San Diego Litigation Hiring Leans on Class Action Lawyers

Sartori & Partners data show that the class action lawyers San Diego firms hire are a large part of the city's litigation market, not a side pool. Over three years, 25.6% of the litigators who joined a San Diego firm named class actions as their focus, close to the 26.9% who named commercial litigation. Across the practice, class action moves recorded under litigation equal 11.4% of litigation moves in 12 months. San Diego is a small market, with 0.9% of all lateral moves, yet in class action hiring it carries far more weight than its size suggests. For a firm building a disputes group in the city, a class action specialist is the core hire, not a niche one.

Two specialties sit side by side at the top of the San Diego litigation mix. Commercial litigation accounts for 26.9% of the 234 litigation arrivals of the past three years and class actions for 25.6%, a gap of 1.3 points. Across litigation as a whole, class actions are one specialty among many, with 11.4% of the practice's moves in 12 months. In San Diego the class action share is far larger, and that tells a hiring partner what the local candidate pool is made of.

A firm recruiting San Diego litigators for general commercial work will meet many candidates whose recent docket is class action work. Test early whether that experience fits the mandate, and treat class action depth as the default profile of the city's litigation laterals rather than a lucky find.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, San Diego took 4.1% of class action moves in the latest 12 months, 27 moves in all. The index sets that share against the city's share of all lateral moves, and San Diego's reads 459. Los Angeles, the largest class action hiring city by count, reads 362. Seattle reads 289 and San Francisco 240, while New York sits below par at 89. The West Coast carries class action hiring, and San Diego carries it hardest relative to its size.

Market-wide, class action laterals are senior: partners made up 40.1% of class action moves in 12 months, against 27.4% across litigation. Class action partner moves rose 18.3% between the settled 12-month windows, from 219 to 259. San Diego litigation moves sit closer to the practice, with partners at 29.1%.

The index cuts both ways for a hiring firm. Class action talent in San Diego runs deep for a market of this size, so a local search is realistic. The absolute numbers are small, though, and every firm with a class action docket is bidding for the same people, with senior demand rising across the market.

Employment is San Diego's other large practice: it is involved in 32.5% of the city's lateral moves, an index of 303, against 157 for litigation. In California, wage-and-hour and workplace claims are often brought as class actions, so the two groups recruit from overlapping candidates. The three-year list of San Diego litigation hirers reflects it: beside general litigation firms it includes Constangy Brooks Smith & Prophete, Littler Mendelson and Jackson Lewis, firms whose practice centers on employment work.

Hiring here is also concentrated: the ten firms on that list took 39.2% of San Diego litigation hires over three years, against 12.0% for the ten most active litigation hirers across the practice. An employment firm adding class action capacity in San Diego shares its bench with direct competitors. A general litigation firm can treat employment class action lawyers as a second pool worth approaching.

Most San Diego litigation laterals already worked in the city: 58.5% of three-year arrivals left another San Diego firm. Los Angeles supplied 9.8%, the only other city with a published count. For San Diego across all practices the Los Angeles share is 9.3%, much the same. The route runs both ways: of the lawyers who left a San Diego firm for another firm over three years, 14.6% joined one in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is also where class action hiring is deepest: it took 18.3% of class action moves in 12 months and was the origin of 14.6%. A San Diego search that stops at the county line misses the largest class action pool in the market. A Los Angeles firm, for its part, should expect San Diego firms to call its class action associates and partners.

23.2% of San Diego litigation moves in 12 months involved a change of city, against 19.6% across litigation, a gap of 3.6 points. Over three years the figures are 24.3% and 20.3%, so the gap is not a one-year effect. Class action laterals market-wide relocate less, at 17.0%, which makes the San Diego habit a local feature rather than a trait of the specialty. Across every practice in the city, 27.5% of moves changed city. The flow is even: in 12 months 25 lawyers came to San Diego firms from other cities and 25 left for firms elsewhere.

Relocation is a normal part of hiring in this market. A San Diego firm can put out-of-town candidates on a long list without treating them as long shots, and it should plan retention on the assumption that its own litigators get calls from other cities at the same pace.

San Diego litigation moves held flat (-4.8%) between the settled 12-month windows, 80 against 84. Across the practice, litigation moves rose 7.5%, from 5,281 to 5,679. Class action moves market-wide held flat (+9.3%) over the same windows. Sartori & Partners figures on the yearly count tell the same story: no surge, no slump, and a San Diego trend that reads flat.

With no growth in the local count and a specialty in steady demand, a firm cannot wait for the pool to widen. A class action hire in San Diego more often than not comes out of another San Diego firm, so the offer has to beat a competitor across town rather than fill an empty seat.

Start from the specialty. With class actions the focus of 25.6% of three-year arrivals, a San Diego litigation search will surface class action experience whether or not the brief asks for it; decide up front whether that background is the target or a filter. Widen the map on day one: Los Angeles is the only outside city with a published share of arrivals, and 23.2% of the city's litigation moves already involve a change of city. Budget for relocation instead of treating it as an exception.

Know the other bidders. Firms of 150-399 lawyers took 24.0% of San Diego litigation hires in 12 months, against 18.2% across the practice, so midsize firms compete hard here, and employment-focused firms sit on the same candidate list. For a senior class action lateral, expect the contest to be the toughest: partner demand in the specialty rose across the market, and San Diego's local pool is small.