Client industry · November 2026
Real Estate: who advises the sector
Dated deals for real estate 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
- 2,164
- Dated deals, 12 monthsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- +6.8%
- Year on yearSettled 12-month windows
- $401m
- Median disclosed value
- 1,000
- Distinct clients
What the data show
Sartori & Partners data count 2,164 dated deals for Real Estate clients from November 2025 to October 2026. On settled windows the deal count went from 2,001 to 2,138, up 6.8% year on year. The deal market as a whole moved +10.6% over the same windows.
By practice, Real Estate is involved in 38.4% of these deals and Capital Markets in 27.4%. By deal type, Real estate is involved in 36.3% of these deals and Capital markets in 26.4%.
Deal value was disclosed on 23.0% of them; where disclosed, the median was $401 million. 1,000 distinct clients appear across the window.
First among advising firms is Latham & Watkins, with deals in the 101-150 band.
Lawyers whose work centers on Real Estate changed firm 1,135 times in the same window. Partners were 35.6% of those moves, against 27.7% across the lateral market. Year on year those moves changed -3.4%.
For a company in Real Estate, 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 | 101-150 |
| 2 | Sidley Austin | 61-100 |
| 3 | Greenberg Traurig | 61-100 |
| 4 | Clifford Chance | 61-100 |
| 5 | Jones Day | 41-60 |
| 6 | Paul Hastings | 41-60 |
| 7 | Venable | 41-60 |
| 8 | Simpson Thacher & Bartlett | 41-60 |
| 9 | CMS | 41-60 |
| 10 | DLA Piper | 41-60 |
Related monitors and reports
Deal types
Other industries
- Banks & Financial Institutions
- Financial Sponsors
- Technology & Software
- Pharma & Biotech
- Asset Management & Funds
- Power & Renewables
- Consumer Goods & Retail
- Food, Beverage & Agriculture
- Healthcare Providers & Payors
- Oil & Gas
- Industrial Manufacturing
- Media & Entertainment
- Utilities, Water & Waste
- Government & Public Sector
- Automotive
- Insurance
- Electronics & Semiconductors
- Medical Devices
- Mining & Metals
- Individuals & Consumers
- Hospitality & Leisure
- Aerospace & Defence
- Infrastructure
- Construction & Engineering
- Professional Services
- Fintech & Payments
- Telecommunications
- Transportation & Logistics
- Chemicals
- Sports
- Nonprofits & Charities
- Aviation
- Digital Assets & Crypto
- Education
Up one level
Working with us
Reports
- Real Estate Lawyers in 2026: Hired by More Firms Than Any Sector
Real estate lawyers who moved spread across 320 hiring firms, the widest base of any sector, and fewer of them joined firms of 1,000+ lawyers than the market does. Associates are the majority and partner moves fell while the market's rose: a company hiring juniors can recruit from many mid-size firms, and a senior search has to go to partners who are staying put.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Real Estate Legal Work Splits in Two: Property and Capital Markets
Real estate companies buy property transactions at 13.0 times the market's rate and capital markets financing at the market's own rate. Different lawyers do each, so a panel built for one proves little about the other.
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].
For general counsel and boards
Hiring a lawyer in-house?
A retained search starts with the market: who could take the role, where they sit and what it will take to move them.