Public finance law is a competitive arena and so too is the lateral recruiting marketplace where law firms seek experienced legal talent to join their public finance practices.
Julie Seymour, a partner at Nixon Peabody LLP and a member the firm's public finance department, is currently in her second year as lateral recruiting partner, a role on the firm's management committee that was created in early 2025. The current lateral recruiting marketplace for public finance attorney talent is "highly competitive" and "definitely a more competitive environment than we've seen in prior years," she said.
"Historically, public finance has generally been pretty stable in terms of people staying at the same firm for extended periods, and we didn't see a ton of movement," Seymour said.
However, that has changed over the past couple of years, she said.
"We've seen a lot more movement than we have in the past, which follows the current general trend for legal talent," Seymour said. "Competition for top legal talent is currently very fierce—near-unprecedented levels. And public finance isn't immune to that trend."
The legal talent marketplace "is undergoing a significant shift, particularly within the financial services industry," according to an August 2025 Industry Insights
"This approach prioritizes precision over volume and seeks attorneys who can deliver immediate value," said the article posted on the website of Larson Maddox, the regulatory and legal recruiting arm of Phaidon International.
So-called lateral attorneys, particularly those who can bring business with them, "are highly attractive to law firms nationwide," said Matt Bragiel, a senior director at OnBoard Legal, a recruiting firm that handles lateral partner and associate recruiting.
Attorneys with public finance experience "remain in high demand," Bragiel said.
"This practice is highly specialized, and that means that there is not an abundance of attorneys in this sector," he said.
An accomplished public finance attorney is likely to have his or her own client base, "and the law firm hiring the lateral anticipates that those clients will follow their attorney to the new firm," Bragiel said. In many instances, the new firm has more resources and a broader platform, which could mean better results for those clients, he said.
In those circumstances, "it's a win-win for the lateral attorney and their clients," Bragiel said, adding that the law firm also wins because it's getting an attorney with significant experience in public finance law as well as added revenue from new clients.
While partners with public finance experience are sought after in the lateral recruiting marketplace, mid-level associates "are also in high demand," he said, adding that "they are starting to reach a critical point in their career where they are becoming exceedingly capable and require less training and oversight than a recent law school graduate."
While OnBoard Legal is "actively recruiting in the public finance area," the Birmingham, Ala.-based firm "cannot disclose specific information about our ongoing work," Bragiel said.
In addition to public finance, law firms are also actively seeking attorneys with experience in mergers and acquisitions, commercial litigation and healthcare, he said.
At Nixon Peabody, recent lateral hire additions to the firm's public finance department included Michael Melzer, who
"Brian Organ, a talented tax attorney based in San Francisco, is part of our next generation of tax lawyers we're incorporating into our public finance practice as we plan for the future," she said.
Nixon Peabody's strategy has been and continues to be "maintaining a strong and deep bench of talent to remain competitive," Seymour said.
"The depth and breadth of talent in our public finance group makes it easier to maintain our client base and to compete for the best work," she said. "Deals are getting bigger, more complicated, and more sophisticated."
The firm's public finance department needs to have a deep bench "so that we are always able to tap niche skills when a new structure comes up, or a new type of transaction arises, just to have the best talent available when it is needed the most," Seymour said.
Nixon Peabody has "invested heavily in our tax capability for public finance," and currently has six "Section 103" tax lawyers, she said, referencing a group that includes Organ as well as Johnny Hutchinson, a partner based out of the firm's New York City office.
"A firm might have a public finance practice, but if they don't have the necessary tax support in place, that public finance practice could be in jeopardy of falling apart," Seymour said. "We've made it a point to invest in more junior tax talent, to ensure we have a succession plan for our tax group."
Seymour also mentioned the work that Nixon Peabody's public finance department – and Hutchinson in particular – has done in relation to spaceport projects.
Tax-exempt private activity bonds "can now be used for spaceport projects, and Johnny and Nixon Peabody are at the cutting edge of evaluating development opportunities and the applicability of PABs for spaceport projects already in process and are being sought out by issuers and investment bankers as these deals take shape over the coming months," she said.
Hutchinson, who joined the firm in
Justin Cooper, an Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP partner who is a member of Orrick's board and serves as co-leader of the firm's public finance department, said lateral partner recruiting has not historically been a "constant part" of Orrick's strategy when it comes to building its public finance practice.
The firm has "typically done lateral partner recruiting when we've moved into a new geography as opposed to being a way to grow the ranks where we're already established," Cooper said, adding while there have been some exceptions, "that's generally been the case."
The firm, however, does "a lot of lateral hiring of associates all the time," he said.
"Recruiting people out of law school can be great," said Cooper, who also chairs Orrick's housing finance group. "That's how they found me and .. lots of my colleagues."
Still, "there are also real advantages" to hiring someone who has already spent some time "learning how to be a lawyer, learning how to be a professional, learning how to operate in an office environment and then teaching them the public finance part," he said.
The universe of public finance lawyers is a "small and shallow pool, and it's pretty bespoke and personal," said Cooper, who works out of the firm's San Francisco office. Consequently, when Orrick – which retained its
"The chances that a headhunter knows of somebody in the market that we want to talk to that one of the roughly 80 public finance lawyers at Orrick hasn't already worked with and doesn't already know are pretty low," Cooper said.
