Infrastructure Lawyers Work at the Largest Firms: 75.1% Join One

A general counsel who wants to hire infrastructure lawyers, whether for the legal team or as outside counsel, is looking at a group that lives inside the largest law firms. Sartori & Partners data show 241 lateral moves by lawyers with an infrastructure focus in the 12 months to October 2026, and about three in four of them, 75.1%, ended at firms of 1,000+ lawyers. For all lateral moves that share is 53.6%. The same firms are also where these lawyers come from: over 36 months, 76.7% of their moves began at one. The bench does not climb toward the big platforms from smaller firms. It circulates among them, and that sets both the pool and the price for any company that wants one of these lawyers.

Infrastructure lawyers joined firms of 1,000+ lawyers on 75.1% of their moves, 21.5 points above the market. Each smaller class takes less than its usual weight. Firms of 400-999 lawyers drew 17.0% of infrastructure moves, where the market gives them 23.4%. Firms of 150-399 lawyers drew 5.8% and firms under 150 lawyers 2.1%, against 13.3% and 9.7%. Those two small classes rest on few moves, so read them as an order of size, not a precise figure.

The neighboring sectors split in two. Power and renewables lawyers sent 69.1% of their moves to firms of 1,000+ lawyers, close to the infrastructure pattern. Construction and engineering lawyers, who often work on the same assets, sent only 36.8% there and 21.8% to firms of 150-399 lawyers. For a company, that decides where a search starts. The projects or finance lawyer who knows infrastructure sits, in most cases, at one of the largest firms; the construction lawyer for the same road or plant can be found at firms of every size, on a different timetable and budget.

The 36-month window shows the other end of each move. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, 76.7% of moves by infrastructure lawyers over 36 months started at a firm of 1,000+ lawyers and 76.2% ended at one. For the lateral market as a whole, the starting share is 56.6% and the arriving share 52.5%. Small firms feed little into this group: firms under 150 lawyers were where 3.9% of infrastructure moves began, against 11.4% across the market. Construction and engineering runs the other way, with 19.8% of its moves starting at firms under 150 lawyers.

The hirers cluster as well. Ten firms account for 29.0% of infrastructure moves over 36 months; in the whole market the ten busiest hirers account for 12.2%. Greenberg Traurig, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Latham & Watkins and Hogan Lovells Cadwalader share the 21-40 band of lawyers hired, so their order says little.

This is a circuit, not a ladder. A candidate at one large firm has other large firms bidding for the same profile, and the offer a company makes is set against that alternative: large-firm pay and a partnership track, before any in-house advantage is counted. For a company buying outside counsel, the same circuit means the partner who ran its last financing may sit at another large firm next year.

Projects and infrastructure appears on 50.2% of moves by infrastructure lawyers, an index of 1,353 against its share of all lateral moves. Banking and finance follows at 36.1%, an index of 259, and construction sits at an index of 306. Private equity, at 240, and funds, at 216, show the investor side of the sector. Litigation is the outlier at 34. One lawyer can carry several practices, so the shares overlap and do not add to a whole.

Power and renewables lawyers lean on projects work even harder, at an index of 1,918, with finance at 279. The practical reading for a company: the lawyers who structure and finance infrastructure assets form a narrow specialist pool, and the largest firms hold most of it. A disputes lawyer for the same assets is not in this pool. That search belongs in the construction bench, which is wider and spread across smaller firms.

Three cities clear the publication threshold for infrastructure moves in the past 12 months. New York and London each took 16.2%, at indexes of 110 and 175. Paris took 8.3%, a smaller count, yet its index of 450 is the highest of the three. The longer window confirms it: over 36 months Paris took 8.5% of infrastructure moves, against 2.3% of all lateral moves.

A company with assets or a legal team in France can hire infrastructure talent locally instead of relocating someone from London. Relocation is less common in this group anyway: 16.0% of infrastructure moves came with a change of city, against 20.5% across the market. A role that requires a move to a new city starts from a smaller share of candidates who have done it.

The infrastructure bench that changes firms is senior. Partners made 61.0% of moves in the past 12 months, against 27.7% across the market, while associates made 27.0% against 58.5%. The neighbors sit lower: partners were 43.9% of power and renewables moves and 39.0% of construction and engineering moves. Over the two settled 12-month windows the count of infrastructure moves held flat (+0.4%), from 243 to 244. A steady count says the pace of movement has held, not that the bench has grown or shrunk.

Moves from law firms into companies have a different profile. Sartori & Partners track them in full from May 2026: of the 953 lawyers who left a firm for a company between May and October, across all sectors, 76.7% were associates, and 59.3% came from firms of 1,000+ lawyers. Projects and infrastructure lawyers were 5.0% of those moves into companies, against 3.7% of moves between firms, so the practice does send lawyers in-house. The realistic in-house hire is a senior associate or counsel from a large firm's projects or finance group. A partner who moves is weighing any company offer against partnership at another large firm.

Start the search at the largest firms. With 75.1% of infrastructure moves ending at firms of 1,000+ lawyers and 76.7% of 36-month moves starting at one, there is little of this bench elsewhere. Price the offer accordingly. The candidate's current pay and the next competing offer both come from firms of that size, so an in-house package has to answer large-firm pay with scope, a seat on the deal team and a clear line to the general counsel.

Aim at the right level and practice. Partners are 61.0% of the lawyers who move, but companies hire associates out of firms far more often, so target senior associates and counsel in projects and finance groups, where the indexes are 1,353 and 259. Look for disputes skills in the construction bench instead. Treat Paris and London as recruiting cities in their own right, at indexes of 450 and 175. When buying outside counsel, tie the mandate to named lawyers: in a bench that moves between large platforms, the relationship follows the partner.