The Associate Lateral Market Is Accelerating
A Mosaic Intelligence read on the Q2 2026 AmLaw 100 associate market: where hiring is heading, the new Milbank pay scale and who matched it, which practices are growing, and what the rest of the quarter looks like.
| Measure (associates, AmLaw 100) | Q2 2026 (final) | Q2 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lateral hires | 1,940 | 1,635 | +18.7% |
| Departures | 2,760 | 2,370 | +16.5% |
| Departure-to-hire ratio | 1.42:1 | 1.45:1 | Essentially flat |
| Partner lateral hires | 745 | 668 | +11.5% |
| Counsel lateral hires | 540 | 451 | +19.7% |
What the departure-to-hire ratio means: it is how many associates leave the AmLaw 100 for every one hired into it, so a number above 1 means departures outpace hires, and a lower number means the market is closer to balance. Q2 2026 closed at 1.42 departures per hire against 1.45 in Q2 2025. That is a hair closer to balance, and the difference is too small to call a shift; read it as essentially flat, with departures running roughly 40% ahead of lateral hiring in both years. That steady gap is what keeps a deep pool of associates moving through the market.
A snapshot of spring hiring for the past three years
Full Q2 each year (April 1 to June 30), AmLaw 100 US associates. 2026 finished up 18.7% over 2025 and 43.5% over 2024, the strongest spring in the dataset.
Same-window city comparison (associate hires)
Growth markets extend to the right; the two contracting markets extend to the left. Washington, DC normalizes after the 2025 government-exodus hiring boom, and Atlanta is the sharpest pullback among major markets. Everything else is up double digits.
One caveat sits behind every number: hiring data lags the decisions behind it. A hire is recorded on the attorney's first day, and the offer behind that start date was typically signed about two months earlier. June starts reflect April decisions, and the offers being extended right now will surface as Q3 data. The lag affects every quarter equally, which is exactly why this report leans on full-quarter comparisons against last year instead of sequential quarter-to-quarter reads. It also means a handful of late-recorded June moves will still trickle in, so if anything the final count drifts slightly higher from here.
For readers keeping score: the mid-June projection method took the share of Q2 2025 hiring recorded by June 21 of that year and applied that completion factor to 2026. It called the quarter within ten hires. We will keep publishing the projection alongside the final number each quarter, because a forecast you can audit is worth ten you cannot.
The full new scale, by class year
The race to match, and how fast it moved
| Firm | Date | Firm type | New scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milbank | June 2 | Full-service BigLaw | $235K - $455K (first mover) |
| McDermott Will & Schulte | June 2 | Full-service BigLaw | $235K - $455K |
| Hueston Hennigan | June 2 | Litigation | $235K - $455K |
| Quinn Emanuel | June 4 | Litigation | $235K - $455K |
| Katten | June 4 | Full-service | $235K - $440K |
| Groom Law Group | June 5 | Benefits boutique | $235K - $455K |
| Seward & Kissel | June 9 | Finance | $235K - $455K |
| Susman Godfrey | June 9 | Litigation boutique | Above: $240K - $450K |
| Desmarais | June 10 | IP litigation boutique | Above: $255K - $455K |
| Holwell Shuster & Goldberg | June 10 | Litigation boutique | Above: $240K - $465K |
| Kellogg Hansen | June 10 | Litigation boutique | Above: $275K - $505K |
| Sullivan & Cromwell | June 26 | Corporate scale-setter | $235K - $455K (first of the corporate leaders) |
| Norton Rose Fulbright | July 1 | Full-service BigLaw | $235K - $455K |
A representative slice of the nearly twenty firms that have moved. Public trackers (Above the Law's Associate Compensation Scorecard) report match dates without timestamps; same-day matches landed within hours of Milbank's morning announcement.
Read the above-market tier in context. The boutiques beating the scale have paid premiums for years, so these moves are in character, and they do not signal a broader market turn. Desmarais has topped the going rate since 2018 and runs without billable-hour targets, Kellogg Hansen was already on a $260K base before this round, and Susman and Hueston Hennigan are perennial above-market payers, especially on bonuses. We would not read the boutique tier as a sign that mainstream BigLaw follows above Milbank.
Why the market should call it the Milbank scale
| Cycle | Milbank, the first mover | When the market followed |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | First to break the scale to $190K for first-years (the original Milbank scale) | Cravath and the market matched after |
| Nov 2023 | First to raise base +$10K, effective Jan 2024 | Cravath matched Nov 28, about three weeks later |
| Aug 2024 | First to announce summer bonuses | Cravath did not match until Nov 19 |
| Aug 2025 | First to announce summer bonuses again | Cravath matched Nov 18, over three months later |
| June 2026 | First to set the new $235K - $455K base scale | Firms across the market within hours; S&C followed June 26; Cravath still out |
Milbank has led on summer bonuses in 2024 and 2025 and on base raises in 2023 and 2026. In recent cycles Cravath has increasingly followed, confirming Milbank's number months after the fact.
| Practice (associates) | Open seats | Q2 hires | Departures | Net flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Litigation | 749 | 536 | 843 | -307 |
| Corporate / Transactional | 745 | 434 | 656 | -222 |
| Labor & Employment | 324 | 180 | 138 | +42 |
| Real Estate | 236 | 111 | 130 | -19 |
| Intellectual Property | 188 | 90 | 146 | -56 |
| Banking / Finance | 89 | 116 | 133 | -17 |
Net flow is hires into the AmLaw 100 minus departures from it. Negative numbers are normal because departures include moves to boutiques, in-house roles, and government. Labor & Employment is the only major practice the AmLaw 100 net-imported this quarter.
Practice momentum, year over year
Associate lateral hires, same April 1 to June 21 window in both years (AmLaw 100). Bankruptcy and energy move off small bases, so their percentages overstate the headcount shift.
Top feeders by raw volume
Adjusted for class size (laterals per 100 graduates)
JD enrollment via ABA / LawHub, divided by three for an average graduating class. A smaller elite class like Virginia or Duke converts a far higher share of its graduates into AmLaw 100 laterals than a giant program like Georgetown, even though Georgetown sends more bodies in absolute terms.
| Market | Open seats | Q2 hires | Hires / 100 openings | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 378 | 475 | 126 (demand outruns the board) | +16% |
| Washington, DC | 277 | 193 | 70 | -4% |
| San Francisco | 252 | 78 | 31 | +34% |
| Los Angeles | 199 | 117 | 59 | +36% |
| Chicago | 139 | 103 | 74 | +29% |
| Boston | 95 | 77 | 81 | +45% |
| Dallas | 81 | 68 | 84 | +51% |
New York
Hired 475 associates against roughly 378 jobs ever posted at once, so hiring outruns the standing job board outright. Cross-border M&A, finance, and restructuring anchor it. Options turn over weekly.
Texas
Dallas ran 84 hires per 100 active openings and Houston 73, the tightest ratios of any major market. Dechert opened in Houston on April 15, its third new US office of the year.
Los Angeles
Davis Polk opened in May, anchored by Skadden's LA leader Jason Russell, with a Century City buildout into 2027. LA logged 117 hires QTD, up 36% year over year.
San Francisco
252 open seats, the third-largest pool in the country, with only 78 filled (31%). The backlog grows faster than it clears; AI, privacy, and tech-deal pedigree are the constraint. When criteria loosen, H2 is the likely window.
Bars scaled to the largest book (Kirkland, 84 hires this window). Cooley more than doubled its pace, Gibson Dunn nearly doubled, and Skadden and DLA Piper are up sharply alongside their expansion and promotion moves.
Where they are landing, weighted by firm size
| Firm | Q2 hires | US associate base | Hire rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Hastings | 33 | 536 | 6.2% |
| DLA Piper | 41 | 712 | 5.8% |
| Kirkland & Ellis | 84 | 1,775 | 4.7% |
| Cooley | 31 | 656 | 4.7% |
| Simpson Thacher | 41 | 1,052 | 3.9% |
| Latham & Watkins | 52 | 1,522 | 3.4% |
| Davis Polk | 21 | 643 | 3.3% |
| Gibson Dunn | 30 | 1,059 | 2.8% |
Lateral associate hires into firm during the Q2 window (April 1 to June 21), divided by the firm's current US associate headcount (per proprietary Mosaic market data). A high rate can reflect fast growth, heavy turnover, or both; compare with the departure rate to judge net direction.
Where associates are leaving, adjusted for firm size
Departures are associate exits in the window, internal promotions excluded. Associate base is each firm's current US associate headcount from proprietary Mosaic market data. The roughly twelve-week window makes these quarter-to-date rates; annualized they would run several times higher, so use them to compare firms against each other.
+81% in a year
-50% in a year
Skadden shows the swap inside a single firm: in this window last year it promoted 30 lawyers to counsel and 18 to partner; this year, zero to counsel and 34 to partner. Skadden elevated 55 partners globally in April, more than double last year's 22, in its first round under a new non-equity tier. Sidley followed in June with a class of 52, its first since adopting a salaried-partner tier.
For senior associates, a partner offer now requires a second question: which tier, and what is the path between them? For counsel candidates, the counsel-to-non-equity-partner pathway is becoming the most negotiable rung in BigLaw.
1. The corporate pay dominoes
Firms across the market matched the Milbank scale within hours, a richer elite-boutique track has opened above it, and Sullivan & Cromwell became the first corporate scale-setter to follow on June 26. Whether the rest (Cravath, Davis Polk, Paul Weiss, Kirkland) match by Q3 is the loudest signal of how confident the deal side feels about the back half of the year.
2. The corporate rebound
Corporate associate hiring is up 43% year over year. If it holds through the summer, it confirms the deal market is durably back and pulls the whole quarter higher.
3. San Francisco loosening
A 253-seat backlog at 26% conversion. We expect criteria to loosen in H2; the quarter it happens, a wave of long-stuck Bay Area searches clears at once.
4. The new-office associate waves
Davis Polk LA, Dechert Houston, and Dentons Charleston hired their partner cores this spring. New offices hire associates in waves six to twelve months later, putting them in Q3 and Q4.
5. The credit-cycle tell
Restructuring hiring jumped 65% year over year off a small base. If it keeps building, treat it as the market pricing in a tougher 2027.
6. The next non-equity tier
Skadden and Sidley reshaped their partnerships this spring. Watch which firm formalizes a non-equity rung next, because each one reprices the partner title and reopens senior-associate mobility.
3rd to 6th year specialists
In corporate (especially funds-adjacent), specialty litigation, finance, or L&E, the market favors you, and it is moving faster than in March. The quarter closed about 19% ahead of last year, so hesitation costs more than it did last quarter.
Weighing a partner-title offer
Ask which tier. The wave of non-equity promotions is real, and the economics between tiers vary enormously by firm.
Negotiating now? The scale moved
The market base is $235K to $455K as of June 2, and matching has been fast. If your firm has not matched, that is a live data point. The corporate leaders may match mid-summer, which changes the math on a pending decision.
Ride the new-office waves
Davis Polk LA and likely Boston, Dechert Houston, Dentons Charleston. New offices hire in bursts for 12 to 18 months and are the warmest doors in the market for candidates who match the build-out practices.
Methodology and sources: all lateral movement, openings, promotion, and office data from proprietary Mosaic market data, AmLaw Top 100, US offices. Headline totals (hires, departures, ratio, partner and counsel hires, and the three-year comparison) are final full-quarter figures covering April 1 to June 30 in each year, re-run on July 1, 2026 after the quarter closed. Practice, city, school, and firm-level breakdowns were compiled through June 21 and are labeled accordingly; year-over-year comparisons for those tables use the identical window in the prior year. Hires are recorded at start date and lag offer decisions by roughly two months; like-for-like window comparisons neutralize that lag. The hires-per-100-openings ratio compares independent counts and reads as a demand gauge for how hot a market is; hires are never matched one-to-one to specific postings. Compensation data via Above the Law, Bloomberg Law, and BigLaw Investor; news context via Law.com / The American Lawyer, Law360, Above the Law, and Bloomberg Law. US-based talent only.
What is the new 2026 BigLaw associate salary scale?
On June 2, 2026, Milbank reset the market with a new associate base scale running from $235,000 for first-years to $455,000 for eighth-years, effective July 1, 2026. It was the first base raise since January 2024 and quickly became the market benchmark.
Which law firms have matched the 2026 Milbank scale?
Matching spread across firm types within two weeks. It included full-service firms such as McDermott Will & Schulte and Katten, the benefits boutique Groom Law Group, the finance firm Seward & Kissel, and litigation shops such as Quinn Emanuel and Hueston Hennigan. More than a dozen firms had matched by mid-June 2026, and the wave has continued: Sullivan & Cromwell became the first corporate scale-setter to follow on June 26, and Norton Rose Fulbright adopted the scale effective July 1.
Which law firms are paying above the Milbank scale?
A small group of elite litigation and IP boutiques opened a richer second tier above the Milbank scale, anchored by what the market now calls the Susman Godfrey scale. Susman moved first at $240,000 to $450,000, and Holwell Shuster & Goldberg became the first firm to adopt the Susman grid, matching its $240,000 start and pushing the top to $465,000. Desmarais took first-years to $255,000, and Kellogg Hansen went highest at $275,000 to $505,000. The result is a two-track market: the Milbank scale for BigLaw and the Susman Godfrey scale for elite litigation boutiques. These boutiques have long paid above market, so the second track is not a signal that mainstream BigLaw follows above Milbank.
Have Cravath, Davis Polk, or Kirkland matched the 2026 scale?
Sullivan & Cromwell became the first of the big corporate scale-setters to follow the new scale, announcing raises on June 26, 2026, effective July 1. As of July 1, 2026, Cravath, Davis Polk, Paul Weiss, and Kirkland had not formally matched, with some signals they may wait until later in the summer.
Which practice groups are hiring the most associates in 2026?
Litigation and corporate lead by volume. Year over year for the April 1 to June 21 window, corporate associate hiring is up 43%, restructuring up 65%, energy up 36%, and labor and employment up 35%, while banking, healthcare, and technology cooled.
Which cities have the hottest associate lateral market in 2026?
New York leads on volume and demand, followed by Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, and the Texas markets. Dallas (up 51%), Boston (up 45%), and Los Angeles (up 36%) grew fastest year over year, while Washington DC and Atlanta contracted.
Which law firms are hiring the most lateral associates in 2026?
Kirkland & Ellis led with 84 associate hires in the Q2 window, followed by Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher, DLA Piper, and Greenberg Traurig. Adjusted for firm size, Paul Hastings and DLA Piper added associates fastest relative to their associate base.
Is the associate lateral market growing in 2026?
Yes. AmLaw 100 associate lateral hiring closed Q2 2026 at 1,940 US hires, up about 19% from Q2 2025 (1,635) and 43% from Q2 2024 (1,352), the strongest spring in the dataset.