The Legal Recruiting practice at The McCormick Group compiled this latest update on lateral partner and counsel moves in the Washington, D.C. area. The data included in these reports is primarily derived from Firm Prospects LLC. For more details and analysis, including a list of laterals for the month, please contact Steve Nelson.
April was an active month for lateral hiring, with 72 partner and counsel moves reported, up from 58 in both February and March. Even so, the number of moves was lower than in April 2025, when 86 moves were reported. As a result, the number of lateral moves so far in 2026 continues to trail the number for the first three months of 2025
There were 10 group moves in April, the most we have seen since we started tracking moves in 2020. Those were:
- Three Government Relations and National Security partners that moved from Holland & Knight to Greenberg Traurig.
- Three Litigation partners that joined Dechert from White & Case.
- Three Litigation partners that moved from Sullivan & Cromwell to Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
- Two Litigation partners (one in New York) that moved from McDermott Will & Schulte to Winston & Strawn.
- Two Litigation partners that joined Davis Polk & Wardwell from Paul Weiss.
- Two White Collar and Investigations partners that left Latham & Watkins to join the boutique Dunn Isaacson Rhee.
- Two International Trade partners that joined Arnall Golden Gregory from Barnes & Thornburg.
- Two FDA partners that moved from Venable to Faegre Drinker.
- Two Intellectual Property partners that moved from Taft to Saul Ewing.
- Two Telecommunications partners that moved from Marashlian & Donohue (now known as The CommLaw Group) to Scale LLP in Northern Virginia.
Other firms reporting multiple lateral moves included:
- Akin Gump
- Holland & Knight
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Sheppard Mullin
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Twelve attorneys were hired from government positions, while four attorneys moved from in-house roles.
Thirty-one of the movers (43.1 percent) were women. Of those, 24 (77.1 percent) joined their new firms as partners. That compared to 31 of the 41 men (75.6 percent) who were selected partners at their new firms.
Litigation once again was the most active practice area represented, with 15 moves. Other active practice areas included:
- Intellectual Property (7)
- White Collar/Investigations (6)
- Antitrust (5)
- International Trade/National Security (5)
- FDA (5)
- Corporate (4)
- Health Care (4)
- Telecommunications (4)
- Banking/Finance (3)
- Government Contracts (3)
- Government Relations (3)
- Labor/Employment (3)
The Legal Recruiting practice at The McCormick Group organizes and chairs a Lateral Partner Recruiting Roundtable, which includes a discussion of key topics of interest in the area of partner recruiting. The Zoom meetings are limited to law firm recruiting officials. Among the topics discussed have included:
- How firms determine whether portable business estimates are accurate
- Efforts to have law firms adopt a uniform Lateral Partner Questionnaire
- The use of artificial intelligence tools in the recruiting process
- Controversial provisions in Law Firm Recruiting Agreements
- Best practices in Onboarding and Integration
Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 19, at 1pm ET. At that meeting, we will address issues relating to partner compensation.
If you are a law firm representative, and would like more information, please contact Steve Nelson.
