Private Equity Lateral Hiring in 2026: Partner-Heavy and Concentrated

Private equity lateral hiring is a partner market with a short list of buyers. Sartori & Partners data show 1,247 lawyers joining a new firm in private equity in the 12 months to October 2026, and 475 of them were partners. That is a partner share of 38.1%, against 27.7% across every practice we track. The buyers are just as unusual: the top 10 hirers take 27.0% of the practice, against 12.9% market-wide. Both facts change how a firm should plan a private equity hire.

The level mix is the clearest break from the rest of the market. Partners account for 38.1% of private equity laterals, against 29.9% in corporate and M&A and 27.7% market-wide. Associates, who make up 58.5% of all moves, are 50.1% here. Funds work sits close to private equity, with partners at 36.7%: the sponsor side of deal work moves seniority, while general corporate work moves juniors.

Partner demand is also rising faster. In the settled 12-month window to September 2026, private equity partner arrivals rose 16.1%, against 8.4% for partners across the market and 12.2% in corporate and M&A. Among the corporate-side practices, only funds grew faster, at 29.7%, on a base of 214 partner moves. A step up in title is part of the deal slightly more often too: 14.2% of private equity movers joined at a higher level than they left, against 12.9% market-wide and 12.4% in corporate.

For a firm building a private equity bench, this is a market priced at partner level. Fewer associates are in motion than in general corporate work, and a mid-level hire may need a title step to land.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, 280 firms hired at least one private equity lawyer in the year to October 2026. The top 10 among them took 27.0% of all arrivals, 2.1 times the market's top 10 share of 12.9% and above corporate and M&A at 21.6%. Among the corporate-side practices, only funds work runs tighter, at 34.0%, while capital markets sits at 25.0% and banking at 19.9%.

Size is the other side of the same picture. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 71.6% of private equity laterals, against 53.6% of all moves and 62.6% in corporate. Firms of under 150 lawyers took 6.5%, against 9.7% market-wide.

The partner list is not the same as the overall list. White & Case, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Kirkland & Ellis head private equity partner hiring, each in the 11-20 band of partner hires. Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Holland & Knight appear among the partner hirers but not among the top 10 overall, so their private equity hiring leans toward partners.

With 27.0% of moves ending at one of these ten firms, a firm outside the group should plan for a competing offer from the start and set the timetable around it.

The city spread departs from the general legal market. New York took 18.1% of private equity arrivals against 14.8% of all moves, and London 13.2% against 9.2%. Paris carries 2.2 times its market weight, at 4.0%, and Chicago takes 6.0% against 4.2%. Munich, Milan and Frankfurt make the private equity city list but not the market's list of largest cities.

Washington runs the other way, with 2.9% of private equity arrivals against 5.6% of all moves. Los Angeles takes 3.3% against 5.1%, and San Francisco 2.2% against 3.2%.

London also draws private equity lawyers in. It received 165 private equity laterals and supplied 139, a surplus of 26, while New York is close to balanced at 226 in and 217 out. Relocation is otherwise no more common than elsewhere: 21.1% of private equity movers changed city, against 20.5% for the market and 21.2% in corporate.

A firm adding a private equity partner in Washington or the Bay Area draws on a thin local pool, and relocation does not close the gap: the share of movers who change city is no higher here than in the market. In London, Paris or New York the supply is on the doorstep, and so are the rival bidders.

Sartori & Partners data show private equity arrivals rose 14.9% in the settled 12-month window to September 2026, against 9.0% for the whole market and 15.8% in corporate and M&A. By October, 1,120 private equity moves had already passed the full 2025 count of 1,096; the market as a whole, at 12,554, had not yet passed its 2025 total.

The same practice drops further when deal flow slows. In 2023, private equity hiring ran at 69.8% of its 2022 level, while the market held 86.2%. It took until 2025 for the practice to return to its 2022 volume. Fewer of its lawyers leave private practice, too. Since May 2026, moves in-house equal 11.4% of private equity lateral moves, against 20.1% in corporate and M&A and 13.1% across the market.

Timing matters more here than in the market as a whole. A bench built in an upswing is built at the point of strongest competition; a firm that can wait gets more choice when deal flow cools, as it did in 2023. And because private equity lawyers rarely leave for in-house roles, the people a firm wants to hire tend to stay in the lateral market rather than drop out of it.

Plan the mandate as a partner search first. With 38.1% of movers at partner level, most of the available supply is senior, and the associate pool is thinner than in corporate work. Expect a competing bid from the large firms: firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 71.6% of these moves, and a firm outside that class needs a reason beyond money, such as a clearer path to running a sponsor relationship or a team that it will fund.

Recruit where the market is. New York and London alone took 18.1% and 13.2% of arrivals. A seat in Washington or California has a smaller local pool to draw on. Look beyond the private equity label as well: 89.3% of private equity movers also work as corporate and M&A lawyers, and they make up 38.2% of all corporate movers. The two pools overlap so heavily that a private equity search and a corporate search will meet many of the same candidates.