Article Archive

New York Law Journal Magazine
Volume 7, Number 3
June 2008

I am a non-equity litigation partner in a large New York firm. Due to its attrition problems it is very difficult for me to find associates to do my work.  The majority of them are first or second years; all the mid-levels have left. 

No sooner do I train one associate than he or she is asked by a more senior partner to work on his matter and I need to train someone else. Even worse, these young lawyers don't seem to proof their work and they react to the expectation that they will work as long as it takes to finish an assignment as if it were slave labor. I am so tired of the poor work ethic and the turnover, it's easier to just do the work myself. But because I'm doing more of this I'm working later, sleeping less and becoming exhausted.

New York Law Journal Magazine
Volume 7, Number 2
May 2008

Rates of associate attrition from the largest law firms in the United States are higher than ever, in spite of years of efforts to reduce them. As associate compensation has soared, the tenure of these well-paid young attorneys at their firms has become ever shorter.

According to research conducted by the NALP Foundation, almost 80 percent of attorneys at large firms leave within five years of being hired. Minorities and women depart their firms at much higher rates than do non-minority attornfeys. Trying to find a woman attorney of color still at her original large law firm employer eight years after being hired would prove more challenging than finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.