Sartori & Partners founder Lorenzo Sartori has put numbers on a question we hear constantly: who actually gets hired out of law firms? His firm’s November report counts 953 lawyers moving in-house between May and October 2026, about 159 a month. Associates were 76.7% of them, partners just 11%. Nearly six in ten left firms of 1,000-plus lawyers. And the busiest hirer was Harvey, the legal AI company, ahead of Amazon and Apple. OpenAI and Legora made the top eight too.
So the door is widest for mid-level Big Law associates. Litigators, take heart: litigation showed up in 37.7% of moves, more than corporate and M&A. It fits a sector where legal jobs just hit a record. Partners should plan on a longer, narrower search. Our guide on how to get an in-house counsel job maps the path by seniority, and our in-house counsel jobs page shows who is hiring this week.
As Sartori puts it: “For a general counsel hiring from law firms, the pool is mostly mid-level associates from large firms; a partner-level in-house hire is a smaller market and takes a targeted search.”
Read: Lawyers moving in-house from law firms, November 2026 at Sartori & Partners