Partner Share of Lateral Moves: 33.4% in February, 25.1% in August

Ask what share of lateral moves are partners and the honest answer starts with a question back: which month? Sartori & Partners data show partners made 33.4% of lateral moves in February 2026 and 25.1% in August 2026, a spread of 8.3 points inside six months. Across the 12 months to October 2026 the figure was 27.7%. For a firm that hires partners, the monthly number is a reading of the calendar, and the calendar is where the planning gains are.

The year opened with partners well above their annual weight. In January 2026 they were 31.8% of lateral moves, against 30.4% in January 2025. February went further: 33.4%, against 30.5% a year before, a gap of 2.9 points.

This is a repeat pattern rather than a one-off. February has now carried a partner share above its annual level three winters running: 30.3% in February 2024, 30.5% in February 2025 and 33.4% in February 2026. The count behind the 2026 share is real volume, not a thin month: 496 partners changed firms in January 2026 and 394 in February, against 465 and 347 in the same months of 2025.

The reason is practical. Partners tend to move once year-end compensation is settled and client relationships can be handed over cleanly, so a move agreed in the autumn shows up as a January or February start. For a firm, that means the conversations that produce a winter partner hire happen months earlier. A partner search opened in December is already late for the window that carries the most partner moves.

Spring and summer turned the comparison around. Partners were 25.1% of lateral moves in August 2026, against 27.7% in August 2025, a gap of 2.6 points. June and July followed the same line, and May came close to the August gap, 2.5 points under May 2025.

Read in isolation, those tiles suggest a partner market that cooled as the year went on. In June 2026 partners made 25.8% of lateral moves, the share a firm would see if it checked the market in midsummer. A hiring committee that took that number at face value could conclude that partners had stopped moving. The next section shows why that conclusion would be wrong.

The summer share fell because the denominator grew. Lateral moves in August 2026 rose 30.9% on August 2025, and June rose 20.8% on June 2025. Most of that extra volume was associates: they were 62.0% of August 2026 moves, against 57.2% in August 2025.

Partner counts did not shrink. August 2026 counted 316 partner moves against 266 in August 2025, 50 more. June counted 350 against 314, and July 311 against 278. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, every month from June to August had more partners changing firms than the same month of 2025.

For a firm hiring partners, the practical point is that summer 2026 was not a thin season for partner candidates. It was a crowded season for associate hiring, which pulls recruiting attention, interview slots and integration capacity away from partner work. A firm that kept its partner pipeline running through the summer was competing in a market with more partner movers than the year before, not fewer.

Set the months aside and the trend is quiet. Partner lateral moves rose 8.4% year on year, from 3,558 to 3,858, while all lateral moves rose 9.0%, from 13,128 to 14,305. Because the two counts grew at almost the same rate, the partner share hardly shifted: 27.0% of moves in the latest comparable year, against 27.1% in the year before.

The longer view agrees. Over the past three years partners made 26.9% of lateral moves, close to the 27.7% of the latest 12 months. Inside a single year, by contrast, the gap between February and August 2026 was 8.3 points. The swing within the year is far larger than any drift between years.

That matters for how a firm reads its own numbers. A practice that hired mostly partners in the first quarter and mostly associates in the summer did what the market did. Comparing a partner share in August against one from February measures the season, and the only fair comparison is the same month a year earlier or a full 12-month window.

September 2026 put partners at 25.9% of lateral moves, against 24.2% in September 2025, back on the higher side of last year after five months below it. The autumn is when associate classes reset, so a partner share that holds near its annual level through September points to steady partner demand rather than a soft patch.

October needs a warning label. The first reading shows partners at 32.8% of lateral moves, against 22.6% in October 2025. October is the newest month, and associate start dates are confirmed later than partner ones, so the associate count is still filling in and the partner share reads high. Sartori & Partners data will settle the October share as later confirmations arrive; until then it says nothing about a turn in the market.

First, time partner searches to the winter window. With partners at 31.8% of January 2026 moves and 33.4% of February moves, the start of the year is when partner candidates are most often ready to sign. A firm that wants a partner in its seats by February should be in conversations by October and have terms agreed before the year-end compensation round closes.

Second, do not stand down in the summer. The partner share dipped to 25.1% in August 2026, yet the partner count beat August 2025. Firms that compete hard for associates from June to September should keep a separate track for partner work, so that partner candidates who become available in the summer are not left waiting behind associate interviews.

Third, judge the partner market on 12-month counts. Partner moves rose 8.4% on comparable windows, in step with the whole market. Before a hiring committee reads a monthly dip as a cooling partner market, set the month against the same month last year and against the 12-month count. Most of the time, the dip is the calendar.