Bacterial genomes develop new mechanisms to tide them over the imposing conditions that they encounter during the course of their evolution. Acquisition of new genes by lateral gene transfer may be one of the dominant ways of adaptation in bacterial genome evolution. Lateral gene transfer provides the bacterial genome with a new set of genes that help it to explore and adapt to new ecological niches. A maximum likelihood analysis was done on the five sequenced corynebacterial genomes to model the rates of gene insertions/deletions at various depths of the phylogeny. The study shows that the inferred rates of gene movement are more common on the external branches of the phylogeny and decrease as the phylogenetic depth increases. The newly acquired genes are under relaxed selection and evolve faster than their older counterparts. The five Corynebacterial genomes sequenced to date have evolved by acquiring between 8 - 14% of their genomes by LGT and an analysis of some of the functionally characterised LGTs has indicated that they may have a possible adaptive role. The entire list of specific genes for each of the sequenced corynebacterial species is listed below.