Practice · promotions · November 2026
Corporate & M&A: promotions and time to partner
How Corporate & M&A 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
- 620
- Partner promotionsJune 2025 to May 2026
- 9.0 years
- Median time to partnerFive years of promotions
- 0.75
- Promotions per lateral partner12 months to May 2026
- 870
- Lateral partner arrivalsNovember 2025 to October 2026
What the data show
Sartori & Partners data record 620 partner promotions in Corporate & M&A from June 2025 to May 2026. Promotions are confirmed about five months late, so this window ends earlier than the lateral figures. Over the same 12 months that is 0.75 promotions for every lateral partner hired, against 0.79 across the market: more of the partner bench here is bought than made.
Across five years of promotions, the median time from first year of practice to partner is 9.0 years, with the middle half between 8.0 years and 11.0 years. The market median is 10.0 years, so the track here runs shorter. The median rests on 1,990 promotions.
On settled windows lateral partner moves in Corporate & M&A went from 778 to 873, up 12.2% year on year.
Firms in Corporate & M&A buy partners more often than the market does; a lateral partner hire here competes with that habit.
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 | White & Case | 21-40 |
| 2 | DLA Piper | 21-40 |
| 3 | Simpson Thacher & Bartlett | 21-40 |
| 4 | Greenberg Traurig | 21-40 |
| 5 | Kirkland & Ellis | 11-20 |
| 6 | Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison | 11-20 |
| 7 | Reed Smith | 11-20 |
| 8 | Holland & Knight | 11-20 |
| 9 | Latham & Watkins | 11-20 |
| 10 | Willkie Farr & Gallagher | 11-20 |
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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