Retirement Plan Lawyers: Chicago and Washington Lead the Moves

ERISA lawyers who focus on retirement and pension plans change firms in different cities from the rest of the benefits bar. Sartori & Partners data show that over three years Chicago took 13.3% of the speciality's 173 lateral moves and Washington, DC took 12.1%. In the wider Pensions, Benefits & Executive Compensation practice the same two cities took 7.0% and 7.4%, and New York came first with 17.5%. For a firm leader planning a retirement plan hire, the search map starts in Chicago and the capital.

The speciality's published three-year city list holds only two names, Chicago and Washington. Chicago's share, 13.3%, is 3.3 times its 4.0% share of all lateral moves in the market over the same three years. Washington, DC's share of 12.1% is 2.3 times the market's 5.2%. Against the benefits practice, the speciality runs 6.3 points ahead in Chicago and 4.7 points ahead in Washington.

The practice's own map looks like the market's, with New York and London on top at 17.5% and 12.0% of its three-year moves. Chicago already over-indexes for the whole practice: its share of benefits moves in the last 12 months stood at 196 on the index against the market, almost double the market's share. Retirement plan lawyers push that tilt further and add Washington to it. A retirement plan search should start in the two cities where this speciality's moves are published.

Partners made 43.1% of retirement and pension plan moves in the last 12 months, against 30.2% in the benefits practice and 27.7% across the market. Over three years the picture holds, at 42.2% against 30.1% for the practice. Associates, who made 58.5% of all lateral moves in the market, made 41.4% here.

Partner hiring in the speciality held flat (+8.3%), with 26 partner moves in the latest settled 12 months against 24 in the previous 12 months. The partner market is real but small in any one year. A firm that wants a retirement plan partner should expect a short list of people who are actually movable, and should plan the approach before a vacancy opens, not after.

The speciality's matters lean contentious. Of 166 dated matters on record over three years, Disputes & investigations made 42.2%, the largest type by a wide margin. Asset Management & Funds clients appeared in 32.5% of them. The wider practice shows a similar pull in its hiring: 36.9% of benefits moves in the last 12 months also carried Litigation & Disputes work.

Retirement plan law covers plan design and compliance, but fiduciary-duty claims over plan investments and fees bring it into court, and asset managers sit on both sides of that work. For a hiring partner, the profile to test is a lawyer who has defended plan sponsors and fund managers in litigation and regulatory inquiries, not only one who writes plan documents.

Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 48.3% of retirement and pension plan moves in the last 12 months, against 61.9% in the benefits practice and 53.6% in the market. Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 27.6%, against 19.7% for the practice, and firms of 150-399 lawyers took 17.2%, against 8.8%.

The ten firms that hired most took 23.1% of the speciality's individual hires over three years, out of 118 firms that hired at least one retirement plan lawyer. A firm that recruits in this speciality is one of many hirers, not one of a handful.

Retirement and pension plan hiring held flat (+15.1%), with 61 moves in the latest settled 12 months against 53 in the previous 12 months. On counts this small, a gap of that size sits inside the noise. The benefits practice as a whole rose 16.6%, from 217 to 253 moves, a change large enough to count. Moves by retirement plan lawyers recorded under the benefits practice made 23.0% of that practice's moves over 12 months.

Retirement plan lawyers also relocate more often: 22.7% of their moves in the last 12 months came with a change of city, against 17.3% in the practice and 20.5% in the market. Over three years the speciality's rate, 21.5%, sits level with the market's 21.6%, so the higher rate is a recent reading. A firm in a third city can still ask a candidate in Chicago or Washington to relocate.

Sartori & Partners figures point to three choices. Put Chicago and Washington, DC at the center of a retirement plan search: together they hold 44 of the speciality's 173 three-year moves. Price the search at partner level, because partners make 43.1% of moves here against 30.2% in the practice. Expect competition beyond firms of 1,000+ lawyers, since those firms took 48.3% of hires against 53.6% in the market.

With hiring flat, there is no sign of a larger pool next year. A firm that wants these lawyers should already be talking to the people in those two cities, with a case built on litigation and fund work rather than plan paperwork alone.