Client industry · November 2026
Hospitality & Leisure: who advises the sector
Dated deals for hospitality & leisure 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
- 652
- Dated deals, 12 monthsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- -8.6%
- Year on yearSettled 12-month windows
- $730m
- Median disclosed value
- 335
- Distinct clients
What the data show
From November 2025 to October 2026, Sartori & Partners recorded 652 dated deals for Hospitality & Leisure clients. On settled windows the deal count went from 698 to 638, down 8.6% year on year. The deal market as a whole moved +10.6% over the same windows.
By practice, Corporate & M&A is involved in 30.7% of these deals and Capital Markets in 17.8%. By deal type, Disputes & investigations is involved in 29.1% of these deals and M&A in 22.9%.
Deal value was disclosed on 14.4% of them; where disclosed, the median was $730 million. 335 distinct clients appear across the window.
First among advising firms is Latham & Watkins, with deals in the 21-40 band.
Lawyers whose work centers on Hospitality & Leisure changed firm 125 times in the same window. Partners were 48.8% of those moves, against 27.7% across the lateral market. Year on year those moves changed -10.7%.
For a company in Hospitality & Leisure, the adviser table shows where sector experience sits, which is where an in-house hire is most likely to 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 | Latham & Watkins | 21-40 |
| 2 | Barnes & Thornburg | 21-40 |
| 3 | Davis Polk & Wardwell | 21-40 |
| 4 | CMS | 11-20 |
| 5 | Hogan Lovells Cadwalader | 11-20 |
| 6 | Alston & Bird | 11-20 |
| 7 | Simpson Thacher & Bartlett | 11-20 |
| 8 | Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison | 11-20 |
| 9 | Kirkland & Ellis | 11-20 |
| 10 | Baker McKenzie | 11-20 |
Related monitors and reports
Deal types
Other industries
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Up one level
Working with us
Reports
- Inside the Hospitality Bench: Real Estate on 44.8% of Lawyer Moves
Real estate is the largest practice among lawyers with a hospitality focus who changed firms, at 422 on an index that sets its share against the market's. It is not a majority, and partner moves in the sector fell while the market's rose. A hotel or leisure company hiring counsel should screen property lawyers first.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Property First, Workouts Second in a Shrinking Hospitality Market
Hospitality and leisure deal flow fell 8.6% while the whole deal market rose 10.6%. The work that remains tilts to property transactions and restructuring, and capital markets sits below the market share, so a hotel or leisure company should buy property and workout depth first.
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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