Banking and Finance Lateral Hiring 2026: A New York-London Market

The banking and finance lateral partner market is built on two cities. Sartori & Partners data show 1,964 lawyers joining a new firm in banking and finance in the 12 months to October 2026, 13.9% of all lateral moves, and 604 of them were partners. New York received 423 of those moves and London 323. Chicago, in third place, received 77. For a firm planning a banking hire, the city of the seat decides how deep the pool is before anything else does.

The practice is also growing faster than the market. Arrivals rose 14.1% in the settled 12-month window to September 2026, from 1,766 to 2,015, while the whole market rose 9.0%. The partner count rose 10.6% too, from 546 to 604, against a 8.4% partner rise market-wide.

Measured against the whole legal market, both hubs carry far more banking work than their size alone would give them. New York took 21.5% of banking and finance arrivals against 14.8% of all moves, an index of 145. London took 16.4% against 9.2%, an index of 177, the highest of any city on the practice list with a published index.

London's weight is what separates banking from the other finance practices. In capital markets London's index is 119, and in restructuring 147. New York runs the other way: 169 in capital markets and 165 in restructuring, both above its banking figure. Banking is the finance practice where London comes closest to New York in volume: 323 banking moves against 423, compared with 67 against 152 in capital markets.

Both hubs also pull banking lawyers in from elsewhere. New York received 423 banking laterals and supplied 368, a net gain of 55. London received 323 and supplied 277, a net gain of 46. Relocation overall is no more common than elsewhere: 20.4% of banking movers changed city, the same as the 20.5% market figure.

For a firm hiring in New York or London, the supply sits on the doorstep, and so do the rival bids. The net inflow into both cities also means a hub seat can be filled from a regional office, not only from across the street.

Two of the largest cities in the legal market barely register in banking. Washington takes 5.6% of all lateral moves but 2.8% of banking moves, an index of 50. Los Angeles takes 5.1% of the market and 3.4% of banking, an index of 67. Washington's legal market leans toward regulatory, government and contentious work, and the lateral flow reflects it. Chicago, at 92, and Boston, at 85, sit nearer par, while Houston at 102 and Paris at 108 run slightly above it.

Charlotte is the city the market ranking hides. It received 62 banking moves, 3.2% of the practice and more than Washington, and within Charlotte's own lateral market banking and finance accounts for 45.9% of all moves.

A firm adding a banking partner in Washington or Los Angeles is recruiting from a small local pool: 55 and 67 banking arrivals in a year, across every hiring firm. Budget time for relocation, or widen the brief to lawyers whose lending work sits inside a regulatory or restructuring practice.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, 391 firms hired at least one banking and finance lawyer in the year to October 2026. The ten most active took 19.9% of all banking arrivals, against 12.9% for the market. At partner level the field narrows: the top 10 partner hirers took 25.1% of banking partner moves, against 13.5% for partners across all practices. Capital markets runs tighter still, at 25.3% for partners, and restructuring looser, at 20.9%.

DLA Piper, Mayer Brown and Sidley Austin head banking partner hiring, and every firm on the list sits in the 11-20 band of partner hires, so the order within it is close. Womble Bond Dickinson, King & Spalding, Norton Rose Fulbright and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe appear among the partner hirers without making the top 10 at all levels: their banking hiring tilts toward partners.

With 25.1% of partner moves ending at ten firms, a banking partner who is in play will often hear from more than one of them. A firm outside that group should expect a competing offer and run a short process.

Scale counts for more in banking than in the market at large. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 63.8% of banking and finance laterals, against 53.6% of all moves. Firms of 150-399 lawyers took 9.3% against 13.3%, and firms of under 150 lawyers 6.3% against 9.7%. Capital markets tilts further toward the largest firms, at 69.1%, while restructuring sits nearer the market, at 56.2%.

Lending work follows balance sheets, and large bank and fund clients tend to sit with large firms. For a mid-size firm, the rival offer in a banking search will usually come from a much bigger platform, so the pitch has to rest on the role: who runs the relationship, what the team will be funded to build, how soon the lawyer can bring a junior bench.

Banking lawyers rarely move under a single label. Sartori & Partners data show 25.5% of banking and finance movers also work in real estate, 18.6% in corporate and M&A and 13.0% in restructuring. Projects and infrastructure, the route into project finance, accounts for 12.4%, ahead of capital markets at 9.0% and private equity at 8.6%.

The real estate link is the one most searches miss. A brief written for a leveraged finance partner screens out the real estate finance lawyer who runs the same kind of facility on property collateral. Screening by the work, not the practice title, enlarges the candidate list without leaving the city.

Start with the city. New York and London received 423 and 323 banking arrivals in the year, and both took in more lawyers than they supplied. A seat there fills from a deep pool against many bidders. A seat in Washington or Los Angeles, at indexes of 50 and 67, fills slowly and often needs a relocation.

Price the search at partner level and assume competition from scale. The top 10 partner hirers took 25.1% of partner moves and firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 63.8% of all banking moves. Move fast once a candidate engages, and widen the brief to real estate, restructuring and projects lawyers who already do lending work.