Lawyers Hired in Work-From-Home Era Are Bolting From Firms (1)

Welcome back to the Big Law Business column. I’m Roy Strom, and today we look at law firms’ stubbornly high attrition rates. Sign up for Business & Practice, a free morning newsletter from Bloomberg Law.

The Covid emergency is over, but lawyers’ careers that started during the pandemic are still just beginning. We are starting to learn just how unique their experience in Big Law has been—and the fallout it could have for law firms.

There was a lot of discussion a couple years ago about how effective firms would be at training and developing these junior attorneys during the pandemic.

The concerns were obvious. Here was a group of young lawyers who started their Big Law careers working in their apartments. The effectiveness of Big Law training has always been a concern, but now they were doing it over Zoom?

You don’t read much about it anymore, at least outside of discussions on message boards with “hot takes” such as—Covid-era associates are “mostly incompetent.”

Data emerging from this period shows a glaring trend. More associates are leaving their firms than before the pandemic, and they are leaving earlier in their tenures. As a result, firms are getting far less return for every associate they hire—and for every annual bonus they dole out.

For associates, it means they are navigating more uncertain careers.

Only one in five associates remained at the same law firm through five years as of last year, according to The NALP Foundation, which conducts research on the legal profession. That is up from a trend closer to one in four.

The departure rate is trending at an all-time high over the past two years, the group’s latest survey found. Nowadays, it’s closer to a coin flip if an associate will stay at a firm for even three years—47% of them had left by then.

That means most associates hired in 2020 and 2021, the years hardest hit by Covid office restrictions, are already gone. In fact, 71% of the more than 6,000 associates who departed their firms last year were hired, and began working at, their firms in an entirely virtual environment, according to the report.

That huge ratio isn’t necessarily a causal relationship, Fiona Trevelyan Hornblower, NALP Foundation president and chief executive officer, told me.

“We’re now at the point where this huge phalanx of people who came in virtually with the pandemic are making these not-unexpected moves,” she said.

Firms expect associates to leave. And there is an argument to make that law firms in recent years would benefit from an uptick in attrition.

Despite strong overall financial results, firms have struggled with lagging productivity. In 2022 and 2023, they recorded “back-to-back years of historic lows” for industry-wide utilization, or hours billed per lawyer, Owen Burman, a senior consultant at Wells Fargo’s law firm banking group, told me.

Those rates recovered last year as demand for lawyers’ time soared. “Productivity benefited firms in 2024, and if that starts working against you, then you’re relying too much on rate increases,” Burman said. “And that’s the concern we’ll watch going forward.”

If only it was all part of the plan! Law firms didn’t tell the NALP Foundation the attrition last year was more intentional than usual.

Firms reported that about half of the associates who left last year were “unwanted” departures—a rate that has remained relatively stable in recent years, the report said.

Law firms love to say they are “talent” businesses. Yet, every other associate who leaves is someone they didn’t want to get away? It almost sounds like a crisis, except that it isn’t new.

Firms “desired” only 28% of the departures that took place last year—down from 33% a year ago, according to the data. Many departing associates aren’t fed up with law firm life—41% of departing associates left for another law firm in 2024, compared to 31% the year prior.

The new NALP Foundation figures tell the law firms’ side of the story. An upcoming survey of associates will provide answers about why the lawyers say they left their firms.

That will be important reading for any law firm leader who’s dissatisfied with how many associates are walking out the door.

Worth Your Time

On Trump’s 100 Days: I reported a story with Suzanne Monyak and Justin Wise on the Trump administration’s swift moves threatening Big Law, stripping the Justice Department of its independence, and confronting judges.

On Paul Clement: The veteran and conservative Supreme Court litigator has joined the legal team representing Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan (D), who was arrested last week for allegedly helping a migrant evade federal immigration officers, Alex Ebert reports.

On Trump and Big Law: Bloomberg’s Claire Ballentine reports on the dividing lines young lawyers are trying to draw when it comes to working for firms that made deals with the president. And she spoke about her story for Bloomberg Law’s On The Merits podcast.

That’s it for this week! Thanks for reading and please send me your thoughts, critiques, and tips.