Chicago IP Laterals Leave Big Firms More Often Than They Join Them

Sartori & Partners data show that 57.2% of the lawyers who moved into an intellectual property practice in Chicago over the last 3 years came from a firm of 1,000+ lawyers. Only 40.5% joined one. For intellectual property law firms Chicago is a market where the largest platforms account for a much bigger share of departures than of arrivals. The finding rests on 167 lateral moves into the city's IP bench, 55 of them at partner level. Size shares count the moves where the size of the firm is known.

Where Chicago IP laterals start is not what sets them apart. Across all Chicago practices, 58.0% of lateral moves over 3 years started at a firm of 1,000+ lawyers. Across the practice market-wide the figure is 55.5%, and Chicago IP sits between the two at 57.2%. Firms of 400-999 lawyers supplied 19.6% of Chicago IP moves, close to the 20.7% seen for the whole city.

The pool is also local. 70.1% of Chicago IP laterals came from a firm in Chicago, against 67.6% for all practices in the city. For a firm planning an IP hire here, the candidate list starts where any Chicago search starts: in the local offices of the largest platforms, where most of the supply was trained.

The gap opens when these lawyers sign. Over 3 years 40.5% of Chicago IP laterals joined a firm of 1,000+ lawyers, 16.7 points below the share that left one. For Chicago as a whole the same gap is 9.6 points, and across the practice market-wide 8.7 points.

Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 39.9% of Chicago IP arrivals after supplying 19.6% of the moves, 2.0 times their share on the supply side. Across Chicago the same class took 25.8% of arrivals, and across the practice market-wide 27.6%.

Hiring is also concentrated. In Sartori & Partners records, ten firms took 42.2% of individual Chicago IP hires over 3 years, against 21.4% for the city, 2.0 times the concentration. A firm of 400-999 lawyers chasing a Chicago IP partner is not an outsider here: its size class is one of the two main buyers, and the names below are the rivals it meets most often.

In the 12 months to October 2026, 44.2% of Chicago IP laterals joined a firm of 1,000+ lawyers. The share was 51.2% for all Chicago practices and 48.6% across the practice market-wide. Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 36.5%, a rough size because the count behind it is small, against 23.0% across the city.

Volume held flat (-6.8%): 55 moves in the latest settled 12 months against 59 in the year before. Partners made up 37.7% of Chicago IP moves in the last 12 months, against 26.8% across Chicago. Nothing in the latest year suggests the largest platforms have taken back the Chicago IP bench, so a firm of 400-999 lawyers can plan its next partner search on the 3-year pattern.

Patent litigation was a focus for 39.5% of Chicago IP laterals over 3 years and trade secrets for 26.3%. One lawyer can carry several focuses, so these shares overlap and do not add up. Patent prosecution, at 24.6%, draws on a smaller pool than patent litigation. The disputes weight matches the practice market-wide, where 54.3% of IP moves in the last 12 months were also recorded under litigation.

The court record points the same way. Sartori & Partners counts 514 IP matters on record with Chicago lawyers in the last 12 months, and 98.7% of the 3-year total are disputes, taken largely from court and trademark-office records. That is a measure of docket presence, not of revenue. A firm adding a Chicago IP partner is most likely adding a litigator; a prosecution hire is a narrower search and should be budgeted for more time.

The median Chicago IP lawyer promoted in the last 5 years made partner after 9.0 years. The median was 10.0 years for all Chicago practices. 31.9% of Chicago IP partners were promoted within 8 years, against 28.7% across Chicago.

The difference sits in the middle of the range, not at its ends: the middle half of Chicago IP promotions came between 8.0 years and 11.0 years, the same span as the city, and the figure rests on 69 promotions. For a hiring firm, a senior IP associate in Chicago faces the partnership decision at home slightly earlier than peers in other practices, so a lateral offer has to land before that decision, not after it.

Source where the supply is. 57.2% of Chicago IP laterals left a firm of 1,000+ lawyers, so a search that skips those offices skips most of the market. Expect the competition to come from firms of 400-999 lawyers, which took 39.9% of arrivals. A firm of 1,000+ lawyers that wants these lawyers back should be ready to explain what its platform offers that a smaller firm does not, because many of them chose otherwise.

Plan for a concentrated buyer group: the ten most active hirers took 42.2% of individual hires, so the same rivals appear in most processes. Price a patent litigator as the default hire and a prosecution specialist as the slower one. Time partner offers to senior associates around the 9.0 years mark, before a home promotion closes the window.