Data Intelligence · November 2026
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Reports on the lateral market as a whole: the year, the quarter, partner and associate markets, firm size classes.
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Reports
- 12.9% of Lateral Moves Bring a Higher Title, From Funds to Family
One lateral move in eight (12.9%) brings a higher title. The step-up rate runs from 11.4% in funds to 16.8% in construction and 20.5% in family law, and from 8.4% in Chicago to 20.8% in Minneapolis.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Cities Gaining Lawyers From Other Cities: Los Angeles and Miami Lead
Counted as arrivals from other cities against departures to them, Los Angeles gained 30 lawyers net in 12 months and Miami 29. New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston and Boston sent out more than they took in.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Corporate Benches Lose 20.1 Lawyers to Companies per Hundred Laterals
Corporate & M&A sends 20.1 lawyers to companies for every hundred lateral moves, against 12.3 in litigation, and associates are 76.7% of all such departures. A firm that trains corporate associates has to plan on buying part of each class back in the lateral market.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Deal Flow vs Lateral Hiring by Practice: Where They Part in 2026
Market-wide, deals and lateral moves grew at similar rates. Inside practices they part: the projects deal count rose 26.2% while projects hiring held flat (+1.3%), and funds hiring rose 23.7% on a deal count that held flat (+2.8%).
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Deal Types vs Lateral Hiring 2026: Corporate Hiring Outran M&A
M&A deals rose 8.9% while corporate and M&A lateral hiring rose 15.8%. In none of the four deal types here did hiring move in step with the deal count, and in restructuring the two moved in opposite directions.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - In-House Hires From Law Firms: 59.3% Left Firms of 1,000+ Lawyers
Between May and October 2026, 772 companies hired 953 lawyers straight from law firms. Most came from the largest firms, most were associates, and corporate lawyers made up 33.2% of these moves against 20.7% of moves between firms.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Lateral Hiring 2026 Year to Date: Up 10.1%, Built From April
The 2026 year to date ran level with 2025 through March and only pulled ahead from April. By September lateral moves were up 10.1%, a gain made in the spring and summer.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Lateral Hiring by City: New York Has the Volume, Houston the Growth
New York and London still take the most lateral hires, 14.8% and 9.2% of all moves. The growth sits in Houston, Miami and San Francisco, while London was flat and Paris fell 20.5%.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Lateral Hiring by Month: January Peaks, December Goes Quiet
Lateral moves follow a fixed calendar: January is the peak, December the trough, and September a second window carried by associates. January 2026 counted 1,560 moves, 2.4 times December 2025.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Lateral Hiring Concentration by City: Nashville's Top 10 Take 73.3%
In Nashville, Toronto and Charlotte the top 10 hiring firms took 73.3%, 62.0% and 54.5% of individual lateral hires, against 21.5% in New York and 12.9% market-wide. Where few firms hire, a candidate's realistic options are few, and so are a hiring firm's rivals.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Lateral Hiring Over 3 Years: 1,886 Firms, Only 1,291 in 12 Months
Over three years 1,886 law firms made at least one lateral hire, but only 68.5% of them also hired in the latest 12 months. The longer window lowers the top 10 share, trims the partner weight and shows firms under 150 lawyers supplying more lateral talent, against what they take back, than any other size class.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Lateral Level Mix by Practice: Regulatory Teams Hire Partners
Partners make up 47.9% of lateral moves in financial services regulatory and 42.5% in regulatory and compliance, against 27.7% market-wide. Employment runs the other way, with associates at 61.6%: the level mix of a practice decides what kind of search it needs.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Lateral Moves Rose in the Third Quarter of 2026, Carried by Summer
July to September 2026 counted 3,789 lateral moves against 3,427 a year earlier. July and August carried the gain, September fell short of an unusually heavy September 2025, and partner moves rose with the market.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Law Firm Attrition Rate by Size: Firms of 1,000+ Lawyers Lose 14.8%
Across 525 firms, the median leaving rate is 13.2% a year. The largest firms lose the most, 14.8%, and firms of 150-399 lawyers the least, 11.9%.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Law Firm Counsel Hiring 2026: Counsel Now 55.1% of Partner Classes
Firms named counsel at 46.8% of the partner class in 2022 and 55.1% in 2025, and counsel now make 12.7% of lateral moves. Counsel has become a level of its own, with a lateral market and an in-house exit to match.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Law Firm Job Postings vs Lateral Hires: The West Posts, London Hires
Career pages put the weight of demand in San Francisco, Boston and the western US. Lateral moves put it in New York and London, where London firms fill 3.2 seats for each opening they advertise.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Law Firm Lateral Hiring 2026: Up 9.0%, Well Clear of the 2023 Dip
Lateral moves rose 9.0% on the settled year, to 14,305. Against five years of history, 2023 was the dip, 2024 climbed back above 2022, 2025 was the largest full year, and the latest 12 months sit above every full year.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Law Firm Office Openings in 2026 Held Flat as Lateral Hiring Rose
Firms announced 123 office openings in the 12 months to October 2026, while lateral moves rose 9.0%. The rise in lateral hiring came without a matching rise in new offices.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Law Firm Open Roles by Practice: Torts Advertise, Restructuring Hires
Product liability, technology and pensions list more openings on one day than they record lateral hires in a year. Restructuring and litigation record 4.7 and 4.6 lateral hires in 12 months for each opening listed on the data date.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Law Firms Promoted 0.79 Partners per Lateral Partner Hired
Firms promoted 2,955 lawyers to partner and hired 3,749 lateral partners over the same 12 months, close to the 2025 ratio of 0.8. Among the larger practices, restructuring makes the fewest of its own partners and employment the most.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Lawyer Moves Between City Pairs: The Busiest Route Runs Both Ways
New York and Washington exchange more lawyers than any other pair we measured, 54 one way and 48 the other. San Francisco to Los Angeles, New York to Los Angeles and New York to Miami all lean one way.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Lawyers Changing City: 20.5% of Lateral Moves Cross a City Line
Most lateral moves stay in one city, and New York draws only 10.9% of its hires from elsewhere. The growth markets import: Miami at 28.7%, Charlotte at 30.9%, Nashville at 28.6%.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Legal Specialties 2026: Insurance Litigation Shrinks, Fund Work Grows
Insurance-side litigation shrank while the lateral market grew: coverage, professional liability and defense all fell. The clear rises are smaller, in fund work, private wealth and artificial intelligence.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Making Partner Within 8 Years: 31.8% in Private Equity, 10.1% in Trade
The early track to partnership belongs to the deal practices: private equity and corporate made 31.8% and 29.5% of their partners within 8 years, against 23.2% for all practices and 10.1% in international trade. Counted within 12 years, white collar has caught up with the market; immigration and family have not.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Midsize Law Firms Made 29.5% of New Partners on 23.4% of Hires
Firms of 400-999 lawyers made 871 of the 2,955 lawyers promoted to partner, 29.5%, while taking 23.4% of lateral arrivals, and firms of 150-399 lawyers made partners earliest. Midsize firms make their partners; the largest firms lean more on the lateral market.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Net Partner Gains 2026: Only Four of the Top 10 Hirers Make the List
Hiring the most partners and growing the partner bench produce different lists. The top net partner gainer, Greenberg Traurig, sits in the 41-60 band, and only four of the ten busiest partner hirers also make the top 10 by net partner flow.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Partner Hiring vs Total Hiring by Practice: Where the Lines Split
Market-wide, partner hires rose 8.4% and all lateral moves rose 9.0%. Inside practices the two lines split: projects partner hiring held flat (+16.5%) on a flat practice, while litigation and real estate grew only below partner level.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Partner Promotion Calendar 2026: January Carries Most of the Year
Law firms announced 56.4% of the last 12 months' partner promotions in January 2026. May is a smaller second round, and June and August barely register, the same shape as in 2024 and 2025.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Partner Share of Lateral Moves: 33.4% in February, 25.1% in August
Partners take a larger slice of lateral moves in winter than in summer, and 2026 stretched both ends against 2025. Measured over a full year, their share of moves was 27.0%, against 27.1% a year earlier.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Partner vs Associate Lateral Moves: Partners Gain Share Since 2022
Associates are still most of the lawyers who change firms. What has changed since 2022 is the mix: partners now make up a larger slice of lateral moves, even though the past 12 months grew at the market's pace.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Partners Made or Bought: Chicago 0.94, Dallas 0.49, Seattle 0.39
Chicago firms make 0.94 partners for each lateral partner they hire; Los Angeles and Dallas make 0.49 and Seattle 0.39. New York, at 0.76, sits next to the market's 0.79.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Practice Hotspots by City: Hiring Clusters Where Regulators Sit
The sharpest practice concentrations in lateral hiring sit next to a regulator or an industry: antitrust in Brussels, trade in Washington, projects in Houston, banking in Charlotte. Among large cells, Los Angeles employment and New York funds stand out.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Practices Ranked: Litigation Holds the Volume, Smaller Practices Grow
Litigation is involved in 39.9% of lateral moves but grew more slowly than the market. The growth sits in smaller practices: technology, data and privacy, tax, and funds.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Small Law Firms Are Net Suppliers to Mid-Size Firms, Not Big Law
Firms under 150 lawyers sent 1,177 lawyers to other firms and received 1,014, and the surplus went to firms of 400-999 lawyers and 150-399 lawyers. With firms of 1,000+ lawyers the exchange ran slightly the other way, and small-firm lawyers leave no faster than anyone else's.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Team Moves Are 1.5% of Law Firm Laterals, and They Cluster
Almost all lateral hiring happens one lawyer at a time. The exceptions cluster: arbitration, technology and data, and intellectual property see team moves at several times the market rate, while corporate and M&A sits at 0.2%.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - The Top 10 Lateral Hirers Take 12.9% of Moves, 34.0% in Funds
Lateral hiring is spread thin: 1,291 firms hired at least one lateral, and the top 10 took 12.9% of all moves and 13.5% of partner moves. How crowded the field is depends on the practice, from 12.0% in litigation to 34.0% in funds.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Time to Partner Holds at 10.0 years, but the Slow Tail Grows Longer
The midpoint has not moved: the median time to partner was 10.0 years in 2022 and 10.0 years in 2025. The slow end has. By 2025 the upper quartile had reached 13.0 years and the mean 11.1 years, up from 10.9 years in 2022. In 2026 to date the mean is 11.6 years and only 17.5% of new partners were made within eight years.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - What Law Firms Announce: Rankings Lead, Most Lateral Moves Go Unsaid
Rankings and awards filled 13,930 of 31,945 firm announcements in 12 months. Hire announcements came to 3,649, against 14,091 recorded lateral moves: most moves are never announced.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Where Lawyers Go When They Leave Firms: 86.1% Join Another Firm
Between May and October 2026, 86.1% of lawyers who left a law firm joined another firm, 11.3% went in-house and 0.4% joined government. A firm's retention contest is with other firms first, and above all for its partners.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Which Lawyers Move In-House: Tech and IP Most Often, Tax Rarely
Technology, data and privacy lawyers left firms for companies at 30.3 for every hundred lateral moves, and intellectual property lawyers at 24.3, against 13.1 across the market. Tax and product liability lawyers, at 8.2 and 8, rarely make the move: a company search there starts from a thin pool.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Who Hires From Whom by Firm Size: 39.0% of Moves Stay in Big Law
Big law recruits mostly from big law: 39.0% of moves with both firm sizes known stay inside the 1,000+ lawyers class. Midsize firms send 1,200 lawyers up and take 1,117 back, so the 400-999 lawyers class feeds the largest one, by a narrow margin.
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].
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