Litigation & Disputes in Washington, DC: lateral monitor

From November 2025 to October 2026, Sartori & Partners recorded 365 lateral moves in Litigation & Disputes in Washington, DC, 6.5% of the practice's moves. Measured on settled 12-month windows, 339 moves against 291 the year before, the count rose 16.5%. That runs ahead of the wider market, which moved +9.0%.

Over the three years to October 2026, 885 lawyers moved in Litigation & Disputes in Washington, DC, 320 of them partners (36.2%). They joined 201 different firms. 11.6% stepped up a level on the move and 16.5% changed city, against 12.3% and 21.6% across the market over the same three years. 60.0% came from firms with 1,000+ lawyers.

This is a partner market: 38.6% of movers were partners, against 27.7% market-wide. On settled windows partner moves alone went from 107 to 122 (+14.0%), a change inside the noise of the two counts, so we read it as flat. 10.7% of movers stepped up a level when they changed firm, against 12.9% for the market.

Lateral hires in Litigation & Disputes in Washington, DC were spread across 149 firms. The ten firms at the head of the hiring table took 20.1% of arrivals (12.9% market-wide), so hiring here is moderately concentrated. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher ranks first by lateral arrivals, in the 6-10 band.

The practice accounts for 46.2% of all lateral moves in Washington, DC. Over the three years to October 2026, 67.0% of movers came from another firm in Washington, DC itself. A change of city came with 16.2% of moves (market 20.5%).

Group moves were 5.5% of the total (market 1.5%).

There were 61 open roles in Litigation & Disputes in Washington, DC on law-firm career pages on November 11, 2026.

For a firm hiring in Litigation & Disputes in Washington, DC, the pool is moving and partners are part of it: expect competing offers and budget time for a contested process.

Sartori & Partners data count 219 dated deals in Litigation & Disputes in Washington, DC in the 12 months to October 2026 and 499 over the three years to October 2026.

Disputes & investigations work is involved in 98.4% of them.

By client industry, Technology & Software comes first with 9.8%.

Latham & Watkins ranks first among advising firms over the period, in the 21-40 band.

Over the three years to October 2026, Commercial Litigation was involved in 22.8% of moves in Litigation & Disputes in Washington, DC, then Class Actions with 12.8%.