The Price of a Power Lawyer: 23.3% Change City, 16.1% Step Up

A developer or investor looking for renewable energy in-house counsel is recruiting from a group of lawyers that moves more than most. Sartori & Partners data show that lawyers whose work centers on power and renewables changed city on 23.3% of their lateral moves in the 12 months to October 2026, against 20.5% for all lawyers who changed firms. They also joined at a higher title on 16.1% of moves, against 12.9%. These are moves between law firms, the clearest record of what this group accepts when it changes jobs. For a company they settle two questions before a search opens: whether a candidate in another city is worth the call, and what the offer has to carry.

Over the 12 months, 285 lawyers with a power and renewables focus changed firms, and 23.3% of those moves took them to a new city as well. Across all 14,091 lateral moves in the Sartori & Partners record, the figure was 20.5%, a gap of 2.8 points. The 36-month view keeps the same order, 24.6% for power and renewables lawyers against 21.6% for the market, so the gap is not one unusual year. Deal work in the sector rose 27.6% over the settled 12-month windows while the count of these moves held flat (-5.5%), so the point here is where and how these lawyers move, not how many.

The other energy sectors sit lower. Oil and gas lawyers changed city on 16.3% of moves, and utilities, water and waste lawyers on 18.8%. Oil and gas movers cluster in one hub, with Houston taking 27.3% of their moves. Power movers spread across New York, London, Washington and Houston, and more of them cross between those cities.

For a company, the reading is that relocation is a realistic ask. A lawyer who has crossed cities for a firm role will at least take the call for an in-house one, so a search for a power lawyer should not stop at the city where the head office sits. Build the list in the cities where the group works and raise the relocation package in the first conversation, not the last.

Four cities make the destination list for the 12 months. New York took the most, 14.0% of power and renewables moves, but that sits close to its weight in the whole market, an index of 95. London runs at 126. The two outliers are Washington, with 9.5% of moves and an index of 169, and Houston, with 7.4% against the city's 2.3% of all lateral moves. Houston's index of 315 means power lawyers chose it at more than three times its share of the market.

The supply side names the same cities. Among the cities these movers left, New York accounts for 11.6%, and London and Washington for 8.1% each. Over 36 months Houston appears on both lists, as the destination of 5.6% of moves and the origin of 4.9%. Read the two lists as a map of where the pool sits, not as a net balance between cities.

General in-house demand has not singled Houston out. Across all sectors, 2.3% of the lawyers who left firms for companies between May and October 2026 came from Houston, in line with the city's 2.3% of all lateral moves. For a power company in Texas that means a concentrated pool with no extra in-house pull aimed at it. For a company based anywhere else, Houston and Washington are the first two cities to search after its own.

The second finding is the price of a hire. In the Sartori & Partners record, a move counts as a step up when the lawyer joins at a higher title than the one left: associate or counsel to partner, or associate to counsel. Power and renewables lawyers did that on 16.1% of moves, against 12.9% for all lateral moves, and the 36-month figures, 16.1% against 12.3%, keep the same order. Oil and gas lawyers stepped up on 16.5% of moves, so the premium is shared across energy work, while utilities lawyers, at 12.3%, sit near the market.

The group is senior as well. Partners were 43.9% of power and renewables movers, against 27.7% of all lateral moves, and associates 44.2% against 58.5%. The in-house channel leans the other way. Of the 953 lawyers who left firms for companies between May and October 2026, across all sectors, partners were 11.0% and associates 76.7%, and for every hundred lateral moves in those months, 13.1 lawyers went to a company.

A company should expect to match the step a firm would offer. For a senior associate, the in-house equivalent is a counsel or senior counsel title with a visible path to the next one. For a counsel or a junior partner, it is a head-of-function or deputy general counsel title. An offer at the candidate's current level competes with firms that gave a higher title on 16.1% of power moves, and it will usually lose.

Practice tags show what kind of lawyer this is. Projects and infrastructure lawyers appear on 71.2% of power and renewables moves, as expected in a sector built on project work. The sharper signal is banking and finance: 38.9% of moves, an index of 279 against the market, and 259 among partners alone. Construction lawyers over-index at 234 and tax lawyers at 161, while litigation runs at 39. One lawyer can carry two practices, so the shares overlap.

Companies hiring from firms draw on a different mix. Across all sectors, banking and finance lawyers were 13.1% of moves into companies and projects and infrastructure lawyers 5.0%. Few project lawyers have taken the in-house route, so a candidate from this group will often be making that move for the first time and will want the role explained in deal terms: which assets, which financings, how much of the work stays in-house.

For a developer whose legal work is mostly financing assets, the hire to look for is a project finance or banking lawyer, and that is where the group runs deepest. A company that builds its own projects can find construction contract experience in the same pool, and tax lawyers appear on its moves more often than in the wider market.

The employer the candidate is leaving sets the benchmark. Of the power and renewables moves over the 12 months, 69.1% went to firms of 1,000+ lawyers, against 53.6% for all lateral moves. Over 36 months, 70.3% of the movers left firms of that size. Hiring is spread across 107 firms in 12 months, and the ten most active took 25.1% of moves over 36 months.

These firms are where many recent movers now work, and where a company's search will find them. In Sartori & Partners data, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe heads the 36-month list, in the 21-40 band of hires. The pay and title structure of large firms is what an in-house offer will be measured against, so set the package with that comparison in mind rather than against other companies.

Search across cities from the start. With 23.3% of power and renewables movers changing city, against 20.5% in the market, a candidate in New York, London, Washington or Houston is a realistic hire for a company based elsewhere. Put Houston and Washington first, where the group over-indexes, and budget for relocation from the first call.

Price the step up into the role. These lawyers took a higher title on 16.1% of firm moves, and partners make up 43.9% of the group, so decide the title before the search opens. Recruit from finance: banking and finance lawyers over-index at 279, which suits a developer or investor whose legal work is mostly financing assets.