Washington Trade Hiring: 66.9% of Movers Focus on Export Controls

Most international trade lawyers Washington DC firms recruit work on sanctions, export controls or foreign investment, not on tariffs. Sartori & Partners data show that export controls and sanctions was a focus for 66.9% of the 139 trade and national security lawyers who joined Washington firms over 3 years, and foreign investment review for 50.4%. Trade remedies and customs, the older core of a trade group, came well behind at 30.2% and 28.1%. A lawyer can carry more than one focus, so the shares overlap. For a firm planning a Washington trade hire, the consequence is direct: a search scoped around tariffs alone draws on the smaller part of the market.

The speciality mix is what sets this bench apart from a general trade group. Of the 139 Washington arrivals over 3 years, 93 list export controls and sanctions as a focus and 70 list foreign investment review. Trade remedies counted 42 movers and customs and tariffs 39. Because one lawyer often covers two of these areas, the rows add to more than the total and should be read one by one.

Across all markets, export controls is also the practice's center of gravity. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, export controls and sanctions moves recorded under the practice equal 69.8% of the practice's moves over 12 months. Washington's second focus is what gives its bench a distinct shape: foreign investment review, the national security screening of inbound investment, sits beside sanctions work for 50.4% of the city's trade movers. The matters on record lean the same way. Of 144 Washington trade matters over 3 years, disputes and investigations account for 43.1%, and industrial manufacturing is the largest client industry at 20.1%.

For a hiring firm, the standard Washington profile is a lawyer who can handle a sanctions inquiry and a foreign investment filing. Scope partner searches around both, and treat a pure customs or trade remedies candidate as a narrower, separate search.

The speciality is tied to Washington at least as tightly as the practice is. Washington took 50.0% of export controls and sanctions lateral moves over 12 months, an index of 892 against the city's share of all lateral moves. For the whole practice, the city holds 49.1% of moves, an index of 876. Inside the city, trade and national security is a small slice: 6.6% of Washington's lateral moves over 12 months.

Over 3 years, London is the one other city on record, with 12.9% of export controls movers against 10.3% of all trade movers. For a firm that wants an export controls practice outside Washington, this is the constraint. The experienced candidates sit in Washington, and a hire in another American office usually means persuading a Washington lawyer to relocate, or building around a London lawyer for the European side of the work.

The Washington market is also senior. Partners made up 50.0% of Washington trade and national security moves over 12 months, against 40.6% across the practice and 37.7% across all Washington practices. Associates made up 38.5%, against 48.1% in the practice.

The tilt is recent. Over 3 years partners were 41.0% of Washington trade arrivals, so the latest 12 months moved the mix toward seniority. The speciality shows the same pull: export controls partner hiring across all markets rose 64.0% on the settled windows, from 25 to 41. Step-up moves are slightly more common here as well, at 15.4% of Washington trade moves against 13.2% in the practice.

Partner candidates are in motion, which helps a firm hiring at the top. The thinner layer is below them: with associates a smaller share of Washington trade moves than of the practice, a firm building a team should plan to train its mid-level bench rather than buy it.

Seniority rose; volume did not. Washington trade and national security hiring held flat (+0.0%): 54 moves in the settled 12 months to September 2026 against 54 a year earlier. Lateral hiring across all Washington practices rose 12.4% over the same windows, and the practice across all markets held flat (+6.2%).

The yearly record shows a step and then a plateau. Washington trade moves counted 27 in 2023 and 33 in 2024, reached 54 in 2025, and stood at 48 by October 2026. Competition for these lawyers also comes from next door: 29.2% of trade moves across the practice were also recorded under white collar and investigations, the group most likely to bid for a sanctions lawyer.

A steady count inside a growing city means the trade bench is not getting easier to recruit from. Other Washington groups are hiring harder, and some of them want the same sanctions experience, so a firm should expect a Washington trade search to take longer than the city's overall pace suggests.

Washington trade lawyers seldom come from elsewhere. Sartori & Partners figures show 6.4% of Washington trade arrivals over 3 years also changed city, against 14.7% across the practice and 15.6% across all Washington practices. Of all arrivals in the period, 73.4% had left another Washington firm.

Large platforms sit at both ends of the move. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 65.2% of Washington trade arrivals over 3 years and supplied 68.8% of the lawyers who moved. Hiring is also more concentrated than in the practice overall: the top 10 hirers took 41.6% of Washington trade hires, against 30.2% across the practice.

A firm outside this group is competing with platforms that already hold the deepest sanctions and foreign investment benches. Expect the strongest candidates to sit at the largest firms, expect a counteroffer, and build the case for a move around client access and partnership role rather than geography.

Define the role by speciality first. With export controls and sanctions the focus of 66.9% of Washington trade movers and foreign investment review of 50.4%, a brief that asks for both will reach most of the market. A brief built on customs or trade remedies alone reaches a much smaller group and should allow more time.

Recruit in Washington, and recruit partners from the large platforms. Partners took 50.0% of Washington trade moves, and only 6.4% of arrivals came from another city, so the pool is senior and already local. Hiring held steady at 54 moves against 54, which means candidates move when approached, not on their own. On the data date, 21 trade roles were open on Washington firm career pages, a sign of how many firms are looking at the same small group. For associate depth, train and promote: the lateral supply below partner is thinner here than across the practice.