Paris M&A Hiring Fell 29.7% as the Practice Rose 15.8%

For M&A law firms Paris has become a harder place to hire. Sartori & Partners data show corporate and M&A lateral hiring in Paris fell 29.7%: 71 moves in the settled 12 months to September 2026, against 101 in the 12 months before. Over the same windows the practice as a whole rose 15.8%, and hiring across every Paris practice fell 20.5%. Paris M&A moved against its own practice and fell faster than its own city. For a firm planning a corporate hire in Paris, fewer lawyers are changing firms there than a year ago, and the reason is not a lack of work.

The practice had one of its stronger years. Corporate and M&A lateral moves across all markets reached 2,933 in the settled window, against 2,532 a year earlier, and partner moves in the practice rose 12.2%. Paris went the other way. Its corporate and M&A count went down from 101 to 71, a fall large enough to read as a real change rather than noise between two small counts. One caution applies: January 2025 alone held 33 of the 101 moves in the earlier window, and start dates cluster in January across the market, with 1,530 moves that month against 593 in December 2024. Read the size of the Paris fall with that month in mind; the direction holds, the exact figure is less firm.

Paris now carries a smaller part of the practice than it did. The city took 2.3% of corporate and M&A lateral moves over 12 months, against 3.0% over 3 years, a gap of 0.7 points. It still over-indexes: its index against the market is 125, so M&A remains a larger slice of Paris hiring than of hiring in general. A firm that benchmarks a Paris search against the practice's growth will expect more candidates in motion than the city is producing.

Paris as a whole slowed. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, moves into Paris firms came to 276 in the settled window, down from 347. Corporate and M&A remains the largest practice in the city, at 25.8% of Paris lateral moves over 12 months, with an index of 125 against the practice's share of the whole market. Partner hiring across Paris held steady, 69 moves against 61, so the city's decline sits below partner level.

The calendar years blur the turn because the drop falls across two of them. Paris corporate and M&A counted 79 moves in 2024 and 85 in 2025, with 65 in 2026 to October. The settled 12-month windows, which end in September, are the cleaner read of direction. For a hiring partner the practical point is timing: the Paris M&A market thinned during the past year, while the same practice in other cities kept adding lawyers.

Falling hiring did not come with an empty pipeline. Sartori & Partners figures show Paris corporate and M&A lawyers on 652 deals in the latest 12 months and 1,935 over 3 years, so the latest year holds 33.7% of the 3-year record. These are deals on record, announced by firms and public registers, not a measure of fees, but they show the work arriving at a normal pace while the lateral count went down.

The mix is plain M&A. Mergers and acquisitions made up 76.3% of the group's deals over 3 years, with venture and growth deals at 6.2% and private equity at 5.5%. The movers match the work: private M&A was the focus of 45.0% of Paris corporate arrivals over 3 years, public M&A of 10.0%. Technology and software clients appear on 11.8% of the deals, the largest client industry on record. Steady deal flow and fewer moves mean Paris teams are carrying the work with the lawyers they already have, which raises the price of any associate or partner who does agree to move.

Paris corporate hiring runs on associates. They made up 65.8% of the 231 corporate and M&A arrivals in Paris over 3 years, against 57.7% across the practice. Partners took 21.2% in Paris and 30.0% across the practice. The Paris pattern is the city's own: associates were 67.6% of all Paris arrivals over the same 3 years.

The latest 12 months look different. Associates made up 52.2% of Paris corporate moves, below the practice's 57.7%, and partners 32.8%, against 29.9%. The associate share has dropped from its 3-year level, so the thinning is sharpest among the junior and mid-level lawyers who usually fill Paris deal teams. Corporate and M&A also took 32.4% of Paris partner moves over 12 months, an index of 145. A firm that needs deal capacity in Paris should expect the associate search, not the partner search, to be the slow one.

The Paris corporate market moves inside the biggest firms. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 89.4% of Paris corporate and M&A hires over 12 months, against 62.6% across the practice. 27 firms made a Paris corporate hire in 12 months, against 55 over 3 years.

Candidates rarely come from elsewhere. Only 10.2% of Paris corporate and M&A movers over 12 months also changed city, against 21.2% across the practice, and 67.1% of 3-year arrivals came from Paris firms. When the local flow drops, there is little relocation to fill the gap. The realistic pool is the lawyers already at Paris offices of large firms, and reaching them takes a direct approach.

Plan for a thinner market than the practice suggests. Paris corporate and M&A hiring came to 71 moves against 101, while the practice grew market-wide. Growth figures from New York or London do not transfer to a Paris search, and a timetable built on them will slip.

Budget for retention as much as recruitment. With Paris M&A lawyers on 652 deals in 12 months and fewer of them moving, the lawyers a firm already has are carrying more of the load, and rivals know it. For new capacity, start the associate search early, since associates were 65.8% of 3-year arrivals and their share has fallen since. Map the corporate benches at the large Paris platforms, expect candidates to come from Paris rather than from other cities, and give them a concrete reason to move.