Partners Made or Bought: Chicago 0.94, Dallas 0.49, Seattle 0.39

A managing partner deciding whether a new partner seat goes to an internal candidate or to a lateral hire is, first of all, deciding in a particular city. Sartori & Partners data show how far apart US cities sit on that choice. Over the 12 months from June 2025 to May 2026, firms in Chicago promoted 0.94 lawyers to partner for every lateral partner they hired in the city, while firms in Los Angeles and Dallas promoted 0.49 and firms in Seattle 0.39. New York, at 0.76, sat next to the market's 0.79. For anyone asking which are the cities where law firms promote partners from within, the answer among large US markets is Chicago, with Philadelphia, Atlanta and Pittsburgh close to it or above it on fewer promotions; the cities that buy most are on the West Coast and in Texas.

The measure is simple: promotions to partner recorded in a city, divided by the lateral partners who joined firms in that city over the same 12 months. Promotion figures stop at May 2026, the last complete month, so the lateral hires are counted over the same June to May window. A ratio above one means a city's firms made more partners than they bought; below one, the reverse.

Among the five US cities with the most promotions to partner, Chicago has the highest ratio at 0.94, on 145 promotions. Boston follows at 0.81, New York at 0.76 and Washington, DC at 0.67, with Los Angeles last at 0.49. Just below that group by size, Philadelphia sat at 1.00 and Atlanta at 0.90.

The contrast with Los Angeles is sharp. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, Los Angeles drew more lateral moves than Chicago over the 12 months to October 2026, 712 against 597, yet Chicago recorded 145 promotions to partner over the promotion window and Los Angeles 93. Chicago also promotes on a quicker clock: 28.7% of its new partners got there within 8 years and 84.8% within 12 years, against 75.4% for the market.

For a firm hiring laterally in Chicago, the competitor is often the candidate's own firm. Senior associates and counsel close to the line have a credible internal route, and a partner already in place has usually come up through the firm that holds the clients. Build the business case around what the move adds, because an internal promotion is the alternative the candidate weighs first.

At the other end, Los Angeles and Dallas each promoted 0.49 partners per lateral partner hire, roughly one promotion for every two partners bought, and Seattle 0.39, the lowest ratio of any listed city. Seattle's figure is 49.4% of the market's.

The pattern runs through the West and the Sun Belt. San Francisco sat at 0.55, Nashville at 0.53, Denver at 0.57, San Diego at 0.58 and Miami at 0.60. Houston, at 0.76, is the exception in Texas and sits close to the market. One possible reason, which these figures do not test: many offices in these cities were opened or enlarged by firms headquartered elsewhere, and a newer office often hires partners before its own associates are ready.

Buying has also become more competitive everywhere. Across all markets, lateral partner hiring rose 8.4% between the two settled 12-month windows, from 3,558 to 3,858. In Los Angeles or Dallas, a partner vacancy should be planned as a lateral search from the day it opens, with the timeline and the competing offers that implies. The associate bench there is slower to mature: only 18.3% of recent Los Angeles partners and 18.7% of Dallas partners were promoted within 8 years.

New York carries the national figure. It recorded 399 promotions to partner, more than any other city, and a ratio of 0.76, almost exactly the market's 0.79. It is also the largest lateral destination, with 2,083 moves at all levels over the 12 months to October 2026, 14.8% of the total. Because New York weighs so heavily, a national ratio describes New York well and most other cities poorly.

The large European centers lean toward buying: London promoted 0.64 partners per lateral hire and Paris 0.58. Practice gives a second cut of the same promotions, so the two sets of ratios can be read side by side but not set against each other. Across US cities in the table, the ratio runs from Seattle's 0.39 to Pittsburgh's 1.20, the latter on few promotions. Across practices, Sartori & Partners data put restructuring at 0.47, employment and labor at 0.95 and commercial contracts at 1.18. Each promotion counts in both a city and a practice, so these figures do not show which of the two weighs more for a given office. Benchmark an office against both its city and its practice before reading its own ratio as high or low.

Toronto is the outlier in the table, and its figure comes with two cautions. Its firms recorded 67 promotions to partner and a ratio of 2.09, the highest of any listed city. The lateral side of that ratio is small. Toronto drew 138 lateral moves at all levels over the 12 months to October 2026, and partners were 24.6% of them, against 27.7% across the market. On a lateral partner base this small, a handful of hires more or fewer moves the ratio a long way.

The second caution concerns timing. In Toronto, 50.8% of lawyers promoted over the past 5 years made partner within 8 years, against 23.2% across all markets. Montreal shows almost the same share, 49.0%. That most likely reflects a different way of counting the start of practice in Canada, not a faster partner track. For a firm planning in Toronto, the safe reading is that promotion carries real weight in the city; compare Toronto offices with each other, not with US cities, and do not read its time figures as a shorter path to partner.

Set partner plans city by city. In Los Angeles, Dallas, Seattle and San Francisco, where ratios run from 0.39 to 0.55, budget most new partner seats as lateral hires, start searches before the seat is urgent, and expect other firms to be bidding for the same names.

In Chicago, at 0.94, and in Philadelphia and Atlanta, at 1.00 and 0.90, the associate bench does more of the work, and a lateral hire is the exception that has to justify itself. Target lawyers whose internal route has stalled or whose practice needs a platform their firm lacks, and allow more time to close. Treat Toronto's 2.09 as a rough signal, for the reasons above.

In New York, where the ratio of 0.76 matches the market, both routes are open and the choice comes down to the practice and the timetable. Whatever the city, compare an office's own ratio with the local figure in the table above, not with the national one, before deciding whether a thin partner bench is a recruiting problem or a promotion problem.