Banking and Finance Path to Partner: Bought More Often Than Made

Sartori & Partners data show that banking and finance partner promotions run well behind lateral hiring. Firms promoted 343 banking and finance lawyers to partner in the 12 months to May 2026, or 0.57 for each lateral partner they hired in the same months. Across all practices the figure is 0.79. The career clock is not the cause. The median banking partner was promoted 10.0 years after the first year of practice, the same as the market median of 10.0 years. Banking groups make partners at the normal pace; they make fewer of them than they buy. For a firm planning its finance bench, that sets the budget: in this practice, most new partner seats are filled from outside.

Set against its own lateral hiring, banking and finance has one of the lowest promotion rates among the large practices. Its ratio of 0.57 equals 72.2% of the market rate, which rests on 2,955 promotions and 3,749 lateral partner hires across all practices. Banking and finance supplied 11.6% of all partner promotions in those 12 months. Of the seven practices that promote the most partners, it sits lowest: litigation runs at 0.80, corporate and M&A at 0.75 and real estate at 0.65. Employment, at 0.95, stands at the other end and comes closest to building its own partnership.

The only practice on the chart with a lower ratio is restructuring and insolvency, at 0.47, a group that works next to lenders: 13.0% of banking and finance movers also practice it. Partners who arrive with lender relationships and a book of finance mandates are easier to justify than a promotion case built over years. For a managing partner the ratio is a planning number. In banking, expect to add more partners through lateral search than through the promotion round, and size the recruiting budget to match.

A slow career path does not explain the low ratio. In the 5 years to May 2026, the quickest quarter of banking partners were promoted within 9.0 years of starting practice and the slowest quarter after 13.0 years or more; across all practices the same points sit at 9.0 years and 12.0 years. Within eight years of practice, 22.9% of banking partners had been promoted, against 23.2% market-wide. These figures rest on 1,299 banking promotions.

Corporate and M&A and private equity both promote at a median of 9.0 years, so a banking associate waits 1 year longer than a deal lawyer down the corridor. That gap is small next to the difference in promotion rates. The shortfall points to how banking partnerships fill seats, not to how long associates wait. For retention, the stretch that matters runs from 9.0 years to 13.0 years: senior associates in it are weighing whether their firm will promote them or whether a move is the faster route.

The buy side shows in who moves. In the 12 months to October 2026, the Sartori & Partners lateral database recorded 604 lateral partner hires in banking and finance, 30.8% of the practice's lateral moves, against 27.7% across all practices. Associates were 55.8% of banking moves and 58.5% of the market's. The lateral counts run to October 2026 and the promotion counts stop at May 2026; the ratio of 0.57 sets promotions against hires of the same 12 months.

The two largest banking cities lean the same way. London holds 16.4% of banking moves, and across all practices London promotes 0.64 partners per lateral partner. New York, with 21.5% of banking moves, runs at 0.76 for all practices combined. A firm hiring banking partners in London is recruiting in a city where the lateral route is the normal one for every practice, so internal candidates there face outside competition from the start.

Partner buying is also concentrated. The ten firms that hired the most banking and finance partners took 25.1% of partner moves in the practice, against 13.5% for the top 10 partner hirers across all practices. At every title, the top 10 banking hirers took 19.9%, so concentration is sharpest at partner level. Capital markets is tighter still, at 25.3%. In all, 391 firms hired at least one banking lawyer in the 12 months.

Several of the busiest buyers also promote heavily across the whole firm. DLA Piper heads the banking partner hiring list and ranks 6th for partner promotions in all practices; Kirkland & Ellis, first for promotions firm-wide, places 6th among banking partner hirers. Firm-wide promotion lists are not split by practice, so this shows that buying and building happen at the same firms, not how each staffs its banking group. For a firm outside this group, most banking partner searches will meet one of these buyers. Reach candidates early and set terms with them in mind.

The contrast with capital markets is sharp. 9.0% of banking movers also practice capital markets work, yet capital markets promotes 0.75 partners per lateral partner, close to the market's 0.79. Its median track is the same 10.0 years, but 26.8% of its partners were promoted within eight years, against 22.9% in banking. Partners make up 31.5% of capital markets lateral moves, near banking's 30.8%, so the gap sits in the promotion round rather than in the lateral market.

A firm with both groups has a promotion pool on the capital markets side that banking lacks. Senior associates who split time between bond and loan work can feed the banking partnership from inside, and a promotion case that spans both groups is easier to make than one that rests on banking work alone.

Plan banking partner growth as a lateral program first. At 0.57 promotions per lateral partner, the promotion round supplies the smaller share of new partners; a growth plan that counts on internal candidates alone will fall short of its target.

Time retention to the market clock. Banking associates reach partnership on the same 10.0 years median as everyone else, and the ones a firm most wants to keep sit between 9.0 years and 13.0 years of practice. They compare an uncertain promotion with the lateral route their practice uses more often. Have the partnership conversation before a recruiter does.

Expect competition from a small group. With the top 10 partner hirers taking 25.1% of banking partner moves, Sartori & Partners data show that a search for a finance partner will usually cross paths with one of them. Build the shortlist early and move faster than their own searches.

Watch the exit to companies. In the 6 months to October 2026, 125 banking lawyers left firms for companies, equal to 12.7% of the practice's lateral moves, against 13.1% across all practices. That route thins the same associate pool the promotion round draws on, and every lost senior associate becomes a future lateral search.