Lateral partner hiring by Am Law 200 firms swelled by nearly 20% in the 2025 hiring year, as firms strategically staff offices in new markets, double down in hot practices, or simply seek to outdo competitors. Firms in the Am Law 200 hired 4,152 lateral partners in the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, compared with 3,473 for the prior 12-month period—an increase of 19.6%. The hiring boost is substantially larger than the 2024 hiring year, when lateral partner hiring increased by just 3.7%. Nearly half of the hiring (46.3%) was at Am Law 50 firms, with 26% of the hiring by Second 50 firms, 16.7% at firms ranked from 101 to 150, and 11% for firms 151-200, Compass data showed. "Once you see the activity, it’s almost like inertia—it propels other partners to start reevaluating whether they are being valued where they are currently at," said Katherine Loanzon, a managing director at Kinney Recruiting in New York. Firms are "getting really good" at partner hiring, said Dan Binstock, a partner with recruiting firm Garrison & Sisson in Washington, D.C. "Firms have four ways of growing revenue. One is through raising billing rates, two is increasing billable hours, three is capturing more clients through existing partner relationships, and four is capturing new clients and revenue through laterals," Binstock said. The best way to raise revenue, he said, is by hiring lateral partners—although it's not without risk. Geographically, 20.3% of the U.S. partner joins in the 2025 hiring year were in New York, followed by 17% in California, 15.5% in Washington, D.C., 7.7% in Texas, and 7% in Illinois. A total of 81% of the lateral partner joins at the Am Law 200 firms were in the U.S., and the rest were international. Broken down by cities, 19.9% of the hiring was in New York City, 15.4% in Washington, D.C., 6.6% in Chicago, 6.5% in Los Angeles, and 4.2% in San Francisco. The next five, in order, are Boston, Houston, Atlanta, Dallas and Denver. The 20 U.S. cities with the most hiring accounted for 80.5% of all lateral partner hiring, an indicator that Big Law hiring in big cities predominates. Not quite a third of the lateral partners who made a move, 31.3%, were women, while the remaining 68.7% were men. That share for women lawyers slipped a bit from the prior 12-month period, when 33% were women. Recruiters across the country who place partners at Am Law 200 firms cite a range of reasons firms are hiring more lateral partners, such as the need to staff offices in new markets, or to execute a strategy of strengthening key practices or adding new ones. Lawyers often seek to move to a firm that is a better fit for their practice or clients, or because they see opportunity to make more money. Larry Watanabe, founder of California placement firm Watanabe Schwartz, said it used to take a solid year to make a move, but not anymore. "It took about nine to 12 months to get your deal done. You would have to go fly around and meet with a bunch of people. Then COVID hit, and we learned to process via Zoom, and now firms can make decisions quicker," he said. Billing rates are also a factor prompting lawyers to move firms. Watanabe said the disparity in economics between the Am Law 20 and the Am Law 200 has created opportunity for Am Law 200 firms to pick up laterals. "A lot of people need to leave for rate relief. This will be a continuing circumstance," he said. On the flip side, Loanzon said some partners at Am Law 200 firms are choosing to move to larger firms because they want to increase their billing rates, but were hamstrung by their firm's strategy. "I'm beginning to see that. We actually see some firms where they want to stay competitive with the mid-market [clients], so they don’t want to increase their rates too much. However, there are pockets of partners at these firms starting to bring in more sophisticated clients and [that] don’t mind paying the increased rates," she said. Mergers are also a factor prompting lawyer movement. Watanabe said that some partners depart their firms either before or after a merger, because they "don't see the necessity for these global transatlantic mergers to their practices." Binstock said lawyers moving on from the federal government also may been a factor in the increased lateral partner hiring, particularly in the D.C. market. "But, also, it seems like whenever firms are coming off a strong performance, they are more comfortable investing in lateral partners, because they’ve got the means to invest and pay," he said. Kirkland & Ellis, which topped the Am Law 100 ranking based on its gross revenue, hired 148 lateral partners during the period ended Sept. 30, 2025, according to the Law.com Compass report. Andrew Calder, a partner in Houston and Austin and a member of the executive committee, said the firm was so active in the hiring market to keep up with client demand and to expand the firm's depth. "It's a very competitive market and only becoming more competitive," Calder said. "There’s a race to accumulate more talent on each platform."