Structured Finance Hires with the Cycle: The 2026 Lateral Market

The structured finance lawyers lateral market follows credit conditions more closely than almost any other part of banking work. Sartori & Partners data show 168 structured finance lateral moves in 2022, then 100 in 2023, 182 in 2024 and 243 in 2025. The partial 2026 count, to October, is 167. Over the settled 12 months the speciality held flat (-0.4%), while banking and finance as a practice rose 14.1%. For a firm planning a structured finance hire, the year it starts the search matters as much as the firm it targets.

The 2023 trough is the clearest mark of the cycle. Structured finance moves in 2023 were 59.5% of the 2022 count. In banking and finance the same year came in at 71.5% of 2022, and across all practices at 86.2%. The recovery was just as uneven. The 2025 structured finance count was 133.5% of 2024, against 110.9% for the practice and 103.9% for the market. Banking and finance ran 1,700, 1,215, 1,627 and 1,805 moves over the same four years: the same shape, a shallower line. Securitization lawyers price risk for a living, and their own mobility does the same: when issuance stalls, they stay put; when it returns, firms compete for the same small group at once.

The practical point for a hiring partner is timing. A search opened in a trough year meets fewer candidates willing to move, and a search opened at a peak meets more competing offers.

The calendar years show the swing; the settled 12-month windows show where the speciality stands now. Structured finance counted 224 lateral moves in the 12 months to September 2026, against 225 a year earlier. The speciality held flat (-0.4%). Banking and finance moved from 1,766 to 2,015 over the same windows and rose 14.1%; the whole market rose 9.0%. Partner hiring tells the same story: structured finance partner moves held flat (+0.0%), while banking and finance partner moves rose 10.6%.

So the 2025 peak has not carried into a further climb. The speciality is holding at a high level while the practice around it keeps growing. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, the broader banking pool is getting deeper this year, and the structured finance pool is not. A firm that needs securitization capacity should not read the practice's growth as more candidates in this niche.

Partners were 41.1% of structured finance lateral moves in the past 12 months, against 30.8% in banking and finance and 27.7% across the market. Associates were 47.2%, a smaller share than the practice's 55.8%. More lawyers also moved to a higher title: 16.2% of structured finance moves came with a step up, against 13.1% in the practice and 12.9% in the market. Fewer changed city: 15.4%, against 20.4% in banking and finance.

The mix says that structured finance lawyers move for a title more often than for a place. A counsel offered partnership at a rival firm in the same city is the typical case. Firms that cannot offer the step should expect a longer search.

New York took 31.5% of structured finance lateral moves in the past 12 months and London 23.9%. Set against each city's share of the whole market, London reads higher: an index of 259 against 213 for New York; both sit well above the market's own share. Banking and finance as a practice indexes at 177 in London and 145 in New York, so the speciality is more concentrated in both cities than its practice. Over 3 years, Charlotte took 6.1% of structured finance moves, against 2.6% for banking and finance, and Milan 4.4% against 1.8%.

For a firm building a securitization bench outside the two capitals, the candidate pool is thin and spread out. Charlotte, with its bank base, is the one secondary market with a visible share over 3 years.

Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 79.7% of structured finance lateral moves, against 63.8% in banking and finance and 53.6% in the market. The hiring is also concentrated by firm. The top 10 structured finance hirers took 39.2% of the speciality's moves, close to 2.0 times the 19.9% share in the practice; across all practices the figure is 12.9%. Sidley Austin ranked first, in the 11-20 band of hires. These rankings count individual hires; lawyers who joined as one team are in the totals but not in a firm's rank.

A mid-sized firm hiring in this speciality is competing with the same group of large platforms for most candidates. The opening is the candidate who wants a broader role than a large securitization team gives.

Firms advised 207 dated structured finance deals over 3 years and 67 in the past 12 months. Banking and lending transactions were 59.9% of those deals. By client, banks and financial institutions were 33.8% and asset managers and funds 11.1%. The work sits where credit is originated and packaged, which is why hiring follows the credit cycle so closely. A candidate with bank-side lending deals on the record fits most of the work that firms in this speciality actually do.

Sartori & Partners data show a flat settled year for structured finance, 224 moves against 225, after the 2025 peak. Four points follow. First, plan the hire against the cycle, not the calendar: the swing between 2023 and 2025 was wider here than in banking and finance as a whole. Second, expect partners and step-up candidates: partners were 41.1% of moves, so a counsel-to-partner offer is the common currency. Third, look first in London and New York, and in Charlotte for a bank-side bench. Fourth, a firm outside the 1,000+ lawyers group needs a reason to move beyond pay, because large firms took 79.7% of hires. Building from inside takes time: the median time to partner in the speciality is 10.0 years.