Corporate M&A Deals in 2026: 74.6% M&A, Tech the Largest Client

Law-firm leaders who follow m&a deal volume by law firm usually start with the league table. The more useful place to start is the mix of work behind it. Sartori & Partners data show 11,230 deals with corporate and M&A lawyers on them in the 12 months to October 2026, done for 6,411 distinct clients. Three findings matter for anyone hiring into this practice. M&A itself is 74.6% of the work. Technology is the largest client sector by a wide margin. And corporate lateral hiring is growing faster than corporate deal counts, which means firms are building teams ahead of the work.

In the Sartori & Partners deal count, 8,373 of the corporate deals were M&A, or 74.6% of the total. Venture and growth financings follow with 1,140 deals, a 10.2% share. Private equity transactions are 5.1%, and real estate, the next type, is only 1.4%.

The wider deal market looks nothing like this. Across all dated deals, M&A is 19.3% of the total, behind capital markets at 25.7% and disputes and investigations at 25.0%. Corporate lawyers sit on 90.2% of all M&A deals recorded and on 63.1% of venture and growth deals. In practice, the M&A market and the corporate practice are close to the same thing.

For a firm, that settles what a corporate hire has to bring. A partner who cannot run a sale process or a negotiated acquisition is outside the core of this practice. Venture capability is the one adjacent skill with real volume behind it, and it is worth paying for when the client base supports it.

Technology and software clients appear in 1,569 corporate deals, 14.0% of the total. Across all deals the same sector holds 6.8%, so its weight in corporate work is 2.1 times its weight in the market. Corporate lawyers worked on 47.8% of all technology deals in the period.

Financial clients run the other way. Banks and financial institutions appear in 4.0% of corporate deals against 7.1% of the market, and financial sponsors in 2.7% against 6.9%. Sponsor work is booked mostly in the private equity practice, where financial sponsors appear in 83.9% of deals. Pharma and biotech is the second corporate sector at 6.8%, exactly its share of the whole market, while industrial manufacturing sits above its market weight at 4.0% against 2.0%.

A deal can involve more than one sector, so these shares overlap. The point for a hiring partner is plain: a candidate who already advises technology companies through financings and exits brings the client book this practice uses most. A generalist with a bank or sponsor client list is selling into work that, in corporate deal counts, is thinner than the market as a whole.

Deal counts are moving the right way. On the settled 12-month windows, corporate and M&A deals rose 9.5%, from 10,198 to 11,170. Lateral hiring grew faster. Sartori & Partners data show corporate lateral moves rose 15.8% over the same windows, from 2,532 to 2,933, a gap of 6.3 points. Partner hires alone rose 12.2%, from 778 to 873.

Put as a ratio, the settled window carried 3.8 corporate deals for every corporate lateral move, against 4.0 a year earlier. Each new lateral is joining a slightly thinner flow of deals per head than the class before.

Hiring ahead of deal flow is a bet on the year to come. It also means competition for the same partners is stiffer than deal counts alone suggest. A firm that waits for its own deal numbers to justify a hire will be bidding later, against more buyers.

The hiring and deal pictures part ways on private equity. Of corporate lateral moves in the 12 months, 38.2% also involved private equity, yet private equity transactions are 5.1% of corporate deals. The private equity practice runs its own book of 1,300 deals over the same 12 months.

Deal values separate the two books as well. A value is disclosed on 17.7% of corporate deals, and where it is, the median is $315 million. Private equity deals disclose a value less often, on 10.5%, with a median of $425 million. A sponsor-heavy corporate hire should therefore be judged on the private equity practice's deal flow, not on the corporate count, which is driven by strategic M&A and venture work for operating companies.

Ranked by corporate deals in the 12 months, the first three firms, Latham & Watkins, Kirkland & Ellis and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, sit in the 401-700 band of deals advised. Ranks four and five are in the 251-400 band, and ranks six to ten in the 151-250 band.

Set the deal table against the corporate lateral table and six of the ten names appear on both. Latham & Watkins ranks 4th among corporate hirers and Kirkland & Ellis ranks 1st. In all, 539 firms hired at least one corporate lateral in the period.

The firms with the most deals are also, largely, the firms buying the most corporate talent. For a firm outside these bands, rank is the wrong contest. The better question is mix: a smaller corporate group with technology and venture clients sits where 14.0% of the practice's deals are.

Hire for M&A depth first. With M&A at 74.6% of corporate deal work, a corporate partner's value rests on transactions they can run, not on adjacent credentials. Weight the client book toward technology: a candidate's technology relationships are worth more in this practice than the same list would be across the market, where the sector holds 6.8% of deals.

Move on hires now rather than after the numbers arrive. Corporate lateral moves have been growing faster than deals, and 2,910 corporate laterals changed firms in the 12 months to October 2026. Waiting for deal counts to catch up means competing with firms that already made the hire. Read private equity separately: test a sponsor-side candidate against the private equity practice's book, and a strategic M&A candidate against the corporate one.