Asset Finance Lawyers: Aircraft, Ships and London in 2026

Sartori & Partners data show that asset finance is as much a transport practice as a banking one. Over 3 years, aviation clients appear in 22.4% of the 214 dated matters on record for asset finance lawyers, transportation and logistics clients in 15.4% and shipping clients in 12.6%. Banks and financial institutions, the group most firms picture first when they think of finance work, appear in 30.4%. For a firm recruiting aviation finance lawyers, the client mix says that the asset a candidate knows counts alongside the lending skill. The lateral market that serves this work is also small, weighted to London and hired by a short list of firms, which shapes where a search starts and how long it runs.

Three of the four client industries on the speciality's list are transport sectors. Aviation clients appear in 22.4% of asset finance matters over 3 years, the largest transport sector on the list. Transportation and logistics follows at 15.4% and shipping at 12.6%. Each share counts the matters involving that industry, so one financing can carry an airline and a bank at once, and the shares are never added together. Banks and financial institutions remain the largest single group at 30.4%, 8.0 points ahead of aviation.

By type, banking and lending accounts for 51.4% of the speciality's matters and project and infrastructure finance for 13.1%. The type names the mechanics of the deal, the industry names the asset behind it: a loan or a lease secured on an aircraft, a vessel or a fleet of trucks. For a hiring partner the order of questions follows from that. Ask first which asset class a candidate has financed and for whom, then how. A lawyer with a run of aircraft lease financings is a different hire from a corporate lender, even when both sit in the same banking group.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, asset finance lateral hiring rose 43.6% year on year, from 55 moves to 79 in the settled 12-month windows. Banking and finance as a whole rose 14.1% over the same windows, from 1,766 to 2,015, and the full market rose 9.0%. The speciality moved faster than both, on a base small enough that a few moves change the rate.

Partner hiring did not keep pace. Asset finance partner moves went from 22 to 28, counts too small to read as growth: partner hiring held flat (+27.3%). In banking and finance, partner hiring rose 10.6%. Partners still make up a larger slice of asset finance moves than of the wider market: 36.1% in 12 months, against 30.8% in banking and finance and 27.7% across all practices.

The practical reading: the rise in total hiring has not come with a confirmed rise in partner moves. A firm hunting an asset finance partner should not expect a wider field than a year ago, while associate and counsel searches meet a busier market.

London took 33.3% of asset finance lateral moves in 12 months, an index of 360 against the market. The market's own London share is 9.2%. Banking and finance indexes London at 177, with a 16.4% share, so the speciality's London index is 2.0 times the practice's. Over three years London took 25.5% of asset finance moves and New York 16.3%; the latest 12 months tilt further toward London than that longer record.

Asset finance laterals also tend to stay where they are. Only 13.7% changed city when they moved, against 20.4% in banking and finance and 20.5% across the market. Over three years the speciality's rate was 22.2%, closer to the practice. For a firm, a London search will draw mainly on lawyers already in London, and a practice built in another city should count on local candidates rather than on relocation.

Sartori & Partners recorded 34 firms hiring asset finance laterals in the 12 months to October 2026. The most active, Stephenson Harwood, sits in the 6-10 band of hires.

The top 10 hirers took 61.1% of individual asset finance hires, against 19.9% in banking and finance. By size of the joining firm, 40.3% of asset finance moves went to firms of 400-999 lawyers, against 20.6% in banking and finance; firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 48.6%, against 63.8%.

The adviser list for matters overlaps the hiring list. Over 3 years Watson Farley & Williams heads the advisers on asset finance matters, in the 41-60 band, and Stephenson Harwood, second there, is also the most active hirer of the last 12 months. A firm entering this work competes with the same small group for every lateral, and each move out of one of them is felt across a thin bench.

Recruit by asset class. With aviation in 22.4% of matters and shipping in 12.6%, the sector book a lawyer brings is part of the hire and worth testing before the lending record. Start a search in London, where the speciality's moves concentrate at an index of 360, and expect candidates who stay in their city: only 13.7% changed city in 12 months.

Budget time for a partner hire. Partner hiring held flat (+27.3%), so the field is no wider than last year, and a small group of firms takes most of the movement. Growing a partner internally is slow too: across 63 promotions over 5 years, the median time to partner in asset finance was 11.0 years, in a typical range of 9.0 years to 13.0 years. A firm that needs an asset finance partner within a year will usually have to hire laterally, and should begin with lawyers who already finance aircraft or ships.