Chicago Employment Laterals Step Up 1.9 Times as Often as the City

Sartori & Partners data show that Chicago employment lawyer lateral hiring comes with a promotion attached more often than the benchmarks a hiring partner would reach for. In the 12 months to October 2026, 16.2% of the employment lawyers who joined a Chicago firm arrived at a higher title than the one they left. Across every practice in Chicago the figure is 8.4%, and across the employment practice in all cities it is 13.5%. A step up here means an associate who joined as counsel or partner, or a counsel who joined as partner. For a firm planning its next employment hire in the city, the title on the offer is a term to settle early, not a formality.

Against the city the gap is wide, 7.8 points: a Chicago employment lateral was 1.9 times as likely as the average Chicago lateral to come in a rung higher. Against employment lawyers across the practice the gap is narrower, 2.7 points, but it points the same way. The city comparison carries the weight. Employment is involved in 11.4% of Chicago lateral moves, which means the city average already holds the employment moves inside it, and the rest of the Chicago market grants title steps less often still. Chicago does not hand out generous titles across the board; the habit belongs to its employment bench. The 12-month share rests on 68 moves, a base on which a handful of hires moves the figure by a point or more, which is why the longer window below matters.

For a hiring partner the reading is direct. An employment candidate in Chicago is more likely than the typical Chicago lateral to hold a competing offer one title up, so an offer that only matches the current title starts the contest behind.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database the longer window tells the same story on a larger base. Of 191 Chicago employment moves over three years, 14.7% were a step up in title, against 12.4% across the practice and 9.5% for all Chicago moves. The lead over the city is 5.2 points and over the practice 2.3 points. The latest 12 months run above the three-year figure in Chicago employment by 1.5 points, and across the practice by 1.1 points. The Chicago edge is a standing feature of this bench, not a spike in one year, and the practice as a whole is drifting the same way at a lower level.

A firm budgeting for a Chicago employment hire should therefore treat a title step as a normal cost of this market rather than a concession to one candidate. Deciding before the search opens whether the firm will offer counsel to a senior associate, or partner to a counsel, saves a lost round late in the process.

The second difference is seniority. Partners made up 30.9% of Chicago employment laterals in 12 months, against 22.4% across the practice and 26.8% for all Chicago moves, a lead of 8.5 points over the practice. Seen from the city, employment was involved in 13.1% of Chicago partner moves, an index of 151 against its share of partner moves market-wide, while its index across all Chicago moves is 106. Employment weighs more in the city's partner market than in its market as a whole.

The three-year view adds a caution. Over that window partners were 27.7% of Chicago employment moves, against 21.3% across the practice and 28.1% for Chicago as a whole. The lead over the practice holds; against the city, Chicago employment sat within 0.4 points over three years and pulled ahead only in the latest 12 months.

The two findings pull against each other, which makes the first one stronger. A partner cannot join at a higher title, so a bench with more partner moves has fewer lawyers able to step up. Chicago employment has more partners in the mix and still the higher step-up share, so among its associates and counsel a title step on the way in is more common than even the headline figure suggests. For recruiting, the search splits in two: at partner level the city offers a deeper pool than the practice-wide mix would predict, and below partner the senior associate or counsel you approach is the candidate most likely to be weighing a better title elsewhere.

Firms of 1,000+ lawyers hired 44.1% of the Chicago employment laterals whose new firm's size is known, against 51.2% for all Chicago moves and 46.9% across the practice. Firms of 150-399 lawyers took 20.6%, against 13.0% in the city and 15.7% in the practice. Smaller and midsize platforms tend to have more room than the largest firms to offer counsel or partner to land a candidate. Our figures cannot match each title step to the buyer that granted it, yet the buyer mix is consistent with the step-up rate.

Demand is spread across many firms: 44 firms hired at least one Chicago employment lateral in 12 months. Over three years the ten most active took 34.6% of individual hires, with Jackson Lewis, Seyfarth Shaw and Ogletree Deakins at the head of the list, each in the 6-10 band of hires.

For a firm of 1,000+ lawyers, the rival offer on a Chicago employment candidate frequently comes from a smaller platform able to put a higher title on the table, and the answer has to be a clear partner track and a visible book of work, stated in the first conversation. For a midsize firm, title is a lever its larger rivals pull less often.

None of this comes from a rush for bodies. Chicago employment hiring held flat (+10.0%) over the latest settled 12 months, at 66 moves against 60 a year earlier, while employment hiring across the practice rose 6.9%, from 1,438 to 1,537. Chicago hiring as a whole held flat (+9.7%), at 601 against 548.

The pool is also local. Over three years 70.2% of Chicago employment laterals came from a Chicago firm, and 12.5% changed city in the latest 12 months, against 20.6% across the practice. With a steady number of moves drawn mostly from the same city, firms compete for the same candidates year after year, and the title is one of the few terms that sets one offer apart from the next.

Settle the title before the first interview. Sartori & Partners data show 16.2% of Chicago employment laterals joined a rung higher in 12 months, against 8.4% across the city, so a strong candidate here has often seen such an offer already. Three steps follow. First, for senior associates and counsel, decide in advance whether the firm will offer the next title; if it will not, build the case on the work, the platform and a dated path to partner. Second, at partner level, plan for a deeper field than the practice-wide mix suggests: partners were 30.9% of Chicago employment moves against 22.4% across the practice. Third, search inside the city and expect midsize rivals at the table, because the candidates mostly sit in Chicago firms already and the buyers that win them are often the ones prepared to put the higher title in writing.