Hiring a Utility Regulatory Lawyer: A Small, Partner-Heavy Bench

A general counsel hiring a utility regulatory lawyer is shopping in one of the narrowest corners of the legal market. Sartori & Partners data show that 57 lawyers whose work centers on utilities, water and waste changed law firms in the 12 months to October 2026, and 68.4% of those moves carried regulatory and compliance work. Across all lateral moves that practice appears in 2.9%. Because the 12-month count is small, most of this report reads the 36-month window, where 168 moves stand behind each share. Moves between firms are one hiring channel among several, but they are the clearest public record of how senior these lawyers are, which firms take them and where they come from. Each figure below is set against the whole lateral market, against the neighboring energy sectors and against the lawyers who left firms for companies in 2026.

An index at par would mean regulatory and compliance shows up as often among utility movers as among all movers. The figure is 2,368. Regulatory and compliance is also the only practice with enough utility moves to publish on its own over 12 months, so the 36-month window carries the rest of the picture. There, regulatory and compliance appears in 70.2% of utilities-focused moves, projects and infrastructure in 32.1%, litigation in 27.4% and environment in 24.4%. One move can carry several practices, so these shares overlap. Litigation, the largest practice in the market at 41.0% of 36-month moves, sits well behind regulatory work here.

The neighbors are built differently. Among power and renewables movers, regulatory and compliance indexes at 876 and projects work comes first; among oil and gas movers it indexes at 609. For a utility the lesson is practical: a candidate who has spent a career on rate cases, licensing and compliance with state commissions is rarely the same person who closed a project financing, and a search brief that asks for both will shrink a pool that is already narrow.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, 95 of the 168 utilities-focused moves over 36 months were made by partners, a share of 56.5%. Across the market the partner share in the same window was 26.9%, so utility lawyers move as partners 2.1 times as often. The last 12 months read lower, with partners at 47.4% of movers against 27.7% in the market, but that count is small and the partner trend was flat year on year, 28 against 35. Oil and gas movers show a similar mix, with partners at 56.6% over 36 months; power and renewables movers sit lower, at 43.6%.

Seniority shapes the hire. A lawyer who changes firms as a partner usually brings a book of regulatory clients and a standing before the commissions. Hired in-house, that lawyer gives up the book and expects a title and pay that reflect it. A utility that budgets for a mid-level regulatory hire should know that partners alone were 56.5% of these movers.

Companies that take lawyers out of law firms mostly take associates. From May to October 2026, associates were 76.7% of the 953 moves from law firms to companies across all sectors, and partners 11.0%. Among utilities-focused lawyers the order flips: associates were 29.2% of moves over 36 months, against 59.2% for the whole lateral market, and counsel 13.7%. The in-house figures cover six months only and have no earlier comparison, so they describe how companies hire today, not a trend.

The gap is the practical problem. The channel most companies rely on, a senior associate ready to leave a firm, holds few utility regulatory lawyers. A utility has three ways through it: hire a partner or counsel and pay for the seniority, hire an associate from a neighboring regulatory practice and teach the sector, or promote from inside the legal department and hire for the gap that leaves.

Sartori & Partners records show 99 law firms hiring at least one utilities-focused lateral over 36 months, 5.2% of the 1,886 firms that hired any lateral in that window. Over 12 months the figure was 42 firms. The hiring is spread thin even within that small group: the top 10 hirers took 29.4% of the moves, and the firm ranked first, Balch & Bingham, sits in the 6-10 band of hires over three years.

The count of moves is steady rather than growing. Over the settled 12-month windows it held flat (+13.5%), at 59 against 52, a gap that two counts this small produce by chance. Deal flow in the sector tells a different story, and our companion report on utility outside counsel covers it; for a regulatory hire, the useful fact is that the flow of movers is not expanding. For a utility, a list of that size can be mapped in full before the first call.

The firms these lawyers leave are smaller than the market's. Over 36 months, firms of 150-399 lawyers supplied 15.3% of utilities-focused movers, against 11.7% across the market, and firms of 400-999 lawyers 25.2% against 20.3%. Firms under 150 lawyers sat slightly below the market, at 9.9% against 11.4%. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers supplied 49.6%, 7.0 points below the market. Power and renewables movers lean the other way, with 70.3% leaving the largest firms.

Geography follows the regulators. Washington took 14.3% of utilities-focused moves over 36 months, against 5.2% of all lateral moves, and these lawyers changed city in 15.3% of moves, against 21.6% in the market. A utility search that covers only the largest firms misses part of the bench: mid-size firms hold a larger share of it than in the market, and these lawyers relocate less often than most.

Start with the brief. Partners were 56.5% of utilities-focused movers over 36 months, so decide early whether the seat is for a partner-level regulatory lead or for a junior lawyer to be trained, because the two searches run on different pools and different budgets. Next, widen the map: the candidates sit across 99 hiring firms in three years, with mid-size firms over-represented and Washington the only city with enough moves to publish. Third, keep the role regulatory. Projects, litigation and environment work travel with these lawyers often, but a brief that demands capital markets or deal experience as well targets a different group. Last, plan for time: in a pool this small and this senior, a utility should expect to approach most of the qualified candidates directly rather than wait for applications.