BigLaw Grew More Selective On Second Quarter Lateral Hires
Law360.com, July 13, 2026
By Xiumei Dong
Law360 (July 13, 2026, 2:13 PM EDT) -- Lateral hiring at large U.S. law firms slowed in the second quarter of 2026 after a strong start to the year, with associate and counsel moves declining while partner hiring remained relatively steady, according to figures from legal data company Firm Prospects LLC.
The data, which tracks attorney moves among the 200 largest U.S. law firms by revenue, showed firms made 3,205 lateral hires during the quarter, down 15.1% from 3,776 in the first quarter and down 4.5% from 3,356 in the second quarter of 2025.
Associate hiring accounted for most of the slowdown, dropping 15.1% from the first quarter and 6.7% from a year earlier to 1,736 lateral moves, the lowest quarterly total in the past eight quarters tracked by Firm Prospects.
Counsel hiring also declined, falling 18.8% from the first quarter and 4.9% year over year to 483 moves. Partner hiring, meanwhile, fell 12.4% from the first quarter but remained 1.4% above its year-earlier level at 865 moves.
"We're seeing less junior-level associate hiring," Oliver said, citing a recent Firm Prospects white paper. While hiring has fallen among entry-level through third-year associates, firms continue to devote resources to midlevel and senior associates, he said.
Oliver added that firms are taking a similar approach at the partner level, seeking additional revenue by hiring partners and groups with established books of business rather than relying as heavily on developing talent organically.
"The elite firms, in particular, they're going after even more elite partners, but at the same time, they're bringing some greater precision, selectivity and deliberation," said David Maurer, executive director of Major Lindsey & Africa's partner practice group, adding that firms are still willing to pay a premium for partners and practice groups they view as long-term investments.
Katherine Loanzon, managing director at Kinney Recruiting LLC, said firms remain focused on partners with portable books of business and lawyers with expertise in niche practice areas, including tax and data center-focused real estate.
She added that demand for counsel has softened as firms seek to grow revenue while keeping costs in check.
"Firms, I think, are trying to boost the revenue while also being conservative in the spending on attorneys that don't have portable books of business," Loanzon said.
The shift has made the market more challenging for junior associates, she added, as firms increasingly favor midlevel and senior lawyers who require less training and can deliver value more quickly.
According to Firm Prospects, litigation remained the largest lateral market but declined 8.4% year over year to 779 hires, while corporate hiring edged up 2% to 570. Labor and employment and real estate posted gains of 13.1% and 21.9%, respectively, while hiring in banking fell 25.6%.
Recruiters also reported renewed demand for corporate lawyers that helped boost associate hiring.
"This year corporate really is starting to come back and is reclaiming that top spot," said Summer Eberhard, an associate recruiter at Lateral Link who focuses on the West Coast. But unlike the associate hiring frenzy of the early 2020s, she said, both firms and candidates are taking a more deliberate approach to lateral moves.
Mindy Baggish, a West Coast-based senior legal recruiter at Swan Legal Search, said her firm remained busy during the second quarter, with a larger share of placements at small and midsize firms.
The largest firms, however, remained the most active lateral recruiters during the quarter.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP was the most active recruiter of lateral partners during the second quarter, hiring 42, followed by Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP with 29 and Greenberg Traurig LLP with 27, according to Firm Prospects.
Kirkland also topped the associate hiring rankings with 71 lateral additions. Gordon Rees, however, was the quarter's most active lateral recruiter overall, hiring 129 attorneys compared with Kirkland's 113.
Geographically, New York remained the busiest lateral hiring market in the second quarter with 701 hires, followed by Washington, D.C., with 341. Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston rounded out the top five markets with 201, 183 and 132 hires, respectively.
Among those markets, Washington posted the steepest year-over-year decline, with lateral hiring falling 33.4%. By comparison, hiring in New York and Los Angeles was largely unchanged, while Boston and Houston recorded gains of 6.5% and 10.6%, respectively.
The decline in Washington was driven in large part by a drop in government-to-firm moves, which fell from 382 to 160, Firm Prospects data showed. Hires from the Justice Department declined from 57 to 18, while moves from U.S. attorney offices dropped from 48 to 17.
Dan Binstock, a Washington, D.C.-based recruiter with Garrison, said the decline was not surprising given the unusually active market a year earlier, when firms capitalized on a wave of departures from the federal government amid changes under the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Rather than signaling a weakening market, the latest figures reflect a return to more typical hiring levels, Binstock said, noting that a slowdown in white collar work has also weighed on hiring from government agencies. Still, he added that demand has held up for attorneys from senior government management and leadership roles.
At the associate level, Matt Schwartz, a partner at Garrison, said there are simply fewer government lawyers available after firms hired aggressively last year. While firms continue to recruit government attorneys, many are now giving greater preference to candidates with prior law firm experience.
Even so, Schwartz said he expects the lateral market to remain active through year-end, with firms continuing to hire across corporate, finance, real estate and other specialized practices, such as government contracts, healthcare, privacy and tax.
"There are not enough qualified candidates to fill them," Schwartz said, adding that hiring activity could pick up in the second half of the year as many lawyers wait until after bonus season to explore new opportunities.
--Editing by Robert Rudinger.
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