Client industry · November 2026

Education: who advises the sector

Dated deals for education clients over the last 12 months, the practices and firms behind them, and how lawyers with this focus moved.

Hire legal talent In-house counsel recruiting
01 The numbers

The last 12 months: November 2025 to October 2026

299
Dated deals, 12 monthsNovember 2025 to October 2026
+16.5%
Year on yearSettled 12-month windows
161
Distinct clients
02 Reading the data

What the data show

Sartori & Partners data count 299 dated deals for Education clients from November 2025 to October 2026. Year on year, on windows that end a month early, the deal count grew 16.5% (255 to 297). The deal market as a whole moved +10.6% over the same windows.

Education deals by year

2026 runs to October.

By practice, Intellectual Property is involved in 27.8% of these deals and Public Law & Government in 21.1%. By deal type, Disputes & investigations is involved in 61.5% of these deals and Capital markets in 9.7%.

Share of deals involving each practice

Deal value was disclosed on 6.0% of them. 161 distinct clients appear across the window.

Where the work is done: share of the sector's deals handled with lawyers in each city

First among advising firms is Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, with deals in the 21-40 band.

Lateral moves by lawyers with this focus, by year

2026 runs to October.

Lawyers whose work centers on Education changed firm 109 times in the same window. Partners were 44.0% of those moves, against 27.7% across the lateral market. Year on year those moves changed +8.7%.

For a general counsel in Education, 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.

03 Firms

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.

Advising firms ranked by deals, 12 months
RankFirmDeals (band)
1Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein21-40
2FBT Gibbons6-10
3Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati6-10
4Kutak Rock3-5
5King & Spalding3-5
6Sidley Austin3-5
7Loeb & Loeb3-5
8Kirkland & Ellis3-5
9Jones Day3-5
10Freeths3-5
04 Explore

Related monitors and reports

Reports

  • Education Lawyers Move to Firms of 150-399 Lawyers: Where to Hire

    Firms of 150-399 lawyers took 38.0% of education-focused lateral moves, 2.9 times the market's share. These are litigators, employment and public law lawyers, with more counsel than the market: a school district, college or university hiring in-house should recruit from firms of that size.

    November 11, 2026 · November 2026
  • Washington Tops Education Deals at Just 16.7%: Buy Close to Home

    No city owns the legal work of schools, colleges and universities: 16.7% of education deals were handled with lawyers in Washington, and Raleigh comes third. One adviser stands a band clear of a field of small bands, so an education client can buy close to home.

    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].

For general counsel and boards

Hiring a lawyer in-house?

A retained search starts with the market: who could take the role, where they sit and what it will take to move them.