Are you a lawyer living the dream of running your own firm and living life like a true boss? While the billable hours and courtroom wins are part of your success, another significant challenge for law firm owners and managers in 2025 is law firm turnover.
Finding associates can be tough, but keeping them around can be just as much of a challenge, if not more so. According to the ABA Journal, law firm turnover — also known as “attrition” — can cost firms between $200,000 and $500,000 per lawyer lost. With rising costs at top of mind for many practices, law firms simply can’t afford to ignore things like employee turnover.
While the numbers don’t lie and there is a true retention issue in the field, there are ways to combat the trend. Keep reading to find out how law firms can tackle the growing problem of attorney turnover by learning about and understanding its root causes, and implementing effective retention strategies.
What is law firm turnover (and why does it matter)?
Law firm turnover refers to the rate at which associates leave a firm, and the rate at which new employees are hired or join the firm. This key metric reflects the volatility of a firm’s workforce and is typically calculated by dividing the total number of employees leaving or joining by the total number of employees at the firm.
There are certainly plenty of lawyers out there — according to the American Bar Association (ABA), there were more than 1.3 million lawyers in the United States as of January 1, 2024, or roughly four lawyers for every 1,000 residents. Yet Embroker’s 2024 Legal Risk Index Report reveals a surprising paradox: Despite this apparent abundance of lawyers, half (50%) of all law firms surveyed struggled to keep their attorneys in 2023.
Why does this discrepancy matter?
High law firm turnover can be detrimental to your overall success. After all, a law firm is also a business, and you face substantial costs in recruiting, hiring, and training replacements, not to mention the operational disruptions caused by staff departures.
It can also seriously impact your reputation: A firm known for losing associates may struggle to attract and retain both talent and clients as questions arise about its internal culture and stability.
Why is there this revolving door in the legal field?
Various factors can contribute to high law firm turnover, and to attorney retention in the legal field in general. For starters, there’s been a resurgence of in-office vs. remote roles, and this may be contributing to early exits amongst associates who prefer the work-from-home lifestyle.
Similarly, a firm’s workplace culture can impact an employee’s longevity. Today, people are less likely to stick with it and endure a negative work environment, especially if there’s alternative options to work remote or hybrid.
There’s also pressure for greener employees who may have to pay back their student loans. These younger associates sometimes seek higher paying positions year-after-year simply because incremental increases just won’t move the needle enough for them to cover their expenses. This type of law firm turnover may be a contributing factor behind a recent hiring trend that shows a shift toward more experienced lateral hires, growth in two-tier partner structures, and less emphasis on junior associate hiring.
Overall, most attorneys struggle with trying to achieve work-life balance. If they can’t achieve it at your firm, they’ll keep looking for a better option until they find it.
What lawyers really want from a firm
When you take a step back and look at what typical legal environments yield (long hours; intense competition; pressure, etc.) it’s not so shocking that associates would want something more balanced.
So, what do lawyers want in a workplace that firms can actually provide?
“After nearly a decade in law firms and building a global analyst program for future attorneys, I’ve seen the cost of outdated models,” shares Ashley Kera, Kera Coaching & Consulting LLC. “Today’s workforce — especially Millennials and Gen Z — expects more: Real work-life integration, not just billable targets; mentorship, career development, and financial growth; and a culture where they feel supported, not just stretched thin. Firms that fail to evolve will continue to lose their best people.”
Better work-life balance and flexible work options
“Burnout is rampant not because attorneys lack grit, but because they’re expected to sacrifice everything,” shares Kera. Big law firms hire for people power; they know there will be turnover after four years. But smaller and mid-sized firms are more likely to hire for long-term potential. So associates will look for work-life balance, but also expect other opportunities as well.
According to the ABA, law firms must create more flexible work environments to stay competitive. Below are just a few ideas to consider.
- Hybrid work models: Allow attorneys and other staff to split time between office and remote work based on their role’s requirements and personal preferences.
- Alternative scheduling options: Offer compressed work weeks, part-time arrangements, or flexible daily schedules that accommodate your employees’ personal responsibilities.
- Results-oriented work environments: Focus on outcomes rather than on how many hours are worked, or when work is completed.
- Centralized communication: Use platforms that centralize your firm’s internal communication, so remote and flexible employees remain connected and informed.
- Well-being initiatives: Offer resources to support employee mental and physical health.
Technology that improves their workflows
There’s no question that administrative tasks can really add to an associate’s already stacked workload and cut into their billable hours — on average, lawyers only bill for 2.3 hours per day. But there’s also no question that these tasks are necessary for your firm to function.
One way to support your employees is by investing in useful tools that can help streamline the more tedious tasks on their to-do lists.
Leveraging AI-powered tools is a good start. AI can provide small firms with the same advantages available to larger firms, such as enhanced research and document review capabilities, allowing lawyers to provide better service to their clients.
AI may be an obvious choice, but there are so many other tools out there that make internal processes easier and improve productivity. Take a look at some of the best law management software platforms available today, including Clio, CosmoLex, My Case and more. These programs can help give back time, and in turn support a better balance for team members.
Your firm may also benefit from a virtual receptionist — for a fee, these can provide 24/7 reception services, appointment scheduling assistance, and more.
Opportunity for growth and mentorship
Feeling stuck in your position is never a good place to be, especially when you’re repaying law school loans and can’t just leave your job for greener pastures. If career advancement doesn’t come quick enough, or worse, doesn’t seem like a possibility in the next few years, your employees may struggle to see the value in staying on with your firm.
Associates will be more likely to join your firm if they know there’s a chance for career growth and development ahead. Further, having a path to partnership can be even more of an incentive. If there’s no possibility of an eventual partnership and associates only see lateral moves happening, they will leave to seek advancement elsewhere.
Fortunately, even when the traditional partnership track isn’t the primary motivator or a readily available option for every associate, your firm can still encourage employee development and foster long-term engagement — namely, through robust mentorship programs.
Mentoring is about intentionally building meaningful connections that will support the associate’s career journey. Mentors provide career guidance, offer skill development, facilitate networking opportunities in the field, and champion their mentee’s growth, all of which can help foster employee loyalty and reduce attrition at your firm.
A positive, inclusive work culture
Attorney life can be all-consuming and sometimes feel a bit transactional. On top of that is the omnipresent threat of burnout, which can impact a lawyer’s personal life by affecting their mental health and their relationships with friends and family.
Help counteract those challenges by establishing a workplace culture that is positive and demonstrates appreciation. A positive, inclusive culture is one that’s absent gender discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, religious discrimination, and other biases in the workplace — and of course, sexual harassment and abuse should never be tolerated. Instead, look to create a diverse and empathetic team that can support and collaborate easily with one another.
To be able to effectively lead as the legal landscape continues to evolve, Paula Davis, CEO of The Stress & Resilience Institute, suggests that leaders need a blueprint that will give them the tools to:
- Address the root causes of both stress and high-performance
- Build thriving teams that stay engaged, connected, and inspired
- Help their teams adapt to and navigate change, complexity, and uncertainty
You can also decrease law firm turnover by investing a bit more in your upfront hiring process. Create a talent strategy that aligns with your business goals and keep your eyes open for red flags that may signal an applicant is only looking for short-term employment with your firm.
Unfortunately, there may be one glaring issue: Most law firms lack a clear and articulated talent strategy. So how do you find a talent strategy? In this case, let’s reverse engineer it a bit by looking at past exits and what you can learn from them.
Turn past mistakes into learning opportunities
When addressing law firm turnover it’s wise to take a step back and think of the total attorney exits from your firm as a measure of the change happening not only to your roster, but also to your culture. 46% of firms are focused on networking for acquiring new staff. What else can you do to build and retain your roster?
If you are ready to craft a retention strategy, don’t gloss over your past experiences with employees who exited prematurely. Try to identify trends by practice area, client team, supervising partners, office location, or experience level. This may help you determine a root cause or causes behind your firm’s specific culture or workplace areas of opportunity.
And then with that information create a new employee onboarding plan with ongoing strategies that can offer associates benefits that go beyond the status quo. With so many law firms to choose from, think of how yours can stand apart in the best ways possible. If maintaining your workforce is a priority of the firm, your associates should feel that — and in turn be more committed long-term.