New York Employment Lateral Hiring Rose 25.4% From a Low Base

Sartori & Partners data show that New York employment lawyer lateral hiring rose 25.4% over the settled 12-month windows, from 122 moves to 153. Over the same months employment hiring across the practice rose 6.9%, and lateral hiring in New York in every practice rose 11.9%. The city's employment group grew faster than both. It did so from a low starting point: New York takes 10.0% of employment lateral moves, an index of 68 where one hundred would match its weight in the whole market. For a managing partner, the employment pool in New York is deepening, yet it is still shallower than the size of the city suggests.

The gap to the practice is the wide one. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, employment moves into New York firms went from 122 to 153 between the two settled windows, a rise of 25.4%. Employment hiring across the practice moved from 1,438 to 1,537, a rise of 6.9%. New York hiring in all practices went from 1,862 to 2,084, up 11.9%, so the city's employment group was not simply riding a busier city. Both windows end in September 2026, because the newest month reads low while start dates are confirmed.

Calendar years tell the same story with less precision. Through October, 2026 already counts 133 New York employment moves, above the 132 recorded in all of 2025 and close to the 142 of 2024. A firm that set its New York employment headcount plan on last year's flow of candidates is planning for a smaller market than the one now in motion.

New York is the largest lateral market in the Sartori & Partners figures, with 14.8% of all moves, yet it holds only 10.0% of employment moves. That gives the city an employment index of 68, well under the market's share. Los Angeles indexes at 218 and takes more employment moves than New York, 166 against 151. Seen from inside the city, employment was involved in 7.2% of New York lateral moves over 12 months.

The share is edging toward the city's weight rather than away from it. Over 3 years New York held 9.5% of employment moves, against 10.0% in the latest 12 months, which fits a group growing faster than its practice. The gap that remains is large. A hiring partner should size a New York employment search on the practice's own flow into the city, not on the city's place at the head of the market.

By level, New York employment hiring sits slightly more senior than the practice. Partners made up 24.5% of the city's employment moves over 12 months, against 22.4% across the practice. Counsel made up 15.9%, against 15.2%, and associates 58.9%, against 61.6%. Set beside New York in every practice the order changes: partners are 28.3% of all New York moves and counsel 12.6%, so the city's employment group carries more counsel and fewer partners than its neighbors in other practices.

Partner hiring did not carry the rise on its own. New York employment partner moves went from 26 to 37, a count that at this size held flat (+42.3%), and partner hiring across the practice held flat (+7.4%). The mix has also held over time: counsel were 15.3% of New York employment moves over 3 years and partners 24.1%, close to the 12-month shares. Home-grown partners are the other route: New York employment groups promoted 26 lawyers to partner from June 2025 to May 2026, and over 5 years the median time to partner was 11.0 years. The new supply sits at counsel and associate level; a partner search here should not assume the rise has added partner candidates.

The New York employment market recruits from itself. Only 12.0% of its laterals changed city, against 20.6% across the practice, and 68.2% of the lawyers who joined over 3 years are on record as leaving a New York office. Step-ups are less common too: 11.3% of New York employment laterals joined at a higher title, against 13.5% for the practice and 11.6% for New York in all practices. A firm adding employment lawyers in New York bids for the same local people as every rival, and title is a weaker lever than elsewhere, so the offer rests on pay, platform and the work itself.

Jackson Lewis hired the most employment lawyers in New York over 12 months, in the 11-20 band, with Littler Mendelson second and Greenberg Traurig third. Together the ten firms below made 36.2% of the city's individual employment hires, against 30.0% across the practice, and 83 firms hired at least one employment lawyer in New York.

Several of these names also rank among the practice's most active hirers market-wide, where Jackson Lewis is first as well. A New York employment search therefore meets bidders that recruit employment lawyers in many cities at once and can move a candidate's practice between offices, which matters when the local pool is this tight.

Move while the flow is up. Sartori & Partners counts 153 New York employment moves in the latest settled 12 months against 122 the year before, so more candidates are in motion now than a year ago. Size the search on the practice, not the city: an index of 68 means the employment bench is thinner than New York's rank in the market implies. Recruit at counsel level, where the city runs at 15.9% of moves against 15.2% across the practice. Treat partners as a separate, slower problem: the partner count is too small to show a trend, and promotion is a real alternative. And plan to win local lawyers, since only 12.0% of New York employment laterals came from another city.