A Nonprofit Lawyer Search Starts in Tax: 52.1% of Movers Carry It

A foundation or charity that sets out to hire in-house counsel will, more often than not, end up interviewing a nonprofit tax lawyer. Sartori & Partners data show that 71 lawyers with a nonprofit and charity focus changed law firms in the 12 months to October 2026, and 52.1% of them, about half, carried tax work. Across all lateral moves, tax appears on 5.0%. Private client and estates work, the practice of trusts, endowments and planned giving, sits on 29.6% of the same moves. The sections below set this group against the whole lateral market, against lawyers with an education or government focus, and against the lawyers who left firms for companies in 2026.

Measured against the market, where an index of par means the same share, tax work among nonprofit-focused movers stands at 1,035, a little over ten times the market's rate. Private client and estates work goes further, at 1,260: it appears on 29.6% of these moves and on only 2.3% of all lateral moves. Litigation, the largest practice across the market at 39.9% of moves, reaches 29.6% here, an index of 74, below par. One lawyer can carry several practices, so these shares overlap and are never added together.

The pairing makes sense for the work a charity's legal head does. Exempt status, unrelated business income, donor restrictions, grant terms and the board's own governance sit between tax law and the trusts and estates desk. For a foundation writing a job description, the consequence is direct: ask for tax-exempt organization experience first and treat litigation as a skill to buy from outside firms. Our companion report on the firms nonprofits use finds that they buy dispute work first from outside counsel, the other side of the same division of labor.

The 12-month picture is not a one-year swing. Over 36 months, the Sartori & Partners lateral database holds 219 moves by lawyers with a nonprofit focus, and tax work appears on 47.9% of them, against 4.9% of all lateral moves in the same window. Litigation follows at 32.4%, private client and estates at 26.5%, corporate and M&A at 21.0% and employment at 14.2%.

The neighboring benches look nothing like it. Among lawyers with an education focus who moved, public law appears on 40.4% of moves, an index of 1,923, and employment work on 45.0%. Lawyers with a government focus lead with litigation at 43.6% and public law at 29.9%. A university or a public body hires a regulatory or employment lawyer; a foundation hires a tax lawyer. Do not copy a job description from those sectors.

Where these lawyers land matters for a search, because the firm they join is where a recruiter finds them next. Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 35.2% of nonprofit-focused movers over 12 months, against 23.4% of all lateral moves. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 31.0%, against 53.6% across the market. Firms of 150-399 lawyers took 23.9%, against 13.3%, a rough size because it rests on a count under twenty; firms under 150 lawyers took 9.9%, close to the market's 9.7%.

The pattern holds over three years: firms of 400-999 lawyers took 36.9% of nonprofit-focused moves in 36 months, against 25.0% of all moves, and firms of 1,000+ lawyers 26.7%, against 52.5%. Lawyers with an education focus lean even smaller, with firms of 150-399 lawyers taking 38.0% of their moves. For a charity, the consequence is pay and reach. A candidate at a firm of 400-999 lawyers often has a compensation gap to an in-house salary that is easier to close, and a long list that starts with only the largest firms leaves out most of the people who do this work.

This is a senior group. Partners made 57.7% of nonprofit-focused lateral moves over 12 months, against 27.7% across the market, and 21.1% of the movers joined at a higher title, against 12.9%. They also travel. Among moves where both cities are known, 29.3% of nonprofit-focused movers changed city, against 20.5% across the market; over three years the rate was 24.0%, against 21.6%. Lawyers with a government focus changed city on 26.0% of moves.

Two things follow for the hiring side. A general counsel role at a foundation competes with partnership, so the offer has to speak to a lawyer who already runs client relationships and a book of exempt-organization work. And because this bench relocates more readily than most, a national search is realistic: limiting the search to the foundation's home city cuts out candidates who would move for the right role.

Volume is small and steady. The count of nonprofit-focused lateral moves held flat (+11.9%), from 67 to 75 in the settled 12-month windows, while the count of all lateral moves rose 9.0%, from 13,128 to 14,305. Lateral moves are one hiring channel among several, so a flat count says nothing about a smaller pool: it says the same few dozen lawyers a year are in motion, and a search has to reach them while they are.

Hiring of these lawyers is also concentrated. Over 36 months the ten firms that hired most took 21.9% of the individual hires by nonprofit-focused lawyers, against 12.2% for the whole market. Across all sectors, Sartori & Partners counted 953 lawyers who left law firms for companies between May and October 2026, or 13.1 for every hundred lateral moves, and 59.3% of them left firms of 1,000+ lawyers. Over three years, 38.4% of nonprofit-focused movers whose previous firm size is known had left a firm of that size.

Write the role around tax. With tax work on 52.1% of nonprofit-focused moves and private client work on 29.6%, the candidate pool is built from exempt-organization tax and trusts lawyers, not from litigators. Put governance, exempt status and donor restrictions at the top of the specification, and buy dispute work from outside counsel.

Search mid-size firms first. Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 35.2% of these movers, more than the 31.0% that went to firms of 1,000+ lawyers, and their candidates can come with pay expectations closer to an in-house budget. Search nationally: 29.3% of the group changed city on their last move. Expect a senior hire, since partners made 57.7% of these moves, and plan for a market that holds a few dozen moves a year, not hundreds.