Washington is not interesting because it is busy. It is interesting because the federal government, the agencies, Congress and the Supreme Court sit on top of a full-service private market and that stack has just finished absorbing the largest government-to-firm talent dump in a generation.
More than 1,100 lawyers left federal service for Am Law 200 firms in 2025. In the DC region, government laterals jumped more than 200% year on year. A large share arrived as counsel, not equity partners. That is how firms took the expertise without opening the lockstep.
The volume hire has cooled. Associate laterals in the city were down year on year by mid-2026. Partner movement has not stopped. It has become picky.
That is the DC market now. Not a flood. A filter.
Why DC still sits on its own
Agency work here is the file, not a chapter. Merger control at the FTC and the DOJ Antitrust Division, CFIUS at Treasury, export controls, FERC, FDA, FCC, congressional investigations. Firms that treat those desks as a New York add-on lose the mandate.
The Court is a DC product. Supreme Court and appellate practices are bought in ones and twos, at partner prices that look irrational until you see the mandate list.
Policy is billable. Lobbying revenue at the top shops had a strong first quarter – defense, health, AI, tariffs, energy, critical minerals. Clients pay for the Hill conversation when it sits next to an investigations practice. A standalone access book without a legal spine is a harder conversation inside an Am Law partnership.
Northern Virginia data-centre load and nuclear are a real commercial overlay. They do not turn every K Street office into an energy practice. The regulatory and disputes layer is why those files stay in this market.
Antitrust still pays. White collar does not, not like last year.
Antitrust has not cooled. In the first week of September, Quinn Emanuel, Paul Hastings, Sullivan & Cromwell, A&O Shearman and Wilmer all added antitrust partners in DC. Paul Hastings took one from the FTC and one from Freshfields. Wilmer took Rebecca Unruh from the FTC. A&O Shearman hired Anna Kertesz from White & Case – former FTC mergers, their second US antitrust partner add this year.
What we are seeing in live processes: FTC mergers alumni with a book, or a clear path to one, are still being taken at partner. The same title without originations is being offered counsel. Some of those processes are stalling.
Appellate is a name market. Davis Polk hired Kannon Shanmugam and Masha Hansford from Paul Weiss to stand up a Supreme Court and appellate practice. Gibson Dunn lifted a four-partner appellate team led by Jeffrey Wall from Sullivan & Cromwell – more than 45 arguments at the Court between them. Paul Weiss answered by taking a Goodwin partner to lead its Supreme Court practice. These hires move the table. They do not create forty associate seats.
Trade, CFIUS and national security still convert a government title into demand. Latham hired Cate Behles from Treasury as counsel in CFIUS. Steptoe took a four-partner Winston & Strawn team covering sanctions, export controls, enforcement and trials. Tariffs and inbound investment reviews are keeping those groups busy in a way some white-collar FCPA benches are not.
White collar is the correction. Firms hired a lot of prosecutors in 2025. Enforcement priorities moved. Many of those lawyers are inside as counsel. Partner-level demand is thinner than the résumé flow. That is the part of last year’s story that has already been marked down.
Prestige, combinations, and who will take the call
Covington and Williams & Connolly still sit at the top of local prestige. Latham, Gibson Dunn and Kirkland have closed the gap in how associates rank the city. WilmerHale moved up the Vault DC table after litigating the administration’s firm-targeted executive orders. Paul Weiss dropped out of the local top ten after settling.
Prestige here is not only PEP. It is whether the partnership is seen to have a spine. That now affects who will take a call.
Hogan Lovells Cadwalader went live on 1 July 2026 and now has one of the largest DC offices of any firm. Perkins Coie and Ashurst have been working through their own combination. Duplication and conflicts produce exits. If you sit in a doubled-up regulatory or finance seat inside either platform, test the market this year — not after guarantees expire.
The administration’s fight with Big Law is part of fit. Four firms litigated. Others struck deals. Some government lawyers will only consider firms that fought. Some corporate clients only want firms that settled. Map it before you run a process.
Laterals worth reading
- Anna Kertesz, White & Case → A&O Shearman (DC), September 2026. Antitrust, ex-FTC mergers.
- Rebecca Unruh, FTC → WilmerHale (DC), September 2026. Antitrust.
- Paul Hastings, two antitrust partners (FTC and Freshfields), September 2026.
- Kannon Shanmugam and Masha Hansford, Paul Weiss → Davis Polk (DC), 2026. Supreme Court and appellate.
- Jeffrey Wall team(four partners), Sullivan & Cromwell → Gibson Dunn (DC), April 2026. Appellate.
- Cate Behles, Treasury → Latham (DC), June 2026. CFIUS / national security, counsel.
- Greenberg Traurig, six-person lobbying team from Holland & Knight, spring 2026.
- Steptoe, four partners from Winston & Strawn, May 2026. Trade, sanctions, enforcement.
What to do with this, if you are in the market
Do not write “government / regulatory” on a search. Name the agency and the product: merger control, appellate, CFIUS, congressional investigations, FERC. Counsel is how firms absorbed the 2025 wave without breaking the partnership. That is still the honest offer for a lot of unsponsored agency talent. Putting another AUSA up for equity because the bio looks like last year’s hire is how firms own an expensive seat for a long time.
The profiles that still move are antitrust with agency or trial depth, appellate names, trade and CFIUS, and policy lawyers who already sit next to a disputes practice. A white-collar prosecutor without a book is late to this cycle. Antitrust litigation associates still have options. Generalist regulatory associates are competing with a year of government laterals.
Midterms will produce another government wave. It will be a worse wave for candidates than 2025. The people who already landed are inside firms. The next group will be selling the same experience into a market that has already hired it.
The premium attaches to people who can run one of those files at the top of the market. It does not attach to a .gov address on its own.
HIA Legal maps partner and associate demand across Washington, New York, Texas and London. If you are weighing a DC move, or building a practice group here, talk to us before the next wave arrives.