Banking and Finance Deals 2026: The Most Transparent Deal Flow

Banking and finance law firm deals are the part of the deal market that is easiest to measure, because their size is so often public. Sartori & Partners data show 3,053 dated banking and finance deals in the 12 months to October 2026, 6.3% of all dated deals in our records, and 47.7% of them carry a published value. Lending makes up the largest part of the mix, leveraged and acquisition finance the second and project finance the third. Deal counts and lateral hiring in the practice grew at nearly the same pace over the last year. For a firm leader weighing a banking hire, that means a candidate's book can be checked against visible deal values more often than in any other deal practice, and the market that book serves is expanding.

In the Sartori & Partners deal records, 47.7% of banking and finance deals disclose a value. The next practices sit well behind: capital markets at 29.5%, funds and investment management at 25.1% and corporate and M&A at 17.7%. A banking deal is therefore 1.6 times as likely as a capital markets deal to carry a published figure, and 2.7 times as likely as a corporate deal. The reason is structural. A loan facility is announced with its size because the amount is the core term lenders and borrower sign, while many acquisitions close with the price left out.

Where a value is published, the median banking and finance deal is $545 million. That sits close to capital markets at $563.2 million, a gap of $18.2 million, and well above corporate and M&A at $315 million. Funds deals run larger, at $1,100 million, but that median rests on the 25.1% of funds deals with a value. In banking the median describes 47.7% of all deals, so it is the closest thing the deal market has to a true price for the work.

For a firm hiring a banking partner, this makes diligence on a book concrete. Claimed deal sizes can be set against a published median, and a practice whose deals sit well under $545 million is a mid-market practice whatever its billing. Ask for the deals by value before the offer, not after.

Banking and lending appears in 44.5% of banking and finance deals, leveraged and acquisition finance in 23.4% and project and infrastructure finance in 10.7%. Real estate finance follows at 3.5%, and capital markets work at 1.4%, so the practice keeps a clear line between loans and securities.

Across the whole deal market, banking and lending is only 3.3% of dated deals and leveraged finance 1.6%. Where that work appears, banking lawyers handle most of it: 86.0% of all lending deals and 91.9% of all leveraged and acquisition finance deals involve the practice. Project finance is the exception. Only 32.5% of project and infrastructure finance deals carry the banking label, and the rest sit with other practices. Lateral hiring shows the same seam: 12.4% of banking and finance movers also work in projects and infrastructure.

For a firm building a finance group, the lending and leveraged finance seats carry the volume. A project finance hire is a different search: the candidate pool is shared with the projects practice, and the deals a candidate brings may be credited there rather than to banking.

Banks and financial institutions appear in 17.8% of banking and finance deals, 2.5 times their share of all dated deals. Power and renewables comes second, at 7.8% against 4.1% across the deal market. Real estate at 6.8% and financial sponsors at 6.6% follow close behind. Sponsors are the large client group banking does not over-weight: they appear in 6.9% of all deals. Infrastructure clients, at 3.5%, run at 2.9 times their market share.

Shares overlap, because one deal can touch more than one industry, so they are read side by side and never added. The power figure ties back to the deal mix: financing a wind farm, a solar portfolio or a battery project is lending against a generation asset, and much of it is booked as project finance. A banking practice that serves energy borrowers therefore draws on two lines of the type table at once.

For hiring, the second sector is the one to test. A banking partner whose book includes power and renewables financings covers the practice's second client sector as well as its first, which widens the deals the partner can staff and the lenders the firm meets.

Sartori & Partners records show banking and finance deals rose 12.1% on settled windows, from 2,710 in the 12 months to September 2025 to 3,039 in the 12 months to September 2026. Lateral hiring in the practice rose 14.1% over the same windows, from 1,766 to 2,015 moves. All dated deals rose 10.6% and capital markets deals rose 10.0%, so banking grew a little faster than both.

The two lines matter more together than apart. When deals and hiring grow at a similar rate, firms are adding lawyers to meet work they can already see, not hiring ahead of it. Associates make up 55.8% of banking and finance laterals in 12 months and partners 30.8%, so most of the new capacity sits below partner level, where the volume work on lending files is done.

For a firm leader, rivals are recruiting against live deal flow. A banking candidate will compare any offer with a full pipeline at the current firm, so a search launched once the work has arrived starts behind.

Latham & Watkins ranks first by banking and finance deals advised, in the 151-250 band, with Jones Day and Cahill Gordon & Reindel in the same band. On the hiring side, Latham & Watkins ranks second among banking and finance lateral hirers, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Milbank also appear on both lists. Behind the deals stand 1,345 distinct clients in 12 months, about 2.3 deals per client, against 2.6 in capital markets.

A firm outside the adviser list can still build a banking bench by hiring, but it bids for candidates against firms that are busier on deals and recruiting at the same time. The case to a candidate has to rest on the lenders and borrowers the partner will serve and the team the firm will fund.

Check the book against the numbers. With 47.7% of banking and finance deals publishing a value and a median of $545 million, a lateral partner's claimed deal sizes can be tested before the offer. Few other practices allow it.

Hire to the mix. Lending at 44.5% and leveraged finance at 23.4% of deals are where banking volume sits. Then test the second sector: power and renewables appears in 7.8% of deals, and a partner who brings it adds a client group beyond bank-side lending.

Move with the flow. Deals rose 12.1% and lateral hiring rose 14.1% on the same settled windows, so competitors are adding banking lawyers as fast as the work grows. Plan the search a quarter ahead of the need, and expect the strongest candidates to be busy when approached.