Time to Partner Holds at 10.0 years, but the Slow Tail Grows Longer

How long does it take to make partner? Sartori & Partners data show a median of 10.0 years across 10,427 promotions to partner over the last 5 years, counted from the first year of practice to the promotion. That midpoint has held in every year since 2022. The slow end has not: by 2025, the last full year, the upper quartile had moved from 12.0 years to 13.0 years and the mean from 10.9 years to 11.1 years, and in 2026 to date, which runs from January to May, the last complete month, the mean stands at 11.6 years. The typical case stays where it was while the late cases get later. For a firm deciding whether to grow its own partners or hire them, the slow end is where a staffing plan tends to go wrong.

Every year in the series returns the same median: 10.0 years in 2022, 10.0 years in 2024 and 10.0 years in 2026 to date. The lower quartile is just as fixed at 9.0 years, so the quickest quarter of new partners reach the title no sooner and no later than before. The mean moves differently. It was 10.9 years in 2022, 10.9 years in 2023, 11.1 years in 2024, 11.1 years in 2025 and 11.6 years so far in 2026. A mean that rises while the median stays put means the cases above the midpoint are stretching: more partners are being made well past the usual point.

The upper quartile moved first. It stood at 12.0 years from 2022 to 2024 and reached 13.0 years in 2025, where 2026 has stayed so far. Across the full 5 years the quartiles are 9.0 years and 12.0 years, so the middle half of all new partners fall inside a band 3 years wide, and that band is now longer at the top. The 2026 figures cover January to May and rest on 1,812 promotions, against 2,140 for all of 2025. January carries most of the year: 1,666 of the 2,404 partner promotions recorded for 2026 so far. Even so, the 2025 upper quartile is a complete year and points the same way.

For a firm planning its partner pipeline, the median is still the right central figure: an associate class will produce its first partners around the 10.0 years mark. What has changed is the slow case. Since 2025 a quarter of each partner class has taken 13.0 years or longer, a year more than in 2022, and a plan that ignores that tail will come up short of partners in the years it counts on them.

The early track is thinning. In 2022, 24.3% of new partners had been promoted within eight years of starting practice, and in 2024 the figure was still 23.7%. It eased to 23.1% in 2025 and stands at 17.5% in 2026 to date, 6.8 points below 2022.

Read next to the stable median, this places the change at the edges rather than in the middle: fewer associates are pulled forward on an early track, and more are promoted well past the midpoint. For a firm that hires laterally, a slower and wider track means more senior associates and counsel who are ready for partnership in skill but still waiting on a vote. Counsel alone make up 12.7% of lateral moves between law firms, and with only 17.5% of this year's partners made inside eight years, a partner title elsewhere is a serious offer to that group.

Practice explains more of the spread than any other cut. In the Sartori & Partners promotion records over 5 years, corporate and M&A has a median time to partner of 9.0 years and private equity 9.0 years, against 10.0 years for all practices. Their quartiles sit lower too: 8.0 years at the lower end and 11.0 years at the upper end in both. Private equity has the largest share made within eight years of any practice we track, 31.8%, with corporate at 29.5% and the market at 23.2%.

At the slow end sit immigration and family, each with a median of 12.0 years, 2 years above the market. Their upper quartiles reach 16.0 years and 16.2 years, and only 54.5% of immigration partners and 52.1% of family partners were promoted within twelve years. Both are small benches, with 88 and 48 promotions over 5 years, so their tails rest on few cases. Regulatory practices fall in between: regulatory and compliance, projects and infrastructure and financial services regulatory each run at 11.0 years.

The gap cuts both ways for hiring. A corporate or private equity associate who has reached the practice median of 9.0 years is often already in a partner conversation at the current firm, so a lateral offer competes with a promotion that may be close. An immigration or family lawyer with the same years of practice is still 3 years short of the practice median, and a partner title offered by another firm carries much more weight.

Sorted by the size of the promoting firm, the midpoint gives one answer: every size class, from 1,000+ lawyers to under 150 lawyers, shows a median time to partner of 10.0 years. The differences are at the edges. Firms of 150-399 lawyers made 27.1% of their partners within eight years and firms of under 150 lawyers 24.9%, against 21.8% at firms of 1,000+ lawyers and 22.4% at 400-999 lawyers. The lower quartile is 8.0 years at firms of 150-399 lawyers and 9.0 years in each of the other three classes.

At the slow end the smallest and the largest classes meet: firms under 150 lawyers and firms of 1,000+ lawyers both put their upper quartile at 13.0 years, against 12.0 years in the two middle classes. The practical reading: a firm of 150-399 lawyers can credibly offer a strong associate an earlier route to partner, with a 5.3 points edge in the eight-year share over the largest firms, while a large firm recruiting from smaller ones should expect partners who reached the title faster than its own.

Over 5 years the upper quartile for all practices is 12.0 years, but the practice that produces the most partners sits above it. In the Sartori & Partners promotion records, litigation and disputes accounts for 4,725 promotions to partner over 5 years, by far the largest bench, and its upper quartile is 13.0 years, with 21.1% made within eight years against 23.2% across practices. Employment and labor, real estate, tax and restructuring share that 13.0 years upper quartile. Private client and estates, international arbitration and pensions and benefits reach 14.0 years, while corporate and M&A and private equity reach theirs at 11.0 years.

The year series shows the same drift across all practices. The share of new partners made within twelve years was 77.1% in 2022 and 77.6% in 2023, eased to 75.6% in 2024 and 74.3% in 2025, and is 71.4% in 2026 to date.

For a firm, the upper quartile of its own practice is the slow-case figure to plan on: 13.0 years for a litigation bench, 11.0 years for a corporate or private equity one. A litigation partner gap is the one most likely to stay open longer than the market median suggests.

Plan on the median, with the upper quartile as the slow case. A partner class forecast at 10.0 years will be met by the typical associate, but since 2025 a quarter of each class has needed 13.0 years or longer, so budget for that share arriving late. Treat early promotion as the exception: with 17.5% of 2026 partners to date made within eight years, a candidate with a genuinely fast record is scarce and will be priced that way.

Set expectations by practice. A corporate or private equity bench renews itself about 1 year faster than the market, so a partner gap there can often be filled from within. An immigration or family bench takes 2 years longer, and a lateral hire is usually the quicker fix. Finally, the lengthening slow tail is a recruiting pool: senior associates and counsel who are past their practice median and still waiting are a natural group to approach with a partner offer, and the time-to-partner figure for their practice shows how long they have already waited.