Insurance Lateral Hiring 2026: Concentrated Buyers, Flat Volume

The insurance coverage lawyers lateral market is small, and it runs through few doors. Sartori & Partners data show 672 insurance and reinsurance lawyers joining a new law firm in the 12 months to October 2026, 4.8% of all lateral moves we track, spread across 237 hiring firms. Yet the top 10 of those firms took 31.9% of the moves, against 12.9% for the top 10 across the whole market. At partner level the gap is wider still: 32.1% against 13.5%. Neither the practice nor its partner line grew on settled windows. For a firm planning an insurance hire, that means meeting the same small group of specialist defense and coverage platforms on nearly every search, in a pool that is not getting bigger.

Concentration is the defining feature of this practice. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, the ten most active insurance hirers took 31.9% of moves over 12 months, 2.5 times the 12.9% that the market's own top 10 took. Litigation, the practice most insurance laterals also carry, is spread far wider: its top 10 hirers took 12.0%. Product liability, the closest defense neighbor, comes nearer at 30.0%, still 1.9 points below insurance.

The names explain the gap. The insurance list is made up of insurance defense and coverage specialists, several of them headquartered in the UK, rather than the general-practice firms that head the market table. Of the market's top 10 hirers, only Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani also appears in the insurance top 10.

The bands sit close together: the first four hirers share the 21-40 band and the next six share 11-20. No single firm sets the terms; a small group does. For a hiring partner, that means a coverage or defense candidate has likely heard from several of these firms already, and any offer will be read against theirs.

Partner moves sharpen the pattern. The top 10 partner hirers in insurance took 32.1% of partner moves, against 13.5% across all practices, a gap of 18.6 points. Litigation sits at 13.9% and product liability at 31.2%. Partners are also a larger slice of insurance moves than of the market as a whole: 30.5% of insurance laterals joined as partners, against 27.7% overall.

The partner list is not a copy of the overall list. Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani heads it, several large associate hirers fall away, and other defense firms take their places. Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani also ranks 4th on the overall insurance list, and it is the only firm on either insurance list that also appears among the market's top 10 partner hirers, where it ranks 8th. For a firm hiring an insurance partner, the competition is a short list of known rivals, so a search can map every likely counter-offer before the first call.

The concentration is not a sign of a growing practice. On settled 12-month windows, insurance and reinsurance moves came to 659 against 643 a year earlier: the practice held flat (+2.5%). All lateral moves rose 9.0% over the same windows, from 13,128 to 14,305. Litigation, insurance's closest companion, rose 7.5%. Product liability held flat (+2.3%).

Partner hiring reads the same way. Insurance partner moves came to 189 on the latest settled window against 165 the year before, and the partner line held flat (+14.5%): on counts this size the change is read as flat, not as growth. Full calendar years show the same level, with 160 partner moves in 2022 and 161 in 2025.

A flat practice with concentrated demand is a tight one. The firms that hire most are drawing on a pool that is not expanding, so each lawyer they add is a lawyer another firm did not get. Plan for longer searches and firmer counter-offers than the market-wide growth figure of 9.0% would suggest, since that rise did not reach insurance.

For hiring purposes this is a litigation practice. Sartori & Partners data show 84.7% of insurance movers also carrying litigation and disputes work, with product liability at 16.1% and construction at 13.8%. These shares overlap, because one lawyer can carry several practices.

Team moves are more common than in the market. 3.1% of insurance moves were part of a group joining the same firm in the same quarter, against 1.5% overall and 2.0% in litigation. Movers also step up more often: 16.5% joined at a higher title than the one they left, against 12.9% market-wide, and counsel made up 16.2% of moves against 12.7%.

The destination firms are smaller, too. 15.1% of insurance laterals joined firms of under 150 lawyers, against 9.7% across the market, while firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 46.1% against 53.6%. For a firm, a team hire is a realistic route into this practice, and the litigation bench is the first place to look for lawyers who already handle coverage disputes.

Insurance hiring does not follow the market's city map. New York is still the largest destination, with 13.2% of moves, but at an index of 89 it sits below its market weight. London, at 74, and Washington, DC, at 70, sit lower still. The over-index is in the Southeast and the mid-Atlantic: Atlanta at 220, Miami at 187 and Philadelphia at 188, with Chicago at 135. An index of 220 means Atlanta's share of insurance moves is more than twice its share of all lateral moves.

Product liability shows the same tilt, with Miami at 289 and Philadelphia at 209: the two defense practices recruit in the same cities. For a firm opening or growing an insurance group, these cities hold more movable talent relative to their size than New York or London does.

Treat the top 10 hirers as the field you are bidding against. With 31.9% of moves and 32.1% of partner moves going to ten firms, a serious candidate will usually have a live alternative from one of them, so offers need to be ready and complete before the candidate compares terms. Do not budget for a growing pool: moves were flat on settled windows at 659 against 643. Widen the search instead. Look at litigators who already handle coverage work, at counsel ready for the next title, and at groups that might move together, since team moves run at 3.1% here against 1.5% in the market. Put Atlanta, Miami and Philadelphia on the map before New York, where insurance hiring runs at an index of 89.