Practice monitor · November 2026
Financial Services Regulatory: lateral market monitor
Lawyers who changed firm in Financial Services Regulatory 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
- 234
- Lateral moves, 12 monthsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- +19.6%
- Year on yearSettled 12-month windows
- 47.9%
- Partner share of moves
- 109
- Firms that hired
What the data show
Sartori & Partners data show 234 lateral moves in Financial Services Regulatory from November 2025 to October 2026, 1.7% of all lateral moves we tracked. Year on year, on windows that end a month early, the count grew 19.6% (204 to 244). The market as a whole moved +9.0%, so this flow outpaced it.
This is a partner market: 47.9% of movers were partners, against 27.7% market-wide. On settled windows partner moves alone went from 82 to 115, up 40.2% year on year. 13.7% of movers stepped up a level when they changed firm, against 12.9% for the market.
- Partner47.9%
- Counsel14.5%
- Associate37.6%
Lateral hires in Financial Services Regulatory were spread across 109 firms. The ten firms at the head of the hiring table took 30.6% of arrivals (12.9% market-wide), so hiring here is concentrated. First on the hiring table is Womble Bond Dickinson, with arrivals in the 11-20 band.
By city, Washington, DC comes first (15.0% of arrivals), then New York (11.5%). 14.0% of movers also changed city, against 20.5% market-wide.
For a firm hiring in Financial Services Regulatory, the pool is moving and partners are part of it: expect competing offers and budget time for a contested process.
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 | Womble Bond Dickinson | 11-20 |
| 2 | Greenberg Traurig | 6-10 |
| 3 | Hinshaw & Culbertson | 6-10 |
| 4 | Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe | 6-10 |
| 5 | DLA Piper | 6-10 |
| 6 | Ashurst Perkins Coie | 6-10 |
| 7 | Troutman Pepper Locke | 6-10 |
| 8 | Sidley Austin | 3-5 |
| 9 | Morgan, Lewis & Bockius | 3-5 |
| 10 | White & Case | 3-5 |
| Rank | Firm | Moves (band) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Womble Bond Dickinson | 6-10 |
| 2 | DLA Piper | 3-5 |
| 3 | Hinshaw & Culbertson | 3-5 |
| 4 | Morgan, Lewis & Bockius | 3-5 |
| 5 | Reed Smith | 3-5 |
| 6 | Greenberg Traurig | 3-5 |
| 7 | O'Melveny & Myers | 3-5 |
| 8 | McDermott Will & Schulte | 3-5 |
| 9 | Barnes & Thornburg | 3-5 |
| 10 | Sidley Austin | 3-5 |
Related monitors and reports
Financial Services Regulatory by city
- Washington, DC35 moves
- New York27 moves
- London26 moves
Specialities in Financial Services Regulatory
Related monitors
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Overlapping practices
- Litigation & Disputes30.8% overlap
- Banking & Finance23.9% overlap
- White Collar, Investigations & Criminal15.4% overlap
- Funds & Investment Management12.8% overlap
- Corporate & M&A12.4% overlap
Hiring in this market
Reports
- Financial Services Regulatory Deals 2026: Work and Hiring Both Rose
Financial services regulatory matters rose 37.3%, 3.5 times the pace of all dated deals, and lateral partner hiring into the practice rose 40.2%. Banks still anchor the work, but digital assets clients now sit in 16.0% of it.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Financial Services Regulatory Hiring in 2026: A Partner-Led Rise
Financial services regulatory hiring is turning into a partner market. Partner moves rose 40.2%, from 82 to 115, while the market's partner moves rose 8.4%; partners were 47.9% of the practice's moves, against 27.7% market-wide.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026 - Financial Services Regulatory Path to Partner: Few Made Early
Early partnership is rare in financial services regulatory: 10.2% of its partners were promoted within 8 years, against 23.2% across all practices. Within 12 years the share reaches 72.1%, and firms buy more of these partners than they make.
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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