Attrition rate is ‘markedly higher’ for associates of color, NALP Foundation says

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Attrition price is ‘markedly increased’ for associates of shade, NALP Basis says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

April 29, 2025, 9:19 am CDT

The attrition price for associates in legislation corporations was 20% in 2024, up from 18% in 2023 however nonetheless decrease than the historic excessive of 26% in 2021, in line with the NALP Basis for Regulation Profession Analysis and Training.

The attrition price was barely increased for females than males, at 22% and 20% respectively, and was “markedly increased” for associates of shade, at 24% in comparison with 19% for white associates, in line with chosen findings from the NALP Basis’s latest annual Replace on Affiliate Attrition, an in depth report on corporations’ affiliate hiring and departures for 2024.

An April 24 press launch summarized the findings.

Extra associates are leaving in a shorter time-frame than up to now, in line with the info from 119 reporting corporations in the US and Canada. In 2024, 74% of associates left their corporations inside 4 years of their hiring, up from a excessive of 72% in 2023. That may be a departure from the five-year historic sample for departures.

The survey additionally discovered a rise in hiring and departures on the surveyed corporations. In 2024, 6,092 associates had been employed by reporting corporations, up from 5,236 in 2023. The quantity who left—4,125 associates—was additionally increased than in 2023, when 3,875 associates left corporations.

Fifty-five p.c of recent associates had been employed on the entry stage, reasonably than laterally. The distinction is much more pronounced within the largest corporations of greater than 1,000 legal professionals, the place 61% of affiliate hires had been on the entry stage.

Fiona Trevelyan Hornblower, the president and CEO of the NALP Basis, sees some tendencies within the findings.

“This new knowledge exhibits shifts within the expertise market are rising, with the rise in entry stage recruiting, in addition to earlier departures by associates,” Hornblower stated within the press launch.

Extra bigger than smaller corporations responded to the survey. Solely 17% of responding corporations had 100 or fewer legal professionals. Thirty-seven p.c of the corporations had greater than 500 attorneys.

Regulation.com coated the outcomes.

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