New York Insurance: M&A-Heavy Matters, Coverage-Heavy Hiring

Sartori & Partners data show a split at the center of the New York insurance market. The matters on record lean toward deals: M&A made up 37.0% of the 189 New York insurance matters of the last three years, while across the practice M&A was 18.9% of the 317 deals of the last 12 months. The lawyers who change firms point the other way. The pool of insurance lawyers New York firms can recruit from is built on coverage and claims work, and it draws on small firms far more than the rest of the city does. For a hiring partner, that gap decides where a search starts and what it can deliver.

The two figures cover different windows and should be read that way: three years of New York matters, because a single year in one city is thin, against the latest 12 months for the practice market-wide. Even with that caveat the gap is wide. New York's M&A share is 2.0 times the practice figure. Disputes and investigations run the other way: 27.0% of New York insurance matters against 63.4% of the practice's deals, a gap of 36.4 points.

Some of the practice's disputes weight comes from public court records, which add claims matters to the count in every city. That does not erase the New York pattern: the city is where insurers buy and sell businesses, raise capital and restructure, and its matters show it. An insurance group in New York that cannot staff that kind of work is competing for the narrower part of the city's mandates, a share of 27.0% on our three-year count.

Set the two three-year firm lists side by side and they do not touch. The firm with the largest count of New York insurance matters was Debevoise & Plimpton, in the 21-40 band of matters. The firm that hired the largest number of New York insurance laterals was Kennedys Law, in the 11-20 band of hires. None of the ten firms on the three-year hiring list below appears on the three-year matters list.

The two lists name different firms. The latest 12 months bring a small overlap: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Troutman Pepper Locke, both on the three-year matters list, rank in the top 10 of New York insurance hirers for the year. For a firm that wants a larger part of New York's insurance deal work, the consequence is direct: the insurance lateral market in this city trades a different skill, so a transactional search has to be scoped and sourced on its own terms.

Over three years, firms under 150 lawyers were the former home of 28.8% of New York insurance laterals whose former firm size is known, and the new home of 10.6% of those whose new firm size is known. The two shares rest on different bases, because the size of the firm left is known less often, so the gap between them is approximate. Across the practice the same pair reads 20.6% and 14.1%; for all New York moves it is 10.0% and 9.5%.

New York insurance therefore draws on small firms at 2.9 times the rate of the city as a whole. At the other end of the scale, firms of 1,000+ lawyers were the former home of 31.4% of New York insurance laterals, against 63.2% for all New York moves.

The candidate pool for a New York insurance hire is wider than the rosters of the city's largest firms. Firms under 150 lawyers hold 28.8% of it, and a lawyer leaving one for a firm of 1,000+ lawyers is stepping up in platform. The pitch to that candidate is about platform and support; the diligence is about which clients and claims programs will follow.

Insurance coverage was the specialty of 68.8% of the 234 lawyers who joined New York insurance groups over three years; reinsurance accounted for 11.5%. Across the practice, coverage moves recorded under insurance were 54.2% of the practice's moves over 12 months, a different window but the same direction: New York leans further toward coverage than the practice does.

The work behind that specialty is contentious. In the Sartori & Partners records, 98.3% of coverage matters over three years were disputes and investigations. This is the second side of the New York split: the city's insurance matters lean toward M&A, its insurance laterals toward coverage disputes. For a hiring firm, coverage partners and associates are the liquid part of the New York market; transactional insurance capacity is the illiquid part.

Sartori & Partners counted 87 New York insurance laterals in the settled 12 months to September 2026, against 82 a year earlier. That change reads as flat: hiring held flat (+6.1%), inside the noise for counts of this size. New York as a whole rose 11.9%, from 1,862 to 2,084, and the practice market-wide held flat (+2.5%). New York's share of the practice's moves carries an index of 89 against the market, so the city hires insurance lawyers below its overall weight.

The level mix is thin at the top. Partners were 24.7% of New York insurance laterals over 12 months, against 30.5% across the practice and 28.3% for all New York moves. Home-grown partners take longer as well: the median time to partner in New York insurance is 11.0 years over five years of promotions, against 10.0 years for New York partners in every practice. A firm counting on a lateral insurance partner in New York should plan for a long search, or for growing one from its counsel ranks.

First, decide which side of the market the hire serves before the search begins. If the goal is a share of the deal work, where M&A is 37.0% of New York insurance matters, the insurance lateral flow will not supply it; scope the role as transactional, look at the corporate side of the firms on the matters list, and expect a long timeline.

Second, if the goal is coverage depth, the market is open and identifiable. Look past the largest firms: small firms were the former home of 28.8% of New York insurance laterals, and the firms on the hiring list above are the competitors for the same candidates. Third, treat partners as scarce: at 24.7% of moves, a lateral partner is the exception, and the bench is built at counsel and associate level. Volume is steady, so there is no rush premium to pay and no reason to wait.