Legal Recruitment · Des Moines · North America
Legal Recruiters in Des Moines, Iowa
Sartori & Partners maps 250+ lawyers across Des Moines, placing litigation, corporate, and transactional talent for firms and in-house teams in Iowa's capital market.
Inside the Des Moines legal market.
Our proprietary Titan AI maps the relevant field first — then experienced consultants qualify it by hand. The figures below describe the market we cover, not a candidate database.
- 250+
- lawyers mapped in the Des Moines market
- 7
- core practice areas tracked
Des Moines has matured into a substantive legal market anchored by insurance and financial services capital, regional agribusiness, and a growing infrastructure and energy sector. That mix shapes a legal talent pool with particular depth in litigation, corporate transactions, and real estate — disciplines that see consistent demand as Iowa's economy cycles through development and dispute.
Employment and labor work runs steadily across the market, driven by mid-size employers navigating workforce regulation, while finance and banking mandates reflect the city's disproportionate concentration of insurance carriers and asset managers. Intellectual property and energy practices, though smaller, are distinct here: IP tied closely to technology-enabled financial services, and energy shaped by the state's wind and renewable transition.
Sartori & Partners maps 250+ lawyers active across Des Moines, from associates building practices to senior counsel and partners whose relationships define the market. We recruit across the full practice spectrum and advise both law firms and in-house legal teams on lateral moves and leadership appointments.
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~8,000 statewide
licensed lawyers and judges in Iowa (no Des Moines-only count is published; Des Moines/Polk County is the state's largest concentration of attorneys and home to Iowa's biggest firms)
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250+
senior lawyers we map in Des Moines
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The few
who genuinely fit the mandate
The Des Moines legal market in numbers.
Independent, sourced market data — the size, shape and economics of the Des Moines legal market we recruit across. Figures describe the market itself, not our database.
Where the lawyers sit
- Private practice74%
- In-house7%
- Government, judiciary & other19%
ABA: ~74% private practice, ~7% corporate/in-house, ~8% government, remainder judiciary/academia/military/non-profit. 'Other' folds government + all non-firm/non-corporate.
What the market pays
- junior associate1st-year base (Cravath scale)$225,000 base (Cravath 2026); $235,000 under Milbank scale eff. July 2026
- senior associate8th-year base (Cravath scale)$435,000 base (Cravath 2026), up to $455,000 (Milbank); total ~$550K-$595K with bonus
- equity partnerAm Law 100 PEPAm Law 100 PEP up 14% in 2025; ~$2M to $12.15M (Wachtell top); Kirkland $11.1M
Base salary (associates) and average profit per equity partner. Bars are scaled for legibility, not linear.
What is moving the market now
- 01
Insurance-capital status continues to underpin demand for corporate, insurance-regulatory and coverage lawyers in 2026, with insurance making up roughly 16% of regional employment and Principal Financial investing $400M+ in its downtown headquarters.
US Chamber of Commerce (uschamber.com); Greater Des Moines Partnership (dsmpartnership.com)
- 02
National and global firms have consolidated their Iowa presence in Des Moines — Dentons via its Davis Brown combination (Dentons Davis Brown, 75+ lawyers) and Faegre Drinker's Des Moines office — concentrating large-firm capacity in the capital.
Dentons Davis Brown (dentons.com); Faegre Drinker (faegredrinker.com)
- 03
Recruiters report active 2026 lateral demand for corporate/transactional associates with 2-6 years' M&A and general-corporate experience, reflecting the city's finance/insurance client base.
BCG Search (bcgsearch.com); Legal Recruiter Directory (legalrecruiterdirectory.org)
Sources https://www.iowabar.org/ · https://www.uschamber.com/co/good-company/growth-studio/des-moines-iowa-insurance · https://www.dsmpartnership.com/economic-development/economic-climate/key-industries/insurance-and-financial-services · https://nyemaster.com/ · https://nyemaster.com/practice-areas/business-and-commercial-transactions/ · https://www.dentons.com/en/dentons-davis-brown · https://www.faegredrinker.com/en/locations/des-moines · https://parrishlaw.com/ · https://www.dickinsonbradshaw.com/ · https://www.bcgsearch.com/bestlawfirms/pa-2-loc-2658123/iowa/des-moines/corporate · https://www.legalrecruiterdirectory.org/directory/iowa/des-moines/ · https://members.dsmpartnership.com/list/member/principal-financial-group-des-moines-22551655
Admission & regulation State supreme courts / state bar associations · American Bar Association (ABA)
Practice coverage in Des Moines.
Every practice we map across the Des Moines market, by depth — the strongest pools for lateral, in-house and senior-counsel hiring. Each links through to recruiting for that practice here.
Lawyers mapped in our coverage of the Des Moines market, by practice. Each links to lateral, in-house and senior-counsel recruiting for that practice here.
The searches we run in Des Moines.
Law-firm and corporate mandates alike — from a confidential lateral partner move to a first general counsel — each run on the same evidence-led method.
Lateral Partner & Practice-Group Moves
Confidential lateral partners and practice-group lift-outs, assessed on portable business, conflicts and platform fit.
Explore this search 02In-House & General Counsel
GC, deputy GC and senior counsel for companies operating across multiple jurisdictions.
Explore this search 03Associate & Counsel Recruiting
Mid-level and senior associates and counsel, matched on practice depth and trajectory, not keywords.
Explore this search 04Compliance & Regulatory Leadership
Chief compliance officers and regulatory leaders for the most heavily supervised practices.
Explore this searchBoth sides of the search.
For law firms
Lateral partners, practice groups and associates — a shortlist drawn from the full field of a market, not a rented local database.
Learn moreFor companies
General counsel, compliance and legal-operations leaders for businesses building or scaling a legal function.
Learn moreFor candidates
Considering a move? We approach senior lawyers privately and confidentially — nothing moves without your say-so.
Learn moreLegal recruitment in Des Moines — common questions
Which practice areas see the most lateral hiring activity in Des Moines?
Litigation and corporate work generate the most consistent lateral demand, reflecting the concentration of insurance, financial services, and agribusiness clients in the market. Real estate and employment mandates also move steadily, particularly as regional development activity and workforce regulation remain elevated. Finance and banking searches tend to be more selective but recur reliably given the depth of insurance and asset management operations in the city.
How many live legal roles does Sartori & Partners have in Des Moines, Iowa?
We currently have 14 live legal roles in Des Moines, Iowa. The most active practice areas right now are Litigation, Corporate, Healthcare. The mix spans 13 partner-level and 1 associate or counsel position. Browse all open roles or join our talent network for proactive alerts.
Which practice areas are most active in Des Moines, Iowa right now?
Based on current live mandates, the most active practice areas in Des Moines, Iowa are Litigation, Corporate, Healthcare. Litigation accounts for 64% of current openings. This reflects only publicly-shareable mandates — the full picture includes confidential lateral partner searches that do not appear here.
How big is the legal market in Des Moines?
Iowa has roughly 8,000 licensed lawyers and judges; Des Moines (Polk County) is the state’s largest concentration of attorneys and home to Iowa’s biggest firms. Iowa's largest legal market — the state capital and one of the top US insurance/financial-services hubs (ABA National Lawyer Population Survey 2024 / ABA Profile of the Legal Profession 2025) Our coverage maps 250+ of the senior lawyers most likely to move.
What do lawyers earn in the Des Moines market?
junior associate compensation runs $225,000 base (Cravath 2026); $235,000 under Milbank scale eff. July 2026; at the top, equity partner reaches Am Law 100 PEP up 14% in 2025; ~$2M to $12.15M (Wachtell top); Kirkland $11.1M. Contact us for a candid benchmark for your specific profile.
Is the Des Moines legal market mostly private practice or in-house?
Around 74% of lawyers are in private practice and 7% in-house. ABA: ~74% private practice, ~7% corporate/in-house, ~8% government, remainder judiciary/academia/military/non-profit. 'Other' folds government + all non-firm/non-corporate. We run mandates on both sides of the market.
Des Moines · North America
The right hire in Des Moines begins with a quiet conversation.
Tell us the mandate and the market — we will tell you candidly whether we are the right firm to run it. No obligation, complete discretion.