lawyer who has taken a defects claim from the first notice to the hearing often works in a firm of 150-399 lawyers or under 150 lawyers. A shortlist built only from large-firm alumni leaves out the small-firm share of the field, 19.8% over 36 months.

The bench is senior. Partners were 39.0% of construction-focused moves in 12 months and counsel 14.6%, against 27.7% and 12.7% across the lateral market. Associates, at 46.4%, weigh less than the market's 58.5%. A step to a higher title came with 15.5% of the moves, against 12.9% for all moves. Partner moves in the group held steady in the settled windows, at 137 against 159, too small a gap to read as a change.

Hiring of these lawyers is more concentrated than hiring overall. Over 36 months the top 10 hirers took 18.6% of construction-focused moves, against 12.2% for the top 10 across all moves, and 337 firms hired at least one. Among hirers of construction-focused partners over the same window, Freeman Mathis & Gary ranks first, in the 11-20 band. A company that wants a senior claims lawyer is bidding against these firms for the same partners and counsel, and the candidate may weigh a partnership offer as the alternative.

The count of construction-focused lawyers changing firms held flat (-10.8%) year on year, at 363 in the latest settled 12 months against 407 a year earlier. The whole lateral market rose 9.0% over the same windows, from 13,128 to 14,305. A steady count is one hiring channel holding its pace, not a smaller bench: 1,168 construction-focused lawyers moved over 36 months, and 170 firms hired at least one in the past year.

The route from a law firm into a company is narrow for this practice. Across all sectors between May and October 2026, Sartori & Partners data count 953 lawyers who left firms for companies. Construction was recorded on 4.0% of those moves, against 37.7% for Litigation & Disputes and 33.2% for Corporate & M&A. A company building its own claims function is therefore asking a private-practice litigator to do something few peers have done. Spell out the mandate before the first call: which disputes the lawyer will run, who sits above the role, and how the outside panel will work around it.

Write the claims brief as a litigation brief. Litigation appears on 85.7% of construction-focused moves, so ask candidates for hearings, arbitrations and settled claims, not for deal credentials. Search wide by firm size: firms of under 150 lawyers supplied 19.8% of movers over 36 months, so name firms of that size in the brief. Budget for seniority, since partners make 39.0% of the moves and law firms compete for the same people. Allow time for outreach, because the flow of movers is steady rather than growing, so expect to approach lawyers who are not looking. Keep the project finance and transaction panel separate: infrastructure-focused lawyers litigate on 13.7% of their moves, and a contractor needs both benches, chosen on different records.