Editor’s Note: This article is part of The American Lawyer’s Laterals Report, which includes pieces examining hiring data from 2023, compensation system changes as recruiting tools, Dan Binstock’s piece on how recruiting really works, and a look at how firms evaluate the ultimate success of lateral hires.

The volume of lateral hiring at the partner level in 2023 was down somewhat year-over-year, but not as much as the climate for transactional work indicated that it might be. And of course there was no shortage of big players involved in those moves. Below is our annual list of some of the very biggest moves—those who encapsulated and helped drive their new firms’ strategies in a given market or sector; who brought considerable books of business or considerable teams (or both) with them; and who otherwise made the big headlines and created industry-wide ripple effects.