New York Private Equity Hiring: Counsel Take 18.6% of Laterals

New York private equity lateral hiring grew over the last year, but not at the top of the ladder. Sartori & Partners data show 226 lateral moves into private equity in New York over the last 12 months, and counsel made 18.6% of them. That is 1.7 times the counsel share for private equity across the market, 11.2%, and 6.0 points above the 12.6% counsel share across every practice in New York. For a firm planning its next private equity hire in the city, the busy part of the market is the senior tier below partnership: lawyers past the associate years who have not been made partner, or who hold the counsel title by design.

The level mix is where this cell parts company with both of its reference markets. Partners made 39.8% of New York private equity moves, close to the 38.1% for the practice as a whole and well above the 28.3% across New York. Associates made 40.7%, against 50.1% in the practice and 58.4% in the city. Counsel fill the difference: 18.6% here, against 11.2% and 12.6%.

Counted another way, the cell holds a larger slice of counsel hiring than of hiring overall. New York took 18.1% of all private equity lateral moves, yet 30.0% of the practice's counsel moves. Inside New York, moves involving private equity were 10.8% of the city's lateral moves and 16.0% of its counsel moves.

A firm that sizes a New York private equity search around associate supply is looking at the wrong tier. The candidates moving in unusual numbers are counsel, and rival firms are already bidding for them. Expect a counsel search here to meet more competition than the same search in the practice elsewhere, and price the offer with that in mind.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, New York private equity moves rose 22.8% year on year, to 232 in the latest settled 12 months from 189. That outpaced the practice as a whole, which rose 14.9%, and New York across practices, which rose 11.9%. Partner moves took no part in it: 88 in the latest settled window against 88 a year earlier, an unchanged count.

The two reference markets point in different directions at partner level. Private equity partner moves across the market rose 16.1%, to 469 from 404, so the practice added partner movers and the New York cell did not. New York partner moves across practices were steady, at 560 against 540, a change of 3.7% inside the noise. On this measure the cell looks like its city, not its practice.

Because the partner count did not move, the net gain of 43 moves in the cell came below partner level. For a firm hiring partners, demand grew around a pool that did not: a New York private equity partner search competes for the same number of movers as a year ago. For counsel and senior associates the flow is larger, and that is where a firm can add capacity this year.

There is no year-on-year counsel count to quote, but the three-year mix gives a baseline. Over three years counsel made 12.6% of New York private equity moves; over the last 12 months they made 18.6%, 6.0 points higher. Associates went the other way, from 45.4% over three years to 40.7%. Partners went from 41.6% to 39.8%.

Neither reference market shifted by as much. Private equity across the market went from 10.0% counsel over three years to 11.2% in the last 12 months, and New York across practices from 12.3% to 12.6%. Associate shares slipped in the practice, from 52.8% to 50.1%, and barely moved in the city, from 58.8% to 58.4%. The three-year window contains the last 12 months, so the gap between the recent counsel share in the cell and the earlier years is wider than these two figures show.

This is as far as the data take the growth story: in the last 12 months the cell's lateral flow tilted toward counsel, against its own recent past and against both reference markets. A firm that last mapped the New York private equity bench a few years ago should map it again at counsel level, where the movement now is.

Sartori & Partners records show 15.9% of New York private equity movers joined at a higher title than the one they left, against 14.2% for the practice as a whole and 11.6% across New York. Over three years the cell's figure was 14.0%. A step-up here means associate or counsel to partner, or associate to counsel.

The step-ups are not split by level, so they cannot say how many counsel hires were promotions made in the move. They do show that a title change comes with a New York private equity move more often than with a move in the practice elsewhere or in the city at large, and a little more often than it did over three years.

For a hiring firm, the title is part of the price. A senior associate who can join a rival as counsel, or a counsel who can join as partner, will weigh your offer against that step. If you cannot offer the title, expect to pay for its absence, or to see the candidate accept elsewhere.

Start with counsel. At 18.6% of moves, against 11.2% for the practice and 12.6% for the city, the counsel tier is where New York private equity hiring runs furthest ahead of its references. A firm short of senior capacity on transactions can find it there sooner than through a partner search, and a counsel hire with a clear route to partnership can stand in for a lateral partner.

Plan partner hires around a flat pool. The cell counted 88 partner moves in the latest settled 12 months and 88 in the 12 months before, while private equity partner moves across the market rose 16.1%. Start early, approach partners who are not yet looking, and expect each open candidate to hear from more than one firm.

Associates are a smaller share here, 40.7% against 50.1% for the practice and 58.4% for New York, so a firm counting on junior volume will find a thinner flow than the city as a whole suggests. The firms below hired most often in the cell over 12 months; their offers and their titles are the ones a candidate will set yours against.