Secondaries Lawyer Hiring Rose in 2026, and Partner Hiring Rose Most

Secondaries lawyer hiring picked up sharply over the past year. Sartori & Partners data show 132 lateral moves by lawyers whose own focus is secondaries and fund transactions in the settled 12 months to September 2026, against 94 in the 12 months before. Hiring rose 40.4%. For a firm that wants to add a secondaries partner or build a team around continuation funds and portfolio sales, the competition for that bench grew faster than in its own practice or in the market as a whole.

All three counts rose, at very different speeds. The funds and investment management practice went from 507 to 627 moves, so funds hiring rose 23.7%. The whole lateral market went from 13,128 to 14,305 moves and rose 9.0%. Secondaries and fund transactions sat well above both. Lawyers with this focus appear on 19.4% of the moves recorded under the funds practice, so the field is a minority of funds hiring that is growing faster than the rest of it.

The yearly series shows a recovery rather than a straight climb. Moves fell from 109 in 2022 to 68 in 2023, then came back to 85 in 2024 and 108 in 2025. The partial 2026 count already stands at 108, level with the whole of 2025 before the year is out. A search opened this winter runs into a market that has already matched last year's count, and candidates will be weighing more than one approach.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, secondaries partner hiring went from 35 to 61 across the two settled windows, so partner hiring rose 74.3%. Partner hiring in the funds practice rose 29.7%, and across the market it rose 8.4%. The partner count rose faster than the speciality's total, which means firms used the year to buy senior capacity, not to fill associate seats.

Partners made up 50.0% of secondaries moves in 12 months, a share that matches one in two moves. The funds practice sat at 36.7% and the market at 27.7%, so the secondaries partner share runs 22.3 points above the market. Over 3 years the partner share was 39.7%, so the past year tilted the mix further toward partners. A firm hiring here should plan for partner economics from the first call: the candidate pool that moved is senior, and associates were the smaller part of it.

Growing a bench from within is the slower alternative. 36 secondaries lawyers were promoted to partner in the 12 months to May 2026, and over 5 years the median lawyer reached partner 9.0 years after the first year of practice. A firm that cannot wait that long for a home-grown partner will be shopping in the same lateral pool as everyone else, and paying the market rate for it.

London took 27.0% of secondaries hires in 12 months, an index of 292 against London's share of all lateral moves. New York took 25.4%, an index of 172. In the funds practice the order runs the other way: New York's index is 183 and London's is 165.

The London lean is not new. Over 3 years London took 32.2% of secondaries hires, New York 21.5% and Paris 9.1%. Secondaries lawyers also changed city less often than funds lawyers in general: 17.9% moved city with the job, against 20.4% in the practice. A New York firm that wants a London secondaries partner should expect to hire locally rather than relocate someone across the Atlantic.

Sartori & Partners figures show firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 90.2% of secondaries hires in 12 months, among the moves where the hiring firm's size is known. The funds practice share for that size class was 75.8% and the market's was 53.6%. Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 6.6%. Over 3 years the 1,000+ lawyers share was 87.5%, so the concentration is structural, not a one-year swing.

The hiring also sits with few names. The ten firms that hired most took 47.5% of individual secondaries hires, against 34.0% in the funds practice and 12.9% in the market. In all, 54 firms made at least one secondaries hire in 12 months.

For a firm outside that group, the arithmetic of a search changes. The candidates most firms want sit inside large platforms that are themselves adding people, so an offer has to explain what the lawyer gains by leaving a busy desk, from sponsor relationships to the team that will support the work.

Secondaries and fund transactions hiring rose 40.4% while the lateral market rose 9.0%, and the gap sets the terms of any search in this field. Four points follow. First, budget for partner economics: half the moves in 12 months were partners, at 50.0%, and partner hiring rose faster than the field as a whole. Second, decide early where the seat sits, because London over-indexes at 292 and these lawyers rarely relocate. Third, expect to compete with the largest platforms, which took 90.2% of known-size hires. Fourth, move in quarters, not years: the partial 2026 count already matches 2025, and a slow process will meet candidates who have already accepted elsewhere.