PPP Lawyers: Paris and the Partner Bench

Hiring of PPP lawyers centers on one city and one level. Sartori & Partners data show 172 public-private partnership lateral moves over 3 years, and Paris took 12.8% of them. Across the projects and infrastructure practice, Paris took 4.5%, and across the whole lateral market 2.3%. In the last 12 months partners made up 64.3% of the speciality's 56 moves, against 38.6% in the practice. A firm building a public-private partnership bench is recruiting senior people in a narrow geography, and the search plan should be drawn on that basis from the first call.

Over 3 years Paris took 2.8 times the share of public-private partnership moves that it took of all projects and infrastructure moves. Paris is the only city named in the speciality's three-year city count, with 22 moves. The practice as a whole looks very different: London took 15.7% of its moves over the same years and New York 9.5%, with Paris fifth in the table below.

Partnership contracts between public authorities and private sponsors are a long-standing procurement route in France. Against the whole market, where Paris took 2.3% of lateral moves over 3 years, the city's weight in this speciality stands out even more. For a firm, a PPP partner search should start in Paris. If it widens to London and New York, the practice's two largest centers, the first screening question is how much of a candidate's work is public-private partnership rather than general project finance.

Partners took 64.3% of public-private partnership lateral moves in the 12 months to October 2026. The figure was 38.6% for projects and infrastructure and 27.7% for the whole market, so the speciality sits 25.7 points above a practice that is already senior by market standards. Associates were 28.6% of the speciality's moves, against 48.4% in the practice and 58.5% in the market.

This is not a one-year spike. Over 3 years partners were 51.7% of public-private partnership moves, against 35.0% in the practice and 26.9% in the market. Where firms promoted their own PPP lawyers to partner over 5 years, the median path was 11.0 years from the first year of practice, and 60.7% made it within 12 years. With partners at 64.3% of moves, a PPP hire is usually a partner hire, with the notice periods, conflict checks and partnership votes that come with one. A firm that wants to grow from below has a thin associate market to draw on and may do better training associates from its own project finance team.

Sartori & Partners data show that only 8.9% of public-private partnership moves in the last 12 months came with a higher title, against 15.1% in projects and infrastructure and 12.9% across the market. A lawyer who is already a partner has no higher title to take, so a partner-heavy mix holds this figure low. The 12-month reading breaks with the longer record: over 3 years, 16.9% of the speciality's moves came with a step up, against 13.8% in the practice.

Moves also stay local. In the last 12 months 13.0% of public-private partnership laterals changed city as well as firm, against 22.3% in the practice and 20.5% in the market. Over 3 years the speciality's figure was 22.4%, close to the practice's 24.9%, so the recent pattern is the more local one. For a hiring firm, a higher title is seldom part of the offer here, and the case has to rest on the platform, the deal flow and the economics. A firm with no team in the city where the candidate already works is asking for the less common kind of move, and should expect a longer conversation.

Of the 184 dated public-private partnership deals on record over 3 years, 86.4% were project and infrastructure finance. Clients in Infrastructure were involved in 28.3% of those deals, and clients in Government & Public Sector in 16.8%. These industry shares overlap, since one deal can involve clients from more than one industry. In the last 12 months the record holds 74 such deals.

A public-private partnership lawyer works where the financing documents meet the long-term contract with a public authority: the concession, the availability payment, the handback at the end of the term. The public-sector client share is what separates the speciality from ordinary private project finance, where the counterparty is a sponsor or a lender alone. When a firm tests a partner candidate, the useful question is which matters had a public authority or an infrastructure owner on the other side of the table, and what role the candidate played on the public contract rather than the loan.

Public-private partnership hiring held flat (+6.8%) year on year, from 59 moves to 63 in the settled 12-month windows. Hiring across projects and infrastructure held flat (+1.3%), from 530 to 537, while the whole market rose 9.0%, from 13,128 to 14,305. Partner hiring in the practice held flat (+16.5%), from 182 to 212.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, yearly public-private partnership moves sat between 52 and 62 from 2022 to 2025. Public-private partnership moves recorded under projects and infrastructure were 9.6% of that practice's moves in the last 12 months. A level speciality inside a level practice, while the market around both grew, means the pool of PPP candidates is not getting larger. A firm that waits for more partners to come to market should not expect a bigger field next year on this record: the search has to reach lawyers who are not looking.

Over 3 years, the ten most active public-private partnership hirers took 31.4% of the speciality's individual hires. Dentons ranks first, in the 11-20 band, followed by Norton Rose Fulbright and Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, both in the 6-10 band. Norton Rose Fulbright, first on the practice's own 3-year list, ranks 2nd here.

On the partner list Dentons again ranks first, in the 6-10 band. Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld and Eversheds Sutherland also appear on both lists. A firm entering this speciality should treat the names on both lists as the platforms most likely to be bidding for the same partner, and price its offer with them in mind.

Start in Paris. Over 3 years the city took 12.8% of public-private partnership moves, against 2.3% of all lateral moves, so a search that skips it leaves out the speciality's center. Budget for a partner: with partners at 64.3% of moves, a PPP hire will usually carry partner economics and a partnership vote. Plan for a local move, since only 13.0% of moves in 12 months crossed cities.

A firm below the largest size class is not shut out. Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 30.9% of public-private partnership moves in 12 months, against 19.5% across projects and infrastructure. Do not count on a growing pool, with hiring that held flat (+6.8%) on the year. And test the public side of the work before the economics: the candidate who has run the contract with the authority, not only the loan, is the scarce one.