New York M&A Lateral Hiring: Ten Firms Take 35.5% of Moves

New York M&A lateral hiring is set by a short list of buyers. Sartori & Partners data show that 132 firms hired corporate and M&A lawyers in New York over the last 12 months, yet the ten most active took 35.5% of the 504 lateral moves. That is a sharper concentration than the practice shows as a whole, and sharper than New York shows across all practices. For a firm planning a corporate hire in the city, the field of rivals for any one candidate is narrower and heavier than the volume suggests: the same few firms keep appearing on the other side of the offer.

The top 10 measure can be read against two references, and the cell beats both. Across Corporate & M&A in every market, the ten busiest hirers took 21.6% of moves. Across every practice in New York, the ten busiest took 21.5%. Where the practice and the city meet, the figure is 35.5%: 1.6 times the figure for the practice as a whole and 14.0 points above the city.

A large market usually brings more buyers into play, and New York has them: 310 firms hired laterally in the city across all practices. In M&A the count is 132, and the moves still bunch at the top. The average New York M&A hirer made 3.8 moves, against 6.7 per hirer across the city and 5.4 per hirer in M&A across the market. Outside the busiest ten, most M&A buyers in New York hire only now and then.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and DLA Piper head the New York list, each with 21-40 hires. Kirkland & Ellis, first on the M&A list across all markets, is third here. The order matters less than the shape: these ten set the offers a candidate will hold yours against, so map them before the search opens.

Partner hiring in New York M&A is more concentrated than hiring at every level. The ten most active partner hirers took 38.6% of the 153 lateral partner moves, against 20.9% for M&A partners across the market and 26.1% for partners across New York. Across the market the partner figure sits slightly below the all-level figure of 21.6%; in New York M&A it sits above 35.5%.

The partner list is not a copy of the overall one. DLA Piper heads it, and Sidley Austin, Paul Hastings and Taft Stettinius & Hollister appear with 3-5 partner hires each, although none of them is among the ten busiest hirers at all levels. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, partner volume in the cell held steady: 148 moves in the latest settled 12 months against 140 a year earlier, a change of 5.7% that sits inside the noise. M&A partner hiring across the market rose 12.2%, and partner hiring across all New York practices held flat (+3.7%).

So a firm seeking a New York M&A partner competes for a pool that did not grow, against buyers that already take a large slice of it. Budget for a longer search, and expect the candidates who are open to a move to be in talks with at least one firm from the list above.

Concentration among hirers goes with concentration by size. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 73.7% of New York M&A lateral moves, against 62.6% for M&A across the market and 62.6% for New York across practices. That puts the cell 11.1 points above the practice and 11.1 points above the city.

The squeeze falls on the middle. Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 12.4% of New York M&A moves, against 19.6% for the practice as a whole. Firms of 150-399 lawyers took 5.9%, against 13.0% for New York overall. The supply side looks the same. Over three years, 72.4% of New York M&A movers left a firm of 1,000+ lawyers, against 65.3% for M&A across the market and 63.2% for New York.

For a mid-size firm, this is a market where candidates mostly sit in large firms and mostly move between them. Winning one takes an offer the large platforms cannot match on their own terms: a faster route to partnership, a practice the candidate can lead, or a client base that is not shared with a dozen peers.

Volume grew fast. New York M&A lateral moves rose 25.5% year on year, to 507 in the latest settled 12 months from 404. M&A across the market rose 15.8% and New York across practices rose 11.9%, so the cell outgrew both of its reference markets.

Growth did not spread the hiring out. Over three years the ten busiest hirers took 32.8% of New York M&A moves; over the last 12 months they took 35.5%. The practice shows the same direction at a lower level, from 19.7% over three years to 21.6%, and so does the city, from 19.5% to 21.5%. More of the recent demand has gone to the firms at the top, not less.

A rising market often gives smaller buyers room. Here it has not: a firm outside the top 10 is still bidding against the same short list, and those firms now have more offers in circulation at once. Move early in a search, and decide quickly once a candidate is in play.

Only 11.1% of New York M&A movers also changed city, against 21.2% for M&A across the market and 10.9% for New York overall. Over three years, 72.5% of New York M&A hires came from a firm in New York, close to the 70.4% for the city across practices. The share who stepped up a title in the move, 11.9%, is in line with M&A across the market at 12.4%.

The cell behaves like its city, not like its practice: lawyers move between New York firms, rarely into the city from elsewhere. A firm that hires here is recruiting mainly from the benches of the same large firms that do most of the buying. Widening the pool means looking outside New York, which few rivals do, and reaching lawyers in large firms before they are on the market.

Treat the top 10 list as your real competitor set. Those firms took 35.5% of moves and, at partner level, 38.6%: their pay, title and partnership terms are the benchmark a candidate will use. Build the offer against that list, not against the market average.

For partner hires, plan around a pool of 153 moves a year that is not growing, and start with lawyers who are not yet looking. For associate and counsel hires, the volume is there, but firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 73.7% of it, so a firm below that size needs a clear reason for a candidate to step down in scale. For any hire, lawyers relocating from other cities are an underused source in a market where only 11.1% of movers do so.