Leveraged Finance Hiring: London Ahead of New York

Sartori & Partners data show that London was the largest destination for acquisition and leveraged finance laterals in the 12 months to October 2026, with 81 moves, or 23.3% of the 348 recorded in the specialty. New York took 78, a 22.4% share. The gap is narrow, 0.9 points, but it runs against the practice around it: across banking and finance, New York took 21.5% of moves and London 16.4%. Put plainly, the leveraged finance lawyers London offices hired outnumbered those who joined New York, in a practice where New York is otherwise the larger hiring city. For a firm planning a leveraged finance build, that changes where the first search should start and which bench it will compete for.

The London lead reverses the practice. In banking and finance, New York's share sits 5.1 points above London's. Corporate lending, the sibling specialty, follows the practice: New York took 22.3% of its moves and London 15.8%. Of the two banking specialties compared here, acquisition and leveraged finance is the one where London comes first. The index shows the size of the tilt. London's share of leveraged finance moves indexes at 252 against the market's city mix, where London holds 9.2% of all lateral moves. New York indexes at 152, high, but well short of London. Banking and finance as a whole indexes London at 177, and corporate lending at 171.

For a hiring partner the reading is direct. A London leveraged finance search draws on the specialty's largest lateral pool, while a New York search draws on a pool of similar size inside a practice that leans to New York for almost everything else. Firms that staff both cities should not assume that New York holds the deeper leveraged finance bench.

The 12-month lead is not a one-year result. Over 3 years, London took 23.2% of acquisition and leveraged finance moves and New York 18.4%, a gap of 4.8 points. Banking and finance, over the same 3 years, moved 20.2% of its laterals into New York and 17.2% into London. The latest 12 months have narrowed London's margin rather than widened it: New York's 12-month share of 22.4% sits above its 3-year share.

Continental Europe shows clearly in the 3-year list. Paris, with 4.7% of moves, and Milan, with 4.4%, rank third and fourth, ahead of every US city except New York, and Frankfurt follows at 2.5%. In banking and finance overall, Paris holds 2.9% and Milan 1.8%. A European leveraged finance search therefore runs across several markets, and the 3-year shares are the sound base for sizing each of them.

The city split matters more because the specialty is not adding volume. Acquisition and leveraged finance hiring held flat (-3.1%) year on year in the settled 12-month windows, with 369 moves against 381. Banking and finance hiring rose 14.1% over the same windows, from 1,766 to 2,015 moves, and hiring across the whole market rose 9.0%. Partner hiring in the specialty held flat (-9.0%), from 122 to 111. The specialty accounts for 17.5% of banking and finance lateral moves. Partners make up 32.8% of its laterals, against 30.8% in banking and finance and 27.7% in the market.

A steady specialty inside a growing practice means firms compete for the same people rather than for new ones. The pool is not getting larger, and London holds the bigger part of it, so a firm that waits for supply to rise is waiting for something the counts do not show.

Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 73.6% of acquisition and leveraged finance laterals, against 63.8% in banking and finance and 53.6% across the market. Hiring is also concentrated by firm. The top 10 hirers took 30.7% of the specialty's moves, against 19.9% in banking and finance, and at partner level the top 10 took 44.7%. In all, 116 firms hired at least one lawyer in the specialty in the 12 months.

Latham & Watkins heads the 12-month list. The first four hirers each sit in the 11-20 band of hires, the next six in the 6-10 band. A firm outside the 1,000+ lawyers class that recruits in this specialty is hiring against a market where most moves land on large platforms, and it should plan to offer a broader role or a clearer path to lead the work.

On the deal side, Sartori & Partners records 1,810 dated acquisition and leveraged finance deals over 3 years. Banks and financial institutions appear as a client industry in 18.5% of them and financial sponsors in 14.1%. In corporate lending, sponsors appear in only 5.1% of deals, while banks appear in 16.5%. A deal can carry several industries or none, so these shares are not a split of the whole.

The client mix explains what a lateral brings. Leveraged finance work splits between lender-side and sponsor-side mandates, and a candidate's standing with either group is part of what the hiring firm is paying for. Test it in the interview, not after the start date.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, London weighs more in leveraged finance on the leaving side too: it was the previous city of 16.1% of the specialty's laterals, against 14.1% across banking and finance. Only 19.5% of leveraged finance laterals changed city, against 20.4% in banking and finance and 20.5% in the market, so most moves stay inside one city. Three practical points follow for a firm building or rebuilding the practice.

First, start a London search inside London. The city is the specialty's largest destination at an index of 252, so a London mandate meets the busiest hiring market in the specialty, and the timetable should allow for counteroffers. Second, do not treat New York as the default deeper bench: its 22.4% share is close to London's, and the practice-wide New York lead does not carry over. Third, size Paris, Milan and Frankfurt on 3 years of moves, where each shows a distinct pool.

Home-grown partners are the other route. In the specialty, 70 lawyers were promoted to partner from June 2025 to May 2026. Lateral partner hires in the specialty numbered 114 from November 2025 to October 2026. Across banking and finance, firms promoted 0.57 lawyers to partner for each lateral partner they hired in the same 12 months, so the practice adds more partners by lateral hire than by promotion.