Trust and Estate Litigation Hiring Fell as Private Client Held Flat

Trust and estate litigation lawyers changed firms less often this year, against the direction of the practice they sit in. Sartori & Partners data show that trust and estate litigation hiring fell 30.1% on settled 12-month windows, from 83 lateral moves to 58. Over the same months private client hiring held flat (+9.1%) and the lateral market as a whole rose 9.0%. For a firm that wants to add a contentious trusts lawyer, the pool of people in motion is smaller than it was a year ago, and the search has to reach lawyers who are not looking.

The yearly counts give the fall its scale. Moves in the speciality ran between 75 and 84 a year from 2022 to 2025, and 2026 had reached 47 by October. The settled window, which ends in September, sets 58 moves against 83 a year earlier, a drop of 30.1%.

The practice around it did not follow. Private client moves went from 308 to 336 on the same windows, so private client hiring held flat (+9.1%). The whole market went from 13,128 to 14,305 moves. Partner hiring in the speciality held flat (-23.3%), with 23 partner moves against 30 a year earlier: at counts this small, a gap of that size sits inside the noise.

A firm hiring now competes for fewer lawyers in motion. Expect more approaches before a shortlist forms, and do not read the steady partner count as a sign that partners have become easier to move.

In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, 26.3% of trust and estate litigation lawyers who changed firms in the past 12 months joined at a higher title than the one they left. The figure was 16.0% across private client and 12.9% across all practices. Over three years the speciality's share was 20.9%, against 14.9% for the practice and 12.3% for the market, so the gap is not a one-year accident.

The level mix leans senior as well. Partners made up 40.4% of the speciality's 57 moves in the past 12 months, against 32.6% in private client and 27.7% in the market. Counsel took 19.3%, against 12.7% in the practice, and associates only 40.4%, against 54.7%.

In this speciality a promotion is often part of the price of a move. A firm should be ready to offer the next title, and should not expect a deep pool of senior associates who will move across at the same level.

Among trust and estate litigation moves with both cities known, 28.6% also involved a change of city, against 25.6% in private client and 20.5% across the market. Over three years New York was the largest destination, with 11.2% of the speciality's moves, close to the private client figure of 11.0% and below the market's 14.2%.

A search confined to one city sees only part of the pool. Firms that hire in this speciality should brief the search across their whole office network and treat relocation as an ordinary part of the offer.

Firms of 400-999 lawyers took 37.5% of trust and estate litigation moves, against 38.1% in private client and 23.4% across the market. Firms of 1,000+ lawyers took 23.2%, close to the practice's 18.9% and far below the market's 53.6%. Firms under 150 lawyers took 16.1%, against 9.7% market-wide.

In all, 46 firms hired at least once in the speciality in the past 12 months, and 127 over three years. The largest single block of competing offers comes from firms of 400-999 lawyers, so a firm of that size bidding for a trusts litigator should benchmark its terms against peers of the same size, not against the largest firms.

Over three years, disputes and investigations made up 95.1% of the 102 matters on record for trust and estate litigation lawyers, and private wealth and family office clients accounted for 34.3%. The past 12 months held 34 of those matters, and the three-year total is 3.0 times that figure: the matter flow kept its average pace while hiring fell.

Firms also grow the bench from within. Sartori & Partners records show 25 lawyers with this focus made partner in the 12 months from June 2025 to May 2026, against 107 over 5 years. The median path to partnership was 11.0 years from the first year of practice, and only 16.1% got there within 8 years.

With the work steady and fewer lawyers moving, each lateral hire carries more weight. Growing a partner internally is possible but slow on that median, so a firm that needs contentious capacity this year still has to hire it.

The ten firms that hired most trust and estate litigation lawyers over three years took 21.6% of the speciality's individual hires. Husch Blackwell and Offit Kurman sit in the 6-10 band; every other firm in the list sits in the 3-5 band.

The speciality's list is not the practice's list. Across private client as a whole, Charles Russell Speechlys ranks first over three years, in the 21-40 band, and does not appear among the ten above. For a firm planning a hire, the likely rivals for a given candidate are on this list, and each of them hired only a few such lawyers over three years.

Start from the smaller pool. Sartori & Partners data show 58 trust and estate litigation moves in the latest settled year, against 83 the year before, so plan a search led by direct approaches rather than one that waits for candidates to surface. Budget for a title: with 26.3% of movers stepping up, a like-for-like offer will lose ground to one that includes a promotion. Search across cities, since 28.6% of moves with both cities known involved relocation. Expect the main competition from firms of 400-999 lawyers, which took 37.5% of moves. And treat partner hiring as steady rather than easy: the partner count held flat (-23.3%).