Lawyers Changing City: 20.5% of Lateral Moves Cross a City Line

Do lawyers relocate when they change firms? Most do not, and the ones who do cluster in a handful of cities. Sartori & Partners data show that 20.5% of lateral moves in the past 12 months also took the lawyer to a different city. For a firm planning its next hire, that average matters less than the spread behind it. New York fills its benches almost entirely from its own market, while Miami, Charlotte and Nashville bring in a large part of their lateral talent from somewhere else.

Across 14,091 lateral moves recorded between November 2025 and October 2026, 20.5% involved a change of city as well as a change of firm. Everything else was local: the lawyer changed employer and kept the commute. Relocation is a minority route, but not a marginal one. At 20.5%, about one move in five carries a relocation decision with it, and with it a different negotiation.

The two ends of each move point the same way. The cities lawyers leave and the cities they join rank almost identically: New York is the starting point of 13.2% of all moves and the destination of 14.8%, with London second on both lists at 7.6% and 9.2%.

Read the order of the two columns rather than the gap between them: origin shares run lower for every city on the list, so the ranking says more than the spread. What the ranking shows is that the large markets both send and receive, and that no single city drains lawyers from the others. For a hiring partner the default holds: for most roles, the candidate pool sits in the city where the role sits. Washington, DC, third on both lists, joins 5.6% of all moves.

New York has the lowest relocation share of any city in the Sartori & Partners lateral database: 10.9% of its lateral hires changed city to get there, against 20.5% for the market as a whole. That held through a busy year. New York lateral hiring rose 11.9% in the settled 12-month window, to 2,084 moves from 1,862. The extra hiring drew on lawyers who already worked in the city.

New York also sends out more relocating lawyers than it takes in. In 12 months, 248 lawyers left New York for a firm in another city, while 189 arrived from elsewhere. Washington, DC and Miami were the only destinations with enough New York leavers to report, at 21 moves each.

London sits between the two models. 15.2% of its lateral hires came from another city, below the market rate, and the flow runs slightly inward: 153 arrivals from other cities against 128 departures. Sydney is the only origin city large enough to report for London over 12 months, with 20 moves. Overall London volume held flat (-2.5%), at 1,353 moves in the settled window against 1,387 a year earlier.

For a firm hiring in either city, a relocation package is rarely what wins the candidate. The competition is the firm a few streets away, and the deciding terms are the familiar ones: platform, pay, and room for the practice to grow.

The regional growth markets work differently. In Charlotte, 30.9% of lateral hires changed city, 2.8 times the New York share. Nashville, at 28.6%, and Miami, at 28.7%, are close behind. Miami sits 8.2 points above the market average.

Miami is the clearest case because it is also sizable. It ranks 10th among cities by lateral volume, and its relocation share is the highest of the top 10, where every other city sits well below it. Miami hiring rose 34.4% in the settled window, to 305 moves from 227. Newcomers carried much of that: 66 lawyers moved to Miami from another city, while 37 left Miami for one, or 1.8 arrivals for every departure.

Charlotte and Nashville are smaller, so fewer of their flows clear the reporting threshold, but they lean the same way. Charlotte took 34 lawyers from other cities in 12 months and Nashville took 28. Charlotte hiring rose 30.9%, with 144 moves in the settled window against 110. Nashville hiring rose 40.0%, with 112 against 80.

Practice mix explains part of the pull. Banking and finance work is involved in 45.9% of Charlotte lateral moves, an index of 329 against the market as a whole. Demand that concentrated in one practice is hard to meet from a mid-sized local bar, so firms recruit across state lines. For a firm building in any of these three cities, a search that stops at the city limits sees only part of the market.

When a lawyer does relocate to Miami or Charlotte, the move most often starts in New York. It is the only origin city with enough moves to report for Miami: 21 lawyers, or 7.0% of Miami lateral hires in 12 months. Over 3 years, New York is likewise the only reportable origin for Charlotte, with 24 moves.

Seen from New York, the route to Florida is one of the busiest exits. Over 3 years, 49 New York lawyers moved to a Miami firm, second only to Washington, DC at 54. London's outside routes are different: over the same period its most frequent destination was Dubai, with 41 moves, and its main source was Sydney, with 89.

For a Miami or Charlotte search, the first place to look beyond the city is a New York lawyer with a reason to move: family in the region, clients nearby, or the chance to lead a smaller office. Bar admission is the practical constraint. A lawyer who changes state may need a new license, which adds weeks or months, so those conversations should start earlier than a local search would.

Set the search radius by city, not by habit. In New York, where 10.9% of lateral hires changed city, a local search covers nearly the whole pool, and relocation support is a courtesy rather than a lever. London, at 15.2%, works much the same way, with Sydney as its most regular outside source.

In Charlotte, Miami and Nashville, budget for relocation from the first brief. Sartori & Partners figures put the relocation share in those cities between 28.6% and 30.9%, so expect moving costs, a first-year guarantee that covers the transition, and time for bar admission. The family decision will weigh as much as the offer, and the timetable should allow for it.

Use the New York outflow. New York sends out more relocating lawyers than it receives, 248 against 189, and Miami is one of its two most frequent destinations. A firm growing a Florida office can recruit from New York lawyers who are already weighing a move. A firm opening an office in any growth city should expect to import much of its first wave of hires and plan the calendar around it.