Securities Litigation Hiring in 2026: A New York Market

The securities litigation lawyers New York offices recruited over the last 12 months account for 36.1% of the speciality's 183 lateral moves, Sartori & Partners data show. New York holds 14.8% of lateral moves across all practices, so securities litigation indexes 244 there against the market's own weight. The litigation practice as a whole reads 88 in the same city. Securities work does not follow litigation's geography: it keeps its own, and a large part of it runs through one city.

This report sets the speciality against litigation and the whole market on four points: where the hires land, how senior they are, which firms make them, and which client industries sit behind the matters on record. Securities litigation is a small slice of its practice, 3.2% of litigation moves, which is why its pattern disappears inside the practice's totals. Each section closes on what the finding means for a firm planning a hire.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, New York's share of securities litigation moves is 2.8 times its share of litigation moves, which stands at 13.0%. Litigation spreads its hiring wide: Los Angeles takes 7.5% of litigation moves, Washington, DC 6.5%, and 928 firms hired litigators in the year. Securities litigators were hired by 102 firms, and New York offices made 66 of those hires.

The reason is where the cases sit. Federal securities class actions, shareholder suits and the regulatory investigations that run beside them gather in the federal courts of Manhattan, and much of the issuer, bank and investor side of the market is based there too. Defense groups and plaintiff firms alike staff those cases from New York offices.

For a firm outside New York, the consequence is plain: the largest pool of experienced securities litigators sits in Manhattan offices, and a securities group built in another city will often recruit from there or hire into a New York seat.

The pattern is not a one-year reading. Over 3 years New York took 37.7% of the speciality's 546 moves, against 12.9% for litigation and 14.2% for the market. Below New York the speciality looks much like its practice: Los Angeles at 7.3% against 7.4%, Chicago at 4.8% against 4.6%. San Francisco (5.7% against 3.7%) and Washington, DC (6.6% against 5.4%) run a little ahead of litigation.

Securities litigators also tend to stay put. Only 16.0% of securities moves in the last 12 months involved a change of city, against 19.6% in litigation and 20.5% in the market. The cities lawyers left point the same way: New York was the origin of 35.5% of securities movers over 3 years, against 10.8% of litigation movers.

A firm that wants a securities partner in Chicago or Los Angeles should expect a short list, and a New York candidate willing to relocate is the exception rather than the plan.

Sartori & Partners data show partner hiring in securities litigation rose 38.2% year on year, from 55 to 76 moves in the settled 12-month windows. Hiring at all levels held flat (+8.2%), at 185 moves against 171. Litigation shows the reverse shape: its partner hiring held flat (+0.9%), while its hiring at all levels rose 7.5%. On counts this small a change of that size sits inside the noise; across thousands of litigation moves a smaller change is real.

The yearly series puts the rise in proportion. Partner moves stood at 73 in 2023 and 74 in 2024 before a softer 2025 at 62. The settled window's 76 puts partner hiring back at, and slightly above, the level of those two years.

Partners are also a larger share of the speciality's hiring than of litigation's: 41.0% of securities moves in the last 12 months, against 27.4% in litigation and 27.7% in the market. Associates make up 45.4% of securities moves, against 57.7% in litigation.

For a firm adding securities partners, the pool is moving again after a quiet 2025, and partners carry more weight here than elsewhere in litigation, so a partner search opened now runs in a busier market than a year ago.

Securities hiring is concentrated. In litigation the top 10 hirers take 12.0% of moves, and across the market 12.9%. The longer run says the same: over 3 years the top 10 hirers took 19.2% of securities moves, spread across 201 hiring firms, against 12.0% in litigation.

McGuireWoods, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Paul Hastings head the 12-month list, each with hires in the 6-10 band. Over 3 years Paul Hastings heads the list, in the 11-20 band.

Large firms do most of this hiring. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 54.9% of securities hires, against 43.3% in litigation, which puts the speciality close to the market's 53.6% rather than to its own practice. Teams also move more often: 6.0% of securities moves were part of a team joining the same firm in the same quarter, against 2.0% in litigation and 1.5% in the market.

A mid-size firm bidding for a securities partner competes mostly against firms of 1,000+ lawyers, and the partner may bring colleagues: plan the economics for a team, not a single seat.

Securities litigators' work leaves a public trail. The speciality counts 597 matters on record over 3 years, and 98.2% of them are disputes and investigations. Asset management and fund clients appear in 14.7% of those matters, banks and financial institutions in 9.4%, technology and software in 8.0%, and pharma and biotech in 6.4%. One matter can involve several industries.

The firms on the most matters are mostly not the firms hiring the most. Sullivan & Cromwell and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison head the matters list and sit outside the 12-month top 10 of hirers, while Cooley and Latham & Watkins appear on both. For a firm hiring, the matters list is a map of where experienced securities litigators work today, and the hiring list shows who is already bidding for them.

Start the search in New York. The city took 37.7% of securities moves over 3 years, against 12.9% for litigation, so a securities search that begins anywhere else begins in a small pool. A firm without a New York office should decide early whether the hire will sit in Manhattan or relocate, because only 16.0% of securities movers changed city.

Time partner searches to a busier market. Partner hiring rose 38.2% in the settled window, back to the level of 2023 and 2024, and the ten firms that hired most took 26.9% of all securities hires, against 12.0% in litigation. A firm outside that group is bidding against them for many of the same candidates.

Budget for a team where the partner has one. With 6.0% of moves made as teams, against 1.5% in the market, a securities partner is more likely than most to arrive with associates or counsel, and the offer, the space and the conflicts check should be sized for that from the first meeting, Sartori & Partners data suggest.