Construction Partner Track 2026: Promotion or a Step-Up Move

Asked how long to make partner in construction law, Sartori & Partners data give a median of 10.0 years from the first year of practice, the same as the market, across 651 construction promotions in the last 5 years. That median hides two routes to the title. Firms promoted 190 construction lawyers to partner between June 2025 and May 2026, or 0.68 for each lateral partner they hired in the same months, against 0.79 across all practices. The lateral market fills the gap in an unusual way: 16.8% of construction lateral moves in the latest 12 months gave the lawyer a higher title than the one left, against 12.9% market-wide. A construction associate or counsel who is not made partner at home has a better chance than most of taking the title by moving.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, a step-up move is one where the lawyer joins at a higher title than the one left: associate or counsel to partner, or associate to counsel. In construction, 16.8% of the 844 lateral moves in the latest 12 months were step-ups, 3.9 points above the market rate of 12.9%. This is not a one-year spike. Over the last 3 years the construction rate was 15.4%, against 12.3% for all practices, so construction firms have offered a higher title as part of the move for some time.

Real estate, which 16.8% of construction movers also practice, shows how unusual that is. The two practices promote at similar rates, 0.68 and 0.65 partners per lateral partner hire, yet real estate movers took a higher title in only 13.6% of moves, close to the market. Real estate firms that do not promote tend to buy lawyers who already hold the title; construction firms more often grant a higher title to the lawyer they bring in.

For a construction group, this cuts both ways. A firm that needs partners can widen the search to senior counsel and associates at other firms who are ready for the title, and candidates in this practice expect such offers. The same pull works against it: every senior associate it leaves waiting is a name a competitor can approach with the step up.

Inside the firm, promotion is the smaller route in construction. The 190 construction partners made between June 2025 and May 2026 were 6.4% of the 2,955 partner promotions recorded across all practices in those months. Measured against the lateral partners construction groups hired over the same window, that comes to 0.68 promotions per hire. The whole market promoted 2,955 lawyers and hired 3,749 lateral partners, a ratio of 0.79.

The practices around construction sit on both sides of it. Litigation, which 79.4% of construction movers also practice, promotes 0.80 partners per lateral partner hire, close to the market figure. Projects and infrastructure promotes only 0.54, so construction groups lean on promotion more than projects groups do and less than litigation groups.

As a planning figure, the ratio means a construction group adding partners every year will source more of them from outside than the average practice does. The lateral partner line belongs in the annual budget, and some of those hires will be lawyers taking the title for the first time rather than sitting partners.

For those who stay, the construction track has the market's middle and a quicker front. Across the 651 construction partners promoted over the last 5 years, the median was 10.0 years from the first year of practice, equal to the market's 10.0 years. The quickest quarter made it by 8.0 years, against 9.0 years for all practices, and 26.0% were partners within 8 years, against 23.2%, a gap of 2.8 points. At the slow end construction matches the market: the slowest quarter took 12.0 years or more, as across all practices, and 75.6% were promoted within 12 years, against 75.4%.

Neighboring practices are slower at the front. Real estate put 23.4% of its new partners through within 8 years and projects and infrastructure 15.6%, so of the three, construction gives the earliest title to its fastest associates.

An early track holds people only if they can see it. Associates who watch colleagues promoted within 8 years have a reason to wait for their own round; those who see no such path can find the step up in a lateral market that offers it more readily here than in most practices.

The title mix of construction movers shows where step-up candidates come from. Counsel made 130 of the construction lateral moves in the latest 12 months, 15.4% against 12.7% across all practices. Partners were 32.0% against 27.7%, and associates 52.4% against 58.5%. Construction movers are more senior than the market's, at partner and at counsel, the rank between associate and partner. The counsel-to-partner move is one of the steps the step-up rate counts.

The firms receiving construction movers are smaller than the market's hirers. Firms of 150-399 lawyers took 22.9% of construction moves against 13.3% market-wide, and firms under 150 lawyers 16.1% against 9.7%. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 34.0%, against 53.6% across the market.

A firm of 150-399 lawyers is not a fringe bidder for construction talent. It competes for counsel on equal terms, and the counsel tier is where a firm can recruit a future partner before a rival promotes the same lawyer.

Sartori & Partners figures show that the count of construction lateral partner moves held flat (-4.7%) on settled 12-month windows, from 275 to 262. Across all practices, partner moves rose 8.4% over the same windows, from 3,558 to 3,858. The construction groups that add partners laterally are working from a pool of sitting partners that has not grown.

Partner hiring in construction is also more concentrated than in the market. The ten firms below took 19.9% of construction lateral partner moves, against 13.5% for the market's ten most active partner hirers.

A steady pool and a concentrated set of buyers mean the same senior names hear from the same few firms. A firm outside that group can still compete for the next partner by offering the title to a counsel or senior associate, which is what a step-up rate of 16.8% says construction firms already do.

First, run promotion and lateral hiring as one plan. At 0.68 promotions per lateral partner hire, against 0.79 market-wide, a construction group fills most new partner seats from outside, and the step-up rate means some of those seats go to lawyers who were not partners the day before. Second, decide early on senior associates and counsel. With 26.0% of construction partners promoted within 8 years, the fast cohort is visible to everyone, and those left waiting have a lateral market that grants a higher title in 16.8% of moves against 12.9% elsewhere. Third, search the counsel tier. Counsel make up 15.4% of construction movers, the bench a step-up partner hire can come from, and with sitting lateral partners a pool that has not grown, that bench is where the extra supply is.