Practice monitor · November 2026
Employment & Labor: lateral market monitor
Lawyers who changed firm in Employment & Labor over the last 12 months: how many, at what level, where they went and which firms hired them.
The last 12 months: November 2025 to October 2026
- 1,512
- Lateral moves, 12 monthsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- +6.9%
- Year on yearSettled 12-month windows
- 22.4%
- Partner share of moves
- 452
- Firms that hired
What the data show
In the Sartori & Partners lateral record, 1,512 lawyers joined a new firm in Employment & Labor from November 2025 to October 2026, 10.7% of all lateral moves we tracked. Year on year, on windows that end a month early, the count grew 6.9% (1,438 to 1,537). It tracks the market's own change of +9.0%.
Associates carry this flow: partners are 22.4% of arrivals, against 27.7% market-wide. On settled windows partner moves alone went from 310 to 333 (+7.4%), a change inside the noise of the two counts, so we read it as flat. 13.5% of movers stepped up a level when they changed firm, against 12.9% for the market.
Latest: 88 in Oct 26
Show the numbers
| Month | Value |
|---|---|
| Nov 24 | 76 |
| Dec 24 | 81 |
| Jan 25 | 145 |
| Feb 25 | 118 |
| Mar 25 | 148 |
| Apr 25 | 135 |
| May 25 | 98 |
| Jun 25 | 110 |
| Jul 25 | 111 |
| Aug 25 | 119 |
| Sep 25 | 158 |
| Oct 25 | 113 |
| Nov 25 | 100 |
| Dec 25 | 75 |
| Jan 26 | 170 |
| Feb 26 | 100 |
| Mar 26 | 125 |
| Apr 26 | 153 |
| May 26 | 115 |
| Jun 26 | 172 |
| Jul 26 | 141 |
| Aug 26 | 114 |
| Sep 26 | 159 |
| Oct 26 | 88 |
The newest months read low: start dates are confirmed with a delay.
452 firms hired at least one lateral in Employment & Labor in the window. The ten firms at the head of the hiring table took 30.0% of arrivals (12.9% market-wide), so hiring here is concentrated. Jackson Lewis ranks first by lateral arrivals, in the 61-100 band.
- Partner22.4%
- Counsel15.2%
- Associate61.6%
By city, Los Angeles comes first (11.0% of arrivals), then New York (10.0%). A change of city came with 20.6% of moves (market 20.5%).
0.5% of moves came as part of a group, against 1.5% market-wide. In-house roles drew 102 lawyers in the last 6 months, 12.9 per 100 lateral moves (market 13.1).
For a firm building a team in Employment & Labor, associate supply is active; the partner hire is the scarcer piece and the one to start first.
Firms by rank and band
Each firm appears as a rank and a band, never an exact count, and only with at least 10 moves in the window.
| Rank | Firm | Moves (band) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jackson Lewis | 61-100 |
| 2 | Littler Mendelson | 61-100 |
| 3 | Ogletree Deakins | 61-100 |
| 4 | Fisher & Phillips | 41-60 |
| 5 | Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani | 21-40 |
| 6 | Seyfarth Shaw | 21-40 |
| 7 | Greenberg Traurig | 21-40 |
| 8 | O'Hagan Meyer | 21-40 |
| 9 | Dentons | 21-40 |
| 10 | Morgan, Lewis & Bockius | 11-20 |
| Rank | Firm | Moves (band) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ogletree Deakins | 11-20 |
| 2 | Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani | 11-20 |
| 3 | Littler Mendelson | 11-20 |
| 4 | Jackson Lewis | 11-20 |
| 5 | Fisher & Phillips | 6-10 |
| 6 | Goldberg Segalla | 6-10 |
| 7 | Greenberg Traurig | 6-10 |
| 8 | Dentons | 6-10 |
| 9 | Maynard Nexsen | 6-10 |
| 10 | Buchalter | 3-5 |
Related monitors and reports
Employment & Labor by city
- Los Angeles166 moves
- New York151 moves
- San Francisco77 moves
- Chicago68 moves
- London59 moves
- Philadelphia47 moves
- San Diego41 moves
- Seattle37 moves
- Boston33 moves
- Dallas31 moves
- Atlanta29 moves
- Washington, DC28 moves
- Denver23 moves
- Paris22 moves
- Toronto22 moves
- Minneapolis20 moves
Specialities in Employment & Labor
Related monitors
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- Pensions, Benefits & Executive Compensation
- Financial Services Regulatory
- International Arbitration & Public International Law
- Immigration
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Overlapping practices
- Litigation & Disputes83.4% overlap
- Pensions, Benefits & Executive Compensation7.1% overlap
- Product Liability & Torts4.1% overlap
- Construction3.3% overlap
- Corporate & M&A2.6% overlap
- Insurance & Reinsurance2.5% overlap
- Public Law & Government2.4% overlap
- Intellectual Property1.9% overlap
Hiring in this market
Reports
- Chicago Employment Laterals Step Up 1.9 Times as Often as the City
Employment lawyers who join Chicago firms step up in title far more often than the city's laterals overall and more often than employment lawyers across the practice: 16.2% against 8.4% and 13.5%. Partners are also a larger share of the moves, 30.9% against 22.4% across the practice.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Employment Lateral Hiring in 2026: A West Coast Market, Few Partners
Employment lateral hiring leans west and light on partners: Los Angeles indexes at 218 and Seattle at 217 while New York sits at 68, and partners make up 22.4% of moves against 27.7% across all practices.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Employment Law Path to Partner 2026: More Home-Grown, Slower
Employment and labor fills nearly as many partner seats by promotion as by lateral hire, more than the other large practices, and its associates wait longer for the title: a mean of 11.6 years against 11.1 years.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Employment Lawyers in London Move Toward Firms of 400-999 Lawyers
London employment laterals move toward firms of 400-999 lawyers: they took 47.5% of three-year hires after supplying 23.1%, while firms under 150 lawyers supplied 17.9% and received 3.8%. Partners are a thin 15.3% of moves, against 29.3% for London.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Employment Matters in 2026: 93.9% Disputes, Public Employers First
The public record of employment work is a disputes record: 93.9% of matters are contested, with government employers (10.7%) and healthcare providers (8.4%) as the largest client sectors. The matter count held flat (-1.2%) while lateral hiring into the practice rose 6.9%.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Los Angeles Employment Hiring Is a Wage and Hour Market
Los Angeles takes 23.0% of wage and hour lateral moves, an index of 455 against 218 for employment overall, and wage and hour is a focus for 63.2% of the city's employment laterals against 47.7% in San Francisco.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - New York Employment Lateral Hiring Rose 25.4% From a Low Base
New York employment hiring rose 25.4% over the settled 12 months, while the practice rose 6.9% and the city as a whole rose 11.9%. The climb starts from a share below New York's weight in the market: an index of 68.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - San Francisco Employment Hiring Runs on Associates: 70.1%
San Francisco employment hiring leans on associates more than the practice or the city does, and counsel are scarce at 7.8% of moves. Over 3 years the top 10 hirers took 42.4% of moves, against 26.6% across the practice.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026
Edition November 2026. Window: November 2025 to October 2026. Source: Sartori & Partners, from public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly. Methodology. Spot an error? [email protected].
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