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Law firm hiring cools down from 2021, NALP Foundation study finds

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Law firm attrition decreased in 2022 from the higher levels seen in 2021, according to The NALP Foundation’s newest annual Update on Associate Attrition.

The report pulled data from 128 participating firms in the U.S. and Canada and found that the overall associate attrition rate for 2022 was 20%, while in 2021 it was reported at 26%. It also reports that associates of color continued to leave at higher rates than their majority peers – 26%.

“The very high levels of both associate hiring and attrition, particularly in the first half of 2022, show significantly elevated and ongoing associate mobility but with increasing dispersion based on location and practice area, and troublingly persistent differences for associates of color, which should be a pressing concern for the profession,” stated NALP Foundation President & CEO, Fiona Trevelyan Hornblower, in a news release.

While these rates are lower than 2021’s, the foundation stated that the latest rates are still higher than previous years. The report and rates are broken down by firm size, gender identity, and demographic cohort, and also explores reasons why associates are leaving firms, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, firm support, etc.

The NALP Foundation also reported that geographic relocation was cited as one of the top reasons associates elected to leave their firms and more than twice as many associates who identified litigation as their primary practice area left in 2022, than those who identified theirs as business/corporate.

The full report can be found on The NALP Foundation’s website.

Julia Brunette Johnson

Julia Brunette Johnson

Julia is a contributing reporter for the National Jurist and preLaw magazines.

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