Practices Ranked: Litigation Holds the Volume, Smaller Practices Grow

Sartori & Partners data show technology, data and privacy lateral moves rose 32.6% year on year, 594 against 448, and the list of the fastest growing law practice areas 2026 produced looks nothing like the list of the biggest. Litigation and disputes is involved in 39.9% of all moves, yet its year-on-year growth trailed the market. The steepest rises came from practices near the foot of the volume table: technology, data and privacy, tax, and funds and investment management. Every change below sets the 12 months to September 2026 against the 12 months before, because the newest month is still filling in.

Litigation and disputes ranks first by volume with 5,629 moves, about 1.9 times as many as corporate and M&A in second place. One move can involve several practices, so these shares overlap and should not be added together. In the settled windows, litigation moves rose 7.5%: 5,679 against 5,281. That is a real rise, clear of the band we read as flat, but it sits 1.5 points short of the market as a whole, which rose 9.0% on 14,305 moves against 13,128.

The size of the pool is the point for a hiring firm. 928 firms hired at least one litigator in the past 12 months, more than in any other practice, and no small group of hirers dominates: the ten most active took 12.0% of litigation moves. A firm building a litigation bench is buying in the deepest market there is, and demand in it is growing at a slower pace than elsewhere.

The lead figure belongs to technology, data and privacy. Moves in the practice rose 32.6% year on year, 594 in the settled window against 448, the largest rise of any practice in the Sartori & Partners figures. That is about 3.6 times the market rate. Tax rose 23.8%, 733 against 592, and funds and investment management rose 23.7%, 627 against 507.

All three sit low in the volume ranking: tax is 10th, funds 14th and technology, data and privacy 15th, each involved in between 4.2% and 5.0% of moves. Litigation moved about 9.6 times as many lawyers as technology, data and privacy. A small base turns a few dozen extra hires into a large percentage, but for a firm trying to hire in these practices the effect is the same: more buyers chasing a short list of candidates.

Part of the technology jump is a recovery. Calendar 2022 counted 558 technology moves, and 2023, 2024 and 2025 all stayed below that mark. In 2026, with November and December still to be counted, the practice already shows 523 moves against 463 for the whole of 2025. Teams matter more here than elsewhere: 5.4% of technology moves were part of a team joining the same firm in the same quarter, against 1.5% across the market. Technology lawyers also leave for companies more often. Since May 2026, measured against lateral moves, they went in-house about 2.5 times as often as litigators, so the bench a firm hires from is being thinned from two sides.

At partner level the gap widens. Technology, data and privacy partner hires rose 44.4%, 195 against 135. Funds partner hires rose 29.7%, 214 against 165, and tax partner hires rose 27.7%, 272 against 213. Across the market, partner moves rose 8.4%.

The large and steady practices did not follow. Litigation partner hiring held flat (+0.9%) on 1,505 hires against 1,492. Construction partner hiring held flat (-4.7%), and product liability partner hiring held flat (-5.0%). Partners also make up a bigger slice of the growing practices: 33.2% of technology moves and 37.9% of tax moves, against 27.7% for the market.

For a firm, this means a lateral partner in technology or tax is the contested hire of the year, and an offer needs to be ready before the first meeting. A litigation partner search runs in a market where partner demand has not moved, which gives the hiring firm more room to be selective on book, rates and fit.

Construction held flat (-1.8%): 851 moves in the settled window against 867 the year before. Product liability and torts held flat (+2.3%), 981 against 959. Both are mostly courtroom work: 79.4% of construction moves and 73.1% of product liability moves also involve litigation.

Seen from the other side, 12.5% of litigation moves also involve product liability and 11.9% involve construction. When two large parts of the biggest practice hold steady, its overall rate is held back with them. Hiring in both is spread across many firms of every size: lawyers joining firms under 150 lawyers make up 16.1% of construction moves, against 9.7% across the market. For a firm with a construction or product liability group, the pace of supply is predictable and there is no rush to beat.

Volume and growth are not simply opposed. Corporate and M&A, second by volume, rose 15.8%, 2,933 against 2,532. Banking and finance, third, rose 14.1%, 2,015 against 1,766. Both beat the market rate, so among the three biggest practices litigation is the one that lagged. A firm recruiting corporate or finance lawyers competes in a large market that is still getting busier, which is the hardest combination for timing a search.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, the practices where firms compete hardest are not the ones with the most moves. Plan for that in three ways. First, start technology, tax and funds searches early and budget for a longer process: these benches are small and partner demand in them rose far faster than the market. Second, expect the biggest firms on the other side of a funds search: firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 75.8% of funds moves, against 53.6% across the market, and the ten most active hirers took 34.0%. Third, use the slower litigation market to hire with care rather than speed: the pool is deep, partner demand is not rising, and construction and product liability hiring is level.