Intellectual Property · speciality monitor
Copyright: lateral monitor
Lawyers whose work centers on Copyright and who changed firm over the last 12 months, set against the Intellectual Property practice and the market.
The last 12 months: November 2025 to October 2026
- 212
- Lateral moves, 12 monthsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- +0.4%
- Year on yearSettled 12-month windows
- 45.3%
- Partner share of moves
- 131
- Firms that hired
What the data show
Sartori & Partners data show 212 lateral moves in Copyright from November 2025 to October 2026. Year on year the count held level (223 to 224 on settled windows, +0.4%). That trails the wider market, which moved +9.0%.
| Measure | Here | Intellectual Property | Market |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partner share of moves | 45.3% | 34.4% | 27.7% |
| Counsel share of moves | 11.3% | 11.4% | 12.7% |
| Associate share of moves | 42.9% | 49.7% | 58.5% |
| Moved up a level | 12.3% | 12.6% | 12.9% |
| Changed city | 12.3% | 15.9% | 20.5% |
| Hired by firms of 1,000+ lawyers | 42.7% | 48.6% | 53.6% |
| Year on year | flat (+0.4%) | flat (+7.2%) | rose (+9.0%) |
12 months to October 2026 unless the row says three years; a row switches to three years for every column when this page's 12-month value is not published. A dash is a value we do not publish. Flat means a change under 5% or inside the noise of the two counts.
Set against the Intellectual Property practice as a whole, the partner share stands out most: 45.3% here against 34.4%, above it. Year on year it moved with the Intellectual Property practice as a whole: both flat.
Over the three years to October 2026, 656 lawyers moved in Copyright, 283 of them partners (43.1%). They joined 253 different firms. 11.4% stepped up a level on the move and 16.5% changed city, against 12.3% and 21.6% across the market over the same three years. 49.5% came from firms with 1,000+ lawyers.
- Partner45.3%
- Counsel11.3%
- Associate42.9%
At 45.3%, the partner share of arrivals sits above the market's 27.7%. On settled windows partner moves alone went from 94 to 99 (+5.3%), a change inside the noise of the two counts, so we read it as flat. 12.3% of movers stepped up a level when they changed firm, against 12.9% for the market.
Lateral hires in Copyright were spread across 131 firms. Ten firms account for 21.4% of arrivals, against 12.9% across the market: moderately concentrated. First on the hiring table is Morrison & Foerster, with arrivals in the 6-10 band.
- 1,000+ lawyers49.5%
- 400-999 lawyers20.4%
- 150-399 lawyers15.4%
- under 150 lawyers14.7%
By city, New York comes first (20.8% of arrivals), then San Francisco (14.2%). A change of city came with 12.3% of moves (market 20.5%).
Group moves were 4.7% of the total (market 1.5%).
There were 79 open roles in Copyright on law-firm career pages on November 11, 2026.
With volume in Copyright holding level, a hire depends on a specific reason to move, which a firm has to put in front of the candidate.
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 | Morrison & Foerster | 6-10 |
| 2 | DLA Piper | 3-5 |
| 3 | Thompson Hine | 3-5 |
| 4 | Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton | 3-5 |
| 5 | Alston & Bird | 3-5 |
| 6 | Latham & Watkins | 3-5 |
| 7 | Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan | 3-5 |
| 8 | Greenberg Traurig | 3-5 |
| 9 | Husch Blackwell | 3-5 |
| 10 | Dorsey & Whitney | 3-5 |
| Rank | Firm | Moves (band) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dorsey & Whitney | 6-10 |
| 2 | Thompson Hine | 6-10 |
| 3 | Keystone Law | 6-10 |
| 4 | Buchalter | 3-5 |
| 5 | DLA Piper | 3-5 |
| 6 | Greenberg Traurig | 3-5 |
| 7 | Morgan, Lewis & Bockius | 3-5 |
| 8 | Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney | 3-5 |
| 9 | Saul Ewing | 3-5 |
| 10 | Akerman | 3-5 |
Deals in Copyright
Sartori & Partners data count 74 dated deals in Copyright in the 12 months to October 2026 and 240 over the three years to October 2026.
Disputes & investigations work is involved in 78.3% of them.
By client industry, Media & Entertainment comes first with 53.8%.
Loeb & Loeb ranks first among advising firms over the period, in the 11-20 band.
| Rank | Firm | Deals (band) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Loeb & Loeb | 11-20 |
| 2 | King & Spalding | 11-20 |
| 3 | Greenberg Traurig | 6-10 |
| 4 | Susman Godfrey. | 6-10 |
| 5 | Pryor Cashman | 6-10 |
| 6 | Manatt, Phelps & Phillips | 6-10 |
| 7 | Latham & Watkins | 6-10 |
| 8 | Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner | 6-10 |
| 9 | Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan | 3-5 |
| 10 | Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison | 3-5 |
Time to partner in Copyright
62 lawyers were promoted to partner in Copyright in the 12 months to May 2026, 322 over five years, according to Sartori & Partners data.
The median time from first year of practice to partner is 10.0 years, with the middle half between 9.0 years and 12.0 years, against a market median of 10.0 years. 78.0% made partner within 12 years.
These figures rest on 254 promotions.
Related monitors and reports
Other specialities in Intellectual Property
Hiring in this market
Reports
- Copyright Lawyers in 2026: Hiring Follows the Media Docket
Media and entertainment clients sit on 53.8% of copyright matters on record, most of them disputes, and copyright hiring over-indexes in San Francisco and Los Angeles far more than intellectual property does. Volume is flat; the map is what moved.
November 11, 2026 · November 2026
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].
For law firm leaders
Planning a partner hire in this market?
We run retained partner searches using the same data behind this page.