City · promotions · November 2026
Boston: promotions and time to partner
How Boston fills its partner bench: promotions against lateral partner arrivals, and how long the track to partner takes.
The last 12 months: November 2025 to October 2026
- 83
- Partner promotionsJune 2025 to May 2026
- 10.0 years
- Median time to partnerFive years of promotions
- 0.81
- Promotions per lateral partner12 months to May 2026
- 97
- Lateral partner arrivalsNovember 2025 to October 2026
What the data show
From June 2025 to May 2026, 83 lawyers were promoted to partner in Boston, according to Sartori & Partners data. Promotions are confirmed about five months late, so this window ends earlier than the lateral figures. Over the same 12 months that is 0.81 promotions for every lateral partner hired, against 0.79 across the market: more of the partner bench here is made than bought.
Across five years of promotions, the median time from first year of practice to partner is 10.0 years, with the middle half between 9.0 years and 12.0 years. The market median is also 10.0 years. The median rests on 333 promotions.
On settled windows lateral partner moves in Boston went from 85 to 92 (+8.2%), a change inside the noise of the two counts, so we read it as flat.
Firms in Boston lean on internal promotion; a lateral partner here is an exception to plan and justify.
Firms by rank and band
Each firm appears as a rank and a band, never an exact count, and only with at least 10 moves in the window.
| Rank | Firm | Moves (band) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reed Smith | 6-10 |
| 2 | Shipman & Goodwin | 6-10 |
| 3 | Merchant & Gould | 6-10 |
| 4 | Morgan, Lewis & Bockius | 3-5 |
| 5 | Choate Hall & Stewart | 3-5 |
| 6 | Holland & Knight | 3-5 |
| 7 | Goodwin Procter | 3-5 |
| 8 | White & Case | 3-5 |
| 9 | Simpson Thacher & Bartlett | 3-5 |
| 10 | Foley Hoag | 3-5 |
Related monitors and reports
Hiring in this market
Edition November 2026. Window: November 2025 to October 2026. Source: Sartori & Partners, from public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly. Methodology. Spot an error? [email protected].
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