This analysis is part of a series looking at the lateral Partner retention rates across different segments of the AM Law 200. Subscribe to stay up to date with the series and for more legal market insights.

Partner retention is a vital metric for law firms given the high costs associated with hiring, training and potentially losing every Partner. Firms with strong retention rates often point to the culture, as well as a thoughtful and careful approach to recruiting & onboarding as being key. Naturally, compensation is an important part of the puzzle too.

We've decided to take a look at how lateral Partner retention compares across different segments of the AM Law 200 and uncover the firms with the strongest retention over the last 5 years. Today, we're kicking off with the AM Law 1-25! Using publicly-available data tracked by Pirical Legal Professionals (PLP), we've analysed how many of the lateral Partner hires made by the top 25 firms between 2020-2024 are still at the firm.

Note on methodology: excludes firms that made fewer than 10 lateral Partner hires and moves as a result of mergers. Data is derived from tracked lateral Partner moves, numbers may be slightly incomplete due to limited public information. Exits include Partners that left but didn't lateral to another firm, eg. retired.

Among the top 25 firms, the average lateral Partner retention rate is 88% (+2% higher than the AM Law 100 average) and the median duration of a Partner hire that subsequently left the firm is 2 years.

The firms with 100% retention made a relatively low number of hires during this timeframe

Note on methodology

Source: Pirical Legal Professionals, using publicly available data

Excludes: firms that made fewer than 10 lateral Partner hires and moves as a result of mergers

Timeframe: Jan 2020 - Dec 2024

Data is derived from tracked lateral Partner moves, numbers may be slightly incomplete due to limited public information. Exits include Partners that left but didn't lateral to another firm, eg. retired. 

Written using publicly-available data from Pirical Legal Professionals (PLP)

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