Lawyer Moves Between City Pairs: The Busiest Route Runs Both Ways

Recruiters hear the same questions every year: are lawyers moving from New York to Miami, does Washington drain New York, does San Francisco feed Los Angeles? Sartori & Partners data show that the busiest corridor of the five we measured is also the most even: over 3 years, 102 lawyers moved between New York and Washington firms, 54 heading south and 48 heading north. The other four corridors are smaller and most of them lean one way. Every figure below covers the same 3 years, counts only lateral moves where both the city left and the city joined are known, and reads each pair in both directions where both are large enough to report.

Corridors are a small slice of the market. Across all lateral moves in the same 3 years, 21.6% took the lawyer to a new city, so most hiring is still local. The value of a corridor for a law-firm leader is that it names the one outside city where a candidate pool already has the habit of moving to you, and the one where your own lawyers are most likely to go.

New York and Washington exchanged 102 lawyers over 3 years, the largest two-way flow in the Sartori & Partners lateral database among these five pairs. The split is near balance at 54 moves from New York to Washington and 48 the other way, a gap of 6 lawyers across the whole period. Neither city is feeding the other: firms in both are recruiting from the same pool, and each loses roughly what it gains.

The work explains the pull in both directions. Litigation and disputes are involved in 31.4% of the moves on this route and corporate work in 21.6%. Regulatory investigations, enforcement defense and government-facing disputes sit naturally on both sides of the corridor, so a lawyer can change city without changing practice.

The movers are junior. Associates account for 73.5% of the corridor, against 59.2% of all lateral moves, while partners make up 15.7%, a share that rests on fewer than twenty cases and is a rough size only. For a firm with an office in each city, the practical reading is simple: an associate search in one city should include the other as a matter of course, but a partner search on this route is a hunt for individuals, not a flow to tap.

The California corridor carried 94 moves over 3 years, and the direction is clear. San Francisco sent 58 lawyers to Los Angeles firms and received 36 in return, 1.6 times as many going south as going north. Los Angeles firms are the net receivers on this route.

This is a disputes corridor more than any other we measured. Litigation is involved in 55.3% of its moves, 14.3 points above the litigation share of all lateral moves. Corporate work is involved in 24.5%. State courts and the same bar admission on both ends make the move cheap for a litigator.

Lawyers on this route also change the kind of firm they work for. Only 33.0% joined a firm in the same size class they left, the lowest rate of the five corridors. A Los Angeles firm recruiting from San Francisco should expect candidates who are trading platform as well as city, and should be ready to explain the difference in rates, staffing and client base before the first meeting.

Between New York and Los Angeles, 40 of the 63 moves over 3 years ran from New York to Los Angeles, or 63.5% of the corridor. Only 23 went the other way. For a Los Angeles firm, New York is the second outside source after San Francisco; for a New York firm, Los Angeles is a city that takes more than it returns.

No corridor is younger. Associates make up 84.1% of these moves, 24.9 points above the associate share of all lateral moves, and partners only 11.1%, a rough figure on a small base. Counsel moves were too few to report. Litigation is involved in 39.7% of the moves.

The pattern fits a familiar career step: a few years of training in a large New York office, then a move to the West Coast with the same skills and often the same firm brand. For a Los Angeles hiring partner, New York associates are a steady supply worth a standing search. For a New York firm, the loss is mostly at the junior end, where it costs time to train a replacement rather than client relationships.

Over 3 years, 49 lawyers moved from New York firms to Miami firms. The return flow, from Miami to New York, is too small to report: it falls under our reporting threshold, so this pair has no two-way total and no split to print. That alone says the traffic runs one way. Miami is a smaller market than Washington or Los Angeles, yet more lawyers went from New York to Miami than the 40 who went from New York to Los Angeles.

The lawyers who went from New York to Miami are the most partner-heavy group in this report. Partners account for 20.4% of them, the highest partner share printed for any pair here, though it covers one direction while the other pairs count both, and still below the 26.9% partner share of all lateral moves. Associates make up 75.5% of the lawyers who went from New York to Miami, and counsel moves were too few to report. The partner share rests on fewer than twenty cases, so treat it as a rough size. No single practice accounts for enough of these moves to report, so on our numbers this route is neither a corporate nor a litigation corridor.

For a Miami firm, New York is a one-way source: 49 lawyers came south in 3 years, too few went back to report, and associates made 75.5% of those who came. That makes New York a standing source for associates. The practice mix is too thin to report, so the brief should follow your own gaps rather than the route. Partners also travel this route, but in numbers too small to publish, so a partner hire from New York is found name by name rather than drawn from a flow. For a New York firm with a Florida office, the corridor is a retention question as much as a hiring one: the associates who lean toward Miami may prefer to move inside the firm.

New York and Boston exchanged 64 lawyers over 3 years, near balance at 34 moves from Boston to New York and 30 from New York to Boston. What sets this pair apart is continuity: 62.5% of movers joined a firm in the same size class they left, against 33.0% on the California route and 48.0% between New York and Washington.

Corporate work is involved in 37.5% of the moves on this route and litigation in 31.2%, the reverse of the order on the Washington and California routes. Across the whole market in the last 12 months, Sartori & Partners figures show the single largest size flow is from one 1,000+ lawyers firm to another, at 39.0% of moves. Staying in one size class is common everywhere, but no corridor here keeps more of its movers in their class than New York and Boston.

For a Boston or New York firm, a candidate from the other city is likely to be comparing like with like: similar rates, similar clients, similar leverage. The offer has to win on practice fit and partnership terms, because platform will rarely be the deciding difference.

Treat New York and Washington as one pool for associates. With 54 moves one way and 48 the other over 3 years, neither city gains at the other's expense, and a firm in either can recruit from the other without expecting to win the exchange.

In Los Angeles, build a standing pipeline from San Francisco and New York. Those two cities sent 58 and 40 lawyers respectively to Los Angeles firms in 3 years, more than either took back. Expect San Francisco candidates to be litigators changing firm size, and New York candidates to be associates.

In Miami, recruit associates from New York first: 49 lawyers came to you from New York in 3 years while the return flow was too small to report, and associates made 75.5% of the lawyers who went from New York to Miami. Do not plan a partner pipeline on this route; partners were too few to publish as a count, and the published share is only a rough size. In Boston, pitch against the firm the candidate already knows how to compare you with, since 62.5% stay in the same size class. In every case, the corridor tells you where to look first; the relocation package, bar admission and family reasons decide whether the move happens.