Driven by soaring deal volume and workload, Big Law is hiring lateral associates at a breakneck pace in 2021, and no firm has done it more in the first half of the year than Latham & Watkins.

Latham, which is the second-largest law firm by revenue in the Am Law 100, hired 274 lateral associates between Jan. 1 and June 30 this year, according to Decipher, which tracks U.S. lateral attorney moves between law firms. The numbers do not include first-year associates or summer associates.