New York Antitrust Hires Arrive in Teams at 9.3 Times the City Rate

Sartori & Partners data show that 12.1% of the antitrust lawyers New York firms hired laterally in the last 12 months arrived as part of a team joining the same firm in the same quarter. Across the antitrust practice in every city the figure is 4.4%, and across all practices in New York it is 1.3%. That makes New York antitrust an unusual corner of the city's market: firms here buy groups, not only individuals. Partners also carry more of the flow than they do in the city at large, and the cell is growing while the practice around it holds steady. For a firm planning its next antitrust hire in New York, the rival offer can come from a firm prepared to take the whole bench at once.

The team-move share in New York antitrust is 2.7 times the share for antitrust as a whole and 9.3 times the share for all New York lateral moves. Sartori & Partners count a team move when lawyers from one firm join the same new firm in the same quarter, drawing on public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly. The cell is small, with 66 lateral moves in 12 months, so the team share is a rough size rather than a precise rate. Even read as a rough size, it sits far from the city figure.

Antitrust lends itself to group hiring. A merger review or a cartel investigation is staffed by a partner with counsel and associates who know the agencies and the file, and a client that follows the partner expects the same people on the matter. In most New York practices a firm hires one lawyer at a time; in antitrust a credible approach to a partner often has to include the people around them. The practical step is to map the partner's working group before the first conversation, not after the offer.

Partners were 43.9% of antitrust lateral moves into New York over 12 months, 15.6 points above the partner share for the whole city. Across the antitrust practice the partner share was 32.4%, so New York leans toward partners more than the practice as a whole. Associates show the reverse: 39.4% of New York antitrust moves, against 58.4% across the city.

The lean toward partners is recent. Over three years, partners were 35.8% of New York antitrust moves, against 43.9% in the last 12 months, while the city's partner share barely moved, at 28.1% over three years against 28.3% in the last 12 months. Step-ups to a higher title were 13.6% of the cell's moves, against 11.6% for New York. Teams and partners go together: a group forms around a partner, and a firm that wants antitrust capacity in New York should budget for partner-level packages rather than expect to build the bench from associates.

New York antitrust lateral moves rose 42.9% on the settled 12-month windows, from 42 to 60. Antitrust hiring across the practice held flat (+7.7%) over the same windows, from 365 to 393, and New York hiring across all practices rose 11.9%, from 1,862 to 2,084. The city's antitrust bench is moving faster than both the practice and the city it belongs to.

New York now takes 16.2% of antitrust lateral moves, and its index in the practice stands at 110, above the par set by the city's share of the whole market. Over three years Washington, DC held the larger share of antitrust moves, 15.7% against 14.7% for New York. In the last 12 months New York moved ahead, 16.2% against 12.5%. A search plan built on practice-wide numbers will meet more rival offers in New York than it expects.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, the top 10 hirers took 50.0% of individual New York antitrust hires over 12 months, against 25.8% across the practice. Only Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, Kirkland & Ellis and Linklaters hired enough to be named, and 40 firms hired at least one antitrust lawyer in the city.

Firm ranks count individual hires: lawyers who join as one team in the same quarter are in the market totals but not in a firm's rank. In a cell where 12.1% of moves are team moves, that matters. A firm that took a group may not appear in the list at all, so the ranking understates how much of the flow went to firms willing to hire in blocks.

Size does not decide who wins. Firms with 1,000+ lawyers took 50.8% of New York antitrust moves, against 62.6% for the city. Firms with under 150 lawyers took 17.5%, against 10.1% citywide. A smaller firm with a clear antitrust plan can compete here, provided it can absorb a group.

Over three years, 76.7% of New York antitrust lateral hires came from a firm in New York, and only 7.6% changed city, against 21.4% across the practice. Across the practice a move between cities is routine; in New York antitrust it is the exception, and lawyers move between firms on the same few blocks.

Antitrust litigation is the focus of 54.1% of those hires over three years, against 27.0% for merger control. The work on record points the same way: disputes and investigations account for 48.4% of antitrust matters with New York lawyers over three years, regulatory work for 35.1%. A firm looking for a New York antitrust partner is usually hiring a litigator from a rival across town, and a relocation pitch is rarely the lever that works.

Plan for groups. With 12.1% of New York antitrust moves arriving as teams, an approach to a partner should cover the counsel and associates who would follow, with the budget, space and conflicts clearance to take them in one step. A firm that can take only one lawyer at a time will miss the partners whose teams move with them.

Price at partner level. Partners at 43.9% of the flow mean the market is set by partner terms, not associate ones. Move now rather than next year: New York antitrust hiring rose 42.9% on the settled windows, so the candidates who are open to a move are also hearing from rivals.

Recruit locally and read the ranks with care. With 76.7% of three-year hires coming from New York firms, the pool is the city's own antitrust litigators. And because team hires do not show in firm ranks, the rival most likely to win the next group may be one that no hiring list names.