Foreign Investment Review Lawyers: Index 1,015 in Washington

Sartori & Partners data show that 56.9% of foreign investment review lateral moves in the 12 months to October 2026 joined a Washington, DC office, against 5.6% of all moves in the market. That is an index of 1,015 against the market, more than any other speciality with a published Washington figure. For a firm planning to add CFIUS lawyers, the search is a Washington search before it is anything else.

Foreign investment review is the work of clearing cross-border acquisitions with the federal committee that screens foreign investment for national security, and with its counterparts abroad. It sits inside the international trade and national security practice, and 39.6% of that practice's lateral moves were made by lawyers whose own focus is foreign investment review. The sections below set the speciality against that practice and against the whole market: where the moves land, who moves, how hiring is changing, which firms hire and how long partnership takes.

The trade practice is already tied to the capital: 49.1% of its lateral moves joined in Washington, DC, an index of 876. Foreign investment review goes further, at 56.9% and an index of 1,015. Export controls and sanctions, the other large speciality in the practice, indexes at 892. Among specialities with a published Washington figure, none reaches the foreign investment review index.

The lawyers seldom relocate. Only 11.6% of foreign investment review movers also changed city, against 13.1% in trade and 20.5% in the market. A firm that wants this capability without a Washington office is recruiting from a far smaller pool, and should weigh opening one against a long search elsewhere.

A 12-month window on a small speciality can swing, so the longer record matters. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, 49.7% of foreign investment review moves over three years joined in Washington, DC, against 44.6% for the trade practice and 5.2% for all practices.

The concentration has held across both windows, so it is a feature of the work rather than one busy year. A Washington partner is the anchor hire for any foreign investment review group, and offices elsewhere support that partner rather than replace one.

Partners were 45.1% of foreign investment review lateral moves in the 12 months, against 40.6% in trade and 27.7% market-wide. Associates were 45.1%, against 48.1% in trade and 58.5% across the market. Over three years the partner share was 38.3%, against 34.3% for the trade practice, so the tilt toward partners is not a one-year reading.

Step-ups on the move are about as common as elsewhere: 13.7% of foreign investment review movers joined at a higher title, against 12.9% in the market. The lateral market for this work therefore trades mostly at partner level and prices at partner level. A firm that wants associates in foreign investment review will find a thinner lateral supply than the market average and should plan to train them in-house.

Foreign investment review moves went from 50 to 57 across the two settled 12-month windows: hiring held flat (+14.0%). On counts this small, a gap of that size is within what chance alone produces, which is why it reads as flat. The trade practice also held flat (+6.2%), from 112 to 119. The market as a whole rose 9.0%, from 13,128 to 14,305.

The yearly counts tell the same story at a glance: 55 moves in 2025 and 47 in 2026 through October. A steady count means the same group of lawyers is being reshuffled between firms. Each hire is a lawyer another firm wants to keep, so offers need to clear a retention response rather than an open market.

Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 64.7% of the speciality's lateral moves, close to the trade practice's 66.0% and above the market's 53.6%. Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 23.5%, against 23.4% in the market, and firms of 150-399 lawyers 11.8%.

Over three years, 77 firms hired at least one foreign investment review lawyer, and the ten most active took 33.8% of the individual hires.

The first four firms on the list each hired in the 6-10 band over three years, the next six in the 3-5 band. A firm outside this group meets the same ten names in nearly every senior search, and should expect candidates to compare its offer with theirs.

Foreign investment review lawyers promoted to partner in the five years to May 2026 took a median of 11.0 years from their first year of practice, against 10.0 years across all partner promotions. Only 14.8% made it within 8 years, against 23.2% market-wide; within 12 years the shares were 66.7% and 75.4%. The speciality figure rests on 54 promotions.

For a firm weighing build against buy, this sets the clock. A senior associate in this work is further from partnership than the typical associate in the market, so a lateral partner is the quicker route to a name the firm can put in front of clients.

Run the search in Washington, DC first. With an index of 1,015, the city is the market for this work, and a strong candidate based elsewhere is the exception rather than the rule.

Expect the hire to be a partner. Partners make 45.1% of the moves, so the realistic lateral is senior, and the junior bench comes from training rather than from other firms.

Do not wait for supply to grow. Hiring held flat (+14.0%) across the settled windows, so each move takes a lawyer from a competing team. On the data date, 28 openings for this work were live on law-firm career pages, and a new search runs against those.