The Long Partner Track: Projects, Trade and Regulatory Work

Firm leaders who ask which practices have the fewest lawyers making partner within 12 years get a clear answer from the promotion record. Sartori & Partners data show that 66.9% of projects and infrastructure partners promoted over the last 5 years reached the title within 12 years of their first year of practice, against 86.7% in private equity and 75.4% across all practices. The late promotions are not spread evenly. They gather in project work, in international trade and regulatory practice, and in private client work, while the deal practices sit well above the market line.

Every figure here covers the partners promoted over 5 years and is measured on the cases where the first year of practice is known: 314 in projects and infrastructure, 1,010 in private equity and 10,427 for the market. Practice figures pool every country, and countries qualify lawyers by different routes, so they describe the shape of a track rather than a local clock; city figures are set side by side only within one country. Promotion counts for the latest 12 months run from June 2025 to May 2026, the last complete month.

Measured within 12 years, projects and infrastructure sits 19.8 points below private equity and 8.5 points below the market. The gap opens early: only 15.6% of projects partners were promoted within 8 years, against 31.8% in private equity. The median projects partner had 11.0 years of practice at promotion, against 9.0 years, and the slowest quarter needed 13.0 years against 11.0 years.

The neighbors of projects work do not share its pace. Corporate and M&A promoted 83.9% of its partners within 12 years. Banking and finance, recorded on 46.7% of projects lateral moves, reads 74.8%, close to the market, and capital markets 80.1%. Project mandates run for years from bid to financial close, and partnership tends to wait until a senior associate has carried several through. For a firm building a projects bench, a homegrown partner is a longer bet than in transactional work: plan the associate pipeline past the market median of 10.0 years.

International trade and national security is slower still. In the Sartori & Partners promotion record, 65.7% of its partners made it within 12 years and only 10.1% within 8 years, on a smaller base of 99 cases. Regulatory and compliance reads 70.3%, with a median of 11.0 years against the market's 10.0 years. Financial services regulatory sits at 72.1%, and its share promoted within 8 years, 10.2%, is close to the trade figure.

This work clusters in one city. Washington took 49.1% of international trade lateral moves over 12 months, and 16.7% of regulatory and compliance moves, an index of 298 against the market's share. Across all practices, Washington partners were promoted within 8 years in 14.4% of cases, against 20.3% in New York. A firm that wants a trade or regulatory partner on a deal-practice timetable will rarely find one in its own associate ranks; the realistic routes are a lateral hire in Washington or a longer associate plan agreed at the outset.

Private client and estates matches projects: 66.2% of its partners were promoted within 12 years, and its slowest quarter needed 14.0 years of practice against 12.0 years for the market. Employment and labor, measured on a much larger base of 1,133 cases, reads 70.0%, 5.4 points under the market. Immigration and family sit lower again, at 54.5% and 52.1%, on 88 and 48 cases, and their slowest quarters needed 16.0 years and 16.2 years: their tracks are first a question of predictability, which our sibling report on that subject covers.

Employment weighs most because of its size: it made 305 partners in the 12 months to May 2026, against 115 in regulatory and compliance and 113 in projects and infrastructure. A firm planning employment succession should expect a real share of its next partners to come from associates who are still on the track after the market median, and should budget to keep them through those extra years rather than see them take a lateral offer.

Across all practices, the share of new partners promoted within 12 years was 77.6% for promotions made in 2023 and 74.3% for those made in 2025, while the median stayed at 10.0 years. The 2026 reading of 71.4% covers promotions to May only, on 1,812 cases, and the January round dominates it, with 1,666 partner promotions. The middle of the market has not moved; the slow tail has grown a little longer, with the slowest quarter at 12.0 years in 2023 and 13.0 years in 2025.

For practices already below the line, the market offers no tailwind. A firm cannot assume that its projects or trade associates will reach the title sooner than the partners promoted before them, and associate review timetables in those groups should be set on their own figures, not on firm-wide averages.

Slow internal tracks show in the balance between promoting and hiring. Projects and infrastructure firms promoted 0.54 partners for each lateral partner they hired in the 12 months to May 2026, against 0.79 market-wide and 0.68 in private equity. In the settled lateral windows, projects partner hiring held flat (+16.5%), to 212 from 182.

The link is not automatic. International trade promoted 0.87 partners per lateral partner and employment 0.95, both above the market, despite their long tracks. In regulatory and compliance, lateral partner hiring held flat (+10.7%) at 176 against 159, and partners made up 42.5% of its lateral moves. Where the lateral market already supplies more partners than promotion does, as in projects, a firm that waits for its own associates is competing for senior talent against firms that will not wait.

Set associate expectations by practice. In projects and infrastructure, the median partner had 11.0 years of practice and the slowest quarter 13.0 years; telling a senior associate that the firm promotes on the private equity timetable is a promise the record does not support. If the group needs a partner within the year, hire laterally, and look first where projects hiring over-indexes: Houston took 9.6% of the practice's lateral moves, an index of 409 against the market.

For trade and regulatory groups, Washington is the market for both the late-promoted partner and the lateral alternative, and a candidate still an associate after the market median is normal there, not a warning sign: Washington's own median is 11.0 years. In private client and employment, the cost of the long track is retention: the associates most likely to make partner late are the ones a competitor can offer the title sooner. Sartori & Partners data, drawn from public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly, give each practice its own clock; a partnership plan that uses one clock for every group will misjudge the slow ones.