Defamation Lawyer Hiring: Associates Are the Minority

Firms recruiting defamation lawyers are shopping in a market where associates are the minority. Sartori & Partners data show that associates made 37.3% of the 75 defamation and reputation lateral moves in the 12 months to October 2026. Across litigation and disputes, the practice the specialty sits in, associates were 57.7% of moves, and in the whole lateral market 58.5%. Partners filled the gap: 44.0% of defamation laterals joined as partners, against 27.4% in litigation. The specialty is small, with 1.2% of litigation moves recorded under it, so every figure here rests on a short list of hires. The direction is still clear, and it holds over three years.

In most of litigation the lateral market is an associate market. Defamation runs the other way. The associate share of defamation moves sits 20.4 points below litigation as a whole. A defamation lateral is 1.6 times as likely to join as a partner as a litigation lateral in general. Counsel also weigh more: 18.7% of defamation moves against 14.4% in litigation and 12.7% in the market.

For a hiring partner this changes the shape of a search. A firm that wants a mid-level defamation associate is asking for the scarcest profile in the specialty, and may do better training a general litigator already on its bench than waiting for one to come on the market. A firm that wants a partner with an existing media and reputation practice is looking at the most common kind of move.

One year of a small specialty can mislead, so the longer window matters. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, the 273 defamation moves of the last 3 years split into 39.6% partners, 14.3% counsel and 46.2% associates. Litigation over the same 3 years ran at 27.3% partners and 58.5% associates. The associate share in defamation is higher over three years than in the latest 12 months, yet it stays well short of litigation's in both windows.

Partner arrivals read steady as well. The latest settled 12 months counted 36 partner moves against 29 the year before, a gap that reads as flat at counts this small. The senior tilt is a standing feature of the specialty, not a one-year spike, and a firm can plan a partner search on it.

Defamation lawyers who move tend to keep both their title and their city. Only 8.0% of defamation moves came with a higher title, against 13.4% in litigation and 12.9% in the market. That 12-month share rests on few cases and is a rough size, but the 3-year figure points the same way: 12.8% against 13.2% for litigation.

City changes are rarer still. 14.3% of defamation laterals moved to a new city, against 19.6% across litigation and 20.5% market-wide. Over 3 years the shares were 15.6% and 20.3%. The practical reading: a title bump is a weak lure in this specialty, because partners already arrive as partners, and a relocation package will rarely close a search. The candidate pool for a given office is the bar already practicing in that city.

Over 3 years Los Angeles and New York each took 13.6% of defamation lateral moves. In litigation as a whole, Los Angeles took 7.4% and New York 12.9%, and across the market the 3-year shares were 4.8% and 14.2%. New York's weight in defamation is close to its weight in litigation; Los Angeles carries 1.8 times its litigation share.

With so few lawyers changing city, a firm that needs a defamation partner in Los Angeles should search the Los Angeles bar first, and a firm outside the two hubs should expect a thin local pool.

Against the market, defamation hiring leans away from the largest firms. Firms with 1,000+ lawyers took 40.0% of defamation lateral moves over 12 months, against 43.3% in litigation and 53.6% in the market. Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 36.0%, against 25.7% in litigation. Sartori & Partners counted 59 firms hiring at least one defamation lateral in 12 months and 157 over 3 years.

The ten firms that hired most took 19.4% of individual defamation hires over 3 years, against 12.0% for the ten most active litigation hirers. The first-ranked firm, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, sits in the 6-10 band of hires. A firm competing for defamation laterals meets the same few rivals more often than it would in general litigation.

Defamation lateral hiring held flat (-3.7%) year on year: 78 moves in the latest settled 12 months against 81 the year before. Litigation over the same windows rose 7.5%, from 5,281 to 5,679 moves. Defamation has not shared in the wider litigation pickup.

The internal route to partner is slow. Lawyers in the specialty who made partner over 5 years took a median of 11.0 years from their first year of practice, against 10.0 years for litigation. Only 15.4% made it within 8 years, against 21.1% in litigation. From June 2025 to May 2026, 31 defamation lawyers were promoted to partner. A firm that waits for its own bench to produce a defamation partner waits longer than in other litigation work.

Plan the search around a partner, not an associate. Partners were 44.0% of defamation laterals in the last 12 months, so a partner search fishes in the deepest part of a small pool, while an associate search fishes in the shallowest. For associate needs, a general litigator trained on media and reputation work is the realistic hire.

Recruit in the city where the seat is. With 14.3% of moves involving a change of city, a relocation offer rarely decides the outcome, and Los Angeles and New York took the largest shares of hires over 3 years. Expect to meet the same handful of rival hirers, and budget time: hiring is flat at 78 moves in the latest settled 12 months, so each candidate who moves is one of few in a year.