Antitrust Lateral Hiring 2026: Top 10 Firms Take 32.5% of Partners

Sartori & Partners data show that the antitrust partner lateral market is held by a few firms. Over the past 12 months the top 10 hirers took 32.5% of antitrust partner moves. Across all practices the same ten slots take 13.5%. The practice recorded 407 lateral moves in that window, 132 of them at partner level, spread over 175 hiring firms.

For a firm that wants an antitrust partner, that shape matters more than the volume. The candidates who move tend to move toward the same addresses, through the same cities, and more often in teams than lawyers in other practices. Each section below sets one of those facts against the market and against two neighboring practices, regulatory and compliance and corporate and M&A.

The concentration is the unusual fact in this practice. Top 10 partner hirers took 32.5% of antitrust partner moves, 19.0 points above the market's 13.5%. Regulatory and compliance, the practice antitrust lawyers sit closest to in government-facing work, runs at 25.4%. Corporate and M&A, much larger, runs at 20.9%.

It is not a one-year effect. Across all levels, the top 10 hirers took 25.8% of antitrust moves in the past 12 months and 26.2% over three years. The market figures for the same two windows are 12.9% and 12.2%. The same names keep coming back: Kirkland & Ellis ranks first for antitrust partners in both the 12-month and the three-year lists.

In practice, a search for an antitrust partner competes against a handful of firms that are recruiting in the same pool at the same time. Firms outside that group should expect to explain why their platform is the better fit, not just make an offer.

Firms of 1,000+ lawyers received 66.1% of antitrust lateral moves in the past 12 months, against 53.6% for the market. Over three years the figure is 67.6%, so the tilt is steady. Corporate and M&A sends 62.6% of its moves to the largest firms, regulatory and compliance 53.1%.

The gap is widest in the middle. Firms of 150-399 lawyers took 5.2% of antitrust moves against 13.3% market-wide. Firms under 150 lawyers took 11.7%, slightly above the market's 9.7%, which points to boutiques rather than to mid-sized generalists. Merger control and conduct work need filing capacity in several jurisdictions, and a mid-sized firm rarely has it. A mid-sized firm that wants to build the practice is recruiting against the largest platforms, or against a boutique's independence.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, Brussels took 10.8% of antitrust lateral moves against 0.9% of all moves, an index of 1,258. Antitrust was involved in 36.4% of every lateral arrival recorded in the city. No other city in this practice comes near that weight. The reason is the European Commission: Brussels antitrust practices exist to face it.

Washington, DC, home of the federal agencies that review mergers, indexes at 223. Regulatory and compliance over-indexes there too, at 298, so an antitrust search in Washington competes with regulatory searches for the same lawyers. London indexes at 128 and New York at 110, close to their market weight. Over three years Washington was the largest antitrust destination, with 15.7% of moves.

For hiring partners this means the bench is not national. Only four cities pass our publication threshold for this practice, and two of them, Brussels and Washington, carry far more of it than their size in the market suggests. A firm without an office in either city will usually be hiring a partner who relocates, and only 19.3% of antitrust movers changed city.

Team moves made up 4.4% of antitrust lateral moves, against 1.5% across all practices and 0.2% in corporate and M&A. Antitrust work runs on small, tight units: a partner, a counsel or two, and associates who know the filings. When the partner moves, the unit often follows within the same quarter.

That changes how the firm lists should be read. Firm rankings count individual hires, and lawyers who arrived together as one team are left out of a firm's rank. A firm that took one team may sit below a firm that hired the same number of lawyers one at a time. For a hiring firm, the practical point is to plan the offer for the group: seats, rates and conflicts for the associates as well as the partner.

Antitrust partner hiring held flat (+10.1%) on the settled 12-month windows, 120 moves against 109. At these counts the change sits inside the noise. Partner hiring across all practices rose 8.4%, 3,858 against 3,558. Partners were 32.4% of antitrust moves, above the market's 27.7%.

The yearly counts have climbed since 2022, and 2026 had already passed 2025 by the end of October, but the latest settled step is too small to call a real change. Firms should not expect a wave of new candidates. The supply is stable, and the same concentrated group of buyers is absorbing it.

Sartori & Partners data point to four practical steps. First, map the competition before the candidates: the top 10 partner hirers take 32.5% of the market, so a shortlist will overlap with their searches. Second, recruit where the regulators are, in Brussels and Washington, and budget for relocation elsewhere. Third, price the team, not the individual, since team moves run at 4.4%. Fourth, a firm outside the 1,000+ lawyers class should lead with the work it can offer a partner that a larger platform cannot, because the default destination is a large firm.