Civil Rights Litigation Hiring: Chicago Nearly Level with New York

Firms looking for civil rights litigation lawyers will find the pool split across more than one city. Sartori & Partners data show that over 3 years Chicago took 9.5% of lateral moves in civil rights and constitutional litigation, close to New York's 10.3%. Across litigation and disputes as a whole, Chicago took 4.6% and New York 12.9%. The speciality is small: 85 lateral hires in the 12 months to October 2026 and 243 over 3 years, spread across 155 hiring firms.

Lawyers who name civil rights and constitutional work as their own focus account for 1.5% of litigation moves. This report sets them against the litigation practice and the full lateral market on four questions: where they join, how senior they are, whether hiring is growing, and which firms take them. The answers describe a senior bench spread across Chicago, Washington and New York that is not getting any larger.

Over 3 years, three cities took the most civil rights and constitutional litigation hires: New York with 25 moves, Chicago with 23 and Washington, DC with 20. Chicago's share of 9.5% is 2.1 times the city's 4.6% share of all litigation hires, and well above its 4.0% share of the whole lateral market. Washington, DC shows the same tilt on a smaller scale: 8.2% of civil rights hires against 5.4% in litigation, a gap of 2.8 points.

The pattern fits the work. Much civil rights and constitutional litigation is brought against, or defended for, cities, counties, police departments and federal agencies, and it is staffed close to the courts and governments involved. That favors regional benches over one national center. New York's margin is thin: its 10.3% share of civil rights hires sits below the 12.9% it takes of litigation hiring and the 14.2% it takes of the market. In litigation generally New York draws 2.8 times as many hires as Chicago; in civil rights the two cities are separated by 2 moves over 3 years.

For a firm building a civil rights bench, Chicago belongs on the first search list beside New York, not after it, with Washington, DC third. Even together the three cities took only 68 of the 243 hires over 3 years, so a national search will find most candidates elsewhere.

Civil rights hiring is more senior than the practice around it. Partners made up 34.1% of the speciality's lateral hires in 12 months, against 27.4% in litigation and disputes and 27.7% across the market, a gap of 6.7 points with litigation. Associates took 50.6%, against 57.7% in litigation. The longer window agrees: partners were 32.5% of civil rights hires over 3 years, against 27.3% in litigation, so the senior tilt is not a one-year swing.

Step-ups in title are a little more common as well. In Sartori & Partners figures, 15.3% of civil rights hires joined at a higher title than the one they left, against 13.4% in litigation and 12.9% in the market. Fewer of them relocate: 17.5% changed city with the move, against 19.6% in litigation and 20.5% market-wide.

Expect a civil rights mandate to be a partner search more often than a general litigation mandate is, and expect the candidate to stay in the same city. A relocation package will rarely be the deciding term. When partner economics do not fit, a senior counsel ready for the partner title is the realistic alternative.

The civil rights pool is not expanding. The speciality recorded 84 lateral moves in the most recent settled year, against 79 in the year before it, a difference that reads as flat on counts this small. Over the same windows, litigation and disputes hiring rose 7.5%, from 5,281 to 5,679, and the whole market rose 9.0%.

The yearly series has no direction either: 81 moves in 2022, 84 in 2024 and 73 in 2025, with 2026 at 79 through October. Partner hiring is steady too, at 29 partner moves in the most recent settled year against 23 before it, a gap that chance alone can produce at this size.

A flat pool inside a growing practice means each civil rights hire comes out of a firm that wants to keep the lawyer. Budget for a longer search and a counter-offer, not for a market that is adding candidates.

Civil rights hires cluster in fewer firms than litigation hires do. Over 3 years Davis Wright Tremaine ranked first, in the 6-10 band, and Morrison & Foerster second, in the 6-10 band, followed by Cozen O'Connor and Marshall Dennehey. The ten most active hirers took 20.0% of civil rights hires over 3 years, against 12.0% for the ten most active litigation hirers.

By size of the joining firm, the speciality sits further from the largest firms than litigation does. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 37.9% of civil rights hires over 3 years, against 43.5% in litigation and 52.5% in the market. Firms under 150 lawyers took 14.5%, against 11.5% in litigation and 8.6% in the market.

The competition for a civil rights lateral is a short list of repeat hirers. A firm entering this market will meet the same rivals on most candidates, and should know their offices in Chicago and Washington before it starts.

Growing the bench from within takes as long here as elsewhere. The median civil rights litigator made partner 10.0 years after starting practice, the same as the market's 10.0 years and litigation's 10.0 years. The quickest quarter moved sooner, making partner within 8.0 years against 9.0 years for the market. Firms promoted 39 civil rights litigators to partner in the 12 months from June 2025 to May 2026, and 173 over 5 years.

Promotion supplies a steady trickle, not a fix for a thin bench. A firm that needs a civil rights partner this year has to hire one; a firm with time can grow one on the same schedule as any other litigator.

Search Chicago and Washington before you widen. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, Chicago took 9.5% of civil rights hires over 3 years and Washington, DC 8.2%, against 4.6% and 5.4% of litigation hires. New York is still the largest single city by a narrow margin, but it holds a smaller share of this bench than of litigation generally.

Plan the mandate as a partner search. With partners at 34.1% of civil rights hires and fewer lawyers changing city than in litigation, the realistic candidate is a sitting partner in the same market, and the offer has to beat a firm with no plan to replace that partner.

Expect no help from growth. Hiring held flat at 84 moves against 79, so this year's candidates are largely last year's. Watch the repeat hirers named above: they are your rivals for talent and the likeliest source of it.