Client industry · November 2026
Financial Sponsors: who advises the sector
Dated deals for financial sponsors 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
- 3,326
- Dated deals, 12 monthsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- +8.9%
- Year on yearSettled 12-month windows
- $700m
- Median disclosed value
- 1,588
- Distinct clients
What the data show
Sartori & Partners data count 3,326 dated deals for Financial Sponsors clients from November 2025 to October 2026. On settled windows the deal count went from 3,056 to 3,329, up 8.9% year on year. The deal market as a whole moved +10.6% over the same windows.
By practice, Private Equity is involved in 32.8% of these deals and Funds & Investment Management in 10.8%. By deal type, Private equity is involved in 26.6% of these deals and M&A in 17.4%.
Deal value was disclosed on 19.1% of them; where disclosed, the median was $700 million. 1,588 distinct clients appear across the window.
Kirkland & Ellis ranks first among advising firms, in the 251-400 band; the full top 10 follows as ranks and bands.
Lawyers whose work centers on Financial Sponsors changed firm 1,175 times in the same window. Partners were 46.0% of those moves, against 27.7% across the lateral market. Year on year those moves changed +6.8%.
For a general counsel in Financial Sponsors, 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 | Kirkland & Ellis | 251-400 |
| 2 | Latham & Watkins | 151-250 |
| 3 | Ropes & Gray | 151-250 |
| 4 | Simpson Thacher & Bartlett | 101-150 |
| 5 | Jones Day | 101-150 |
| 6 | Goodwin Procter | 61-100 |
| 7 | McDermott Will & Schulte | 61-100 |
| 8 | Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison | 61-100 |
| 9 | Willkie Farr & Gallagher | 61-100 |
| 10 | Sidley Austin | 61-100 |
Related monitors and reports
Deal types
Other industries
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Up one level
Working with us
Reports
- 75.2% of Sponsor Lawyers Join Firms of 1,000+ Lawyers, One at a Time
Three in four moves by lawyers with a financial sponsors focus, 75.2%, go to firms of 1,000+ lawyers, far above the market, real estate or food, and almost none come as a team. A sponsor hiring in-house competes with the largest firms' pay for one lawyer at a time.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - For Sponsors, Private Equity Is 26.6% of Deals, Disputes Just 1.8%
Sponsors buy private equity, fund formation and acquisition finance work at many times the market's rate, and almost no capital markets or disputes work. One firm sits a full band above every other adviser.
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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