Los Angeles Lateral Hiring Runs on Litigation and Class Actions

Sartori & Partners data show that the Los Angeles litigation lateral market is the city's lateral market in all but name. Litigation was involved in 59.4% of the lateral moves into Los Angeles firms in the 12 months to October 2026, against 39.9% of moves across the whole market, an index of 149. The content of that weight is specific. Class actions are a focus for 27.9% of the Los Angeles litigators who moved in the last 3 years, against 12.3% in New York litigation. For a firm planning a hire in the city, recruiting a litigator is the main contest in town, and much of it turns on class-action experience.

Seen from the practice, the Los Angeles cell is heavy. The city holds 7.5% of all litigation lateral moves, against 5.1% of lateral moves in every practice. Seen from the city, it is dominant: 423 of the 712 lateral moves into Los Angeles over 12 months involved litigation. Over 3 years the share was 63.1%, so the weight is a fixture rather than a spike. Of the eight largest litigation cities by volume, Los Angeles carries the highest index; New York, the largest, sits at 88.

Other dispute-driven practices pull the same way in the city. Employment and labor hiring in Los Angeles indexes at 217 and product liability at 172, while corporate and M&A sits at 61.

For a managing partner the point is proportion. A Los Angeles office that hires on the firm's national mix will under-weight litigation against the market it recruits in, and will meet rivals whose local benches are built around disputes.

The specialities of the lawyers who moved show what sits inside that weight. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, class actions are a focus for 27.9% of Los Angeles litigation laterals over 3 years, against 12.3% in New York litigation, 2.3 times the New York share. Commercial litigation is the broader label in both cities, at 33.1% in Los Angeles and 37.1% in New York. Securities litigation runs the other way: 3.3% of Los Angeles litigators against 9.7% in New York. One lawyer can carry several specialities, so these shares overlap and are not a split of the bench.

Set against the practice and the city, the class-action share lines up with employment work. Employment and labor overlaps with 22.4% of litigation moves across the market, and in Los Angeles employment hiring runs at an index of 217, the highest of any practice listed for the city. California's wage-and-hour statutes produce class claims in volume, and the firms that defend them recruit litigators who have run such cases. The practical reading: in Los Angeles a class-action litigator is a mainstream hire with many bidders, while a securities litigator is a scarce one. Price the first for competition and budget time for the second.

Los Angeles litigation moves rose 15.3% over the latest settled 12 months, to 430 from 373. Litigation across the market rose 7.5%, from 5,281 to 5,679. Los Angeles in every practice rose 21.0%, from 590 to 714. Litigation took 57 of the 124 extra Los Angeles moves, so its share of the city's settled-window hiring eased from 63.2% to 60.2%. Partner hiring in the cell held flat (+15.6%), at 111 against 96, counts too small to read as a real change, and partner hiring for the whole city held flat (+17.9%) on the same test.

The supply of moving litigators in Los Angeles is growing, but the rest of the city's hiring grew faster. A litigation search started now meets more candidates than a year ago, and more competition for budget from other practice groups in the same office.

Los Angeles litigators rarely arrive from elsewhere. Only 15.4% of the cell's laterals changed city, against 19.6% for litigation across the market and 16.4% for Los Angeles in every practice. Over 3 years, 62.8% of them came from another Los Angeles office. The ten firms that hired most accounted for 19.3% of the cell's moves, a tighter grip than litigation shows across the market, at 12.0%, or the city shows across practices, at 16.7%. The level mix, by contrast, is ordinary: partners were 27.0% of moves, against 27.4% in the practice and 27.9% in the city, while counsel were a little more common at 15.6%.

Clyde & Co heads the list in the 11-20 band of hires, and the other nine sit in the 6-10 band. A firm hiring here recruits from the same local offices its rivals do. Expect a candidate to hold a competing Los Angeles offer, and expect relocation to widen the pool only at the margin.

Plan Los Angeles as a disputes office. With litigation in 59.4% of the city's lateral moves, a litigation search there is the main event, and Sartori & Partners data put the practice's index in the city at 149. Three steps follow. Build class-action depth on purpose: it is a focus for 27.9% of the litigators who moved, so candidates with that record weigh several offers and will ask to see the docket. Treat securities litigation as a scarce local hire, at 3.3% of moved litigators against 9.7% in New York, and widen the search beyond the city when the brief calls for it. Move while supply is rising: the cell's moves rose 15.3% on the settled windows, while the city as a whole rose 21.0%, so other practice groups will press for the same office budget. Openings give a last check: Los Angeles litigation openings posted on firm websites numbered 80 on the data date, against 87 in New York litigation, a market with 1.7 times the lateral moves. Demand in Los Angeles is running close to New York's on a much smaller bench.