Law Firm Attrition: Above 18.7% Is High for the Largest Firms

What is a normal attrition rate for a law firm? Sartori & Partners data give a plain answer: the median firm loses 13.2% of its lawyers a year, and the middle band of the 525 firms measured runs from 10.2% to 16.6%. The rate counts every lawyer who leaves, for any destination, and is read from firm websites since April 2026, then scaled to a full year. For a managing partner, the market figure is only the starting point. The sharper questions are whether the firm sits above the median of its own size class, whether it crosses that class's upper-quartile line, and what sits next to the rate: hiring volume, partner flow, the length of the partner track and the firms that replacements come from. This report sets the class lines first, then reads five of the busiest hirers against them.

A firm's rate means little until it is set beside firms of the same size. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, firms of 1,000+ lawyers have a median of 14.8% and an upper-quartile line of 18.7%. Firms of 400-999 lawyers draw that line at 15.6%, firms of 150-399 lawyers at 15.7% and firms under 150 lawyers at 16.2%. Across all firms the line is 16.6%.

The three smaller classes keep their upper lines close together, between 15.6% and 16.2%. The largest class stands apart, 2.1 points above the all-firm line. The consequence is easy to miss. A firm of 1,000+ lawyers that loses 16.6% a year sits above the market's upper line yet still below its own class's line. A firm of 150-399 lawyers at the same rate is above its class line. Benchmark against the class first and the market second, or the alarm rings at the wrong firms.

Above the median is not the same as high. The space between a class's median and its upper line is the zone where a firm should watch, not act. For firms of 1,000+ lawyers that zone is 3.9 points wide, from 14.8% to 18.7%. For firms of 400-999 lawyers it is only 2.4 points, the narrowest of the four classes, and for firms under 150 lawyers it is 3.5 points.

Who the leavers join tells a firm what kind of problem it has. Sartori & Partners data show that, of the lawyers who left a law firm between May and October 2026, 86.1% went to another law firm, 11.3% to a company and 2.0% left private practice with no new employer on record. A high rate is therefore, in most cases, a contest with rival firms rather than a loss to industry.

For a midsize firm, the narrow zone means a modest rise in departures can carry it from typical to high within a year, so the rate is worth reading every quarter. For every class, the destination split says the first comparison is with competing firms: what they pay, how fast they promote, and which practices they are adding.

Several firms in the top 10 of lateral hirers are measured above the market leaving rate, among them White & Case, ranked 5th by hires, Paul Hastings, ranked 8th, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, ranked 9th. Net partner flow counts lateral partners hired against partners who left for another firm over 12 months. It was positive at White & Case, positive at Paul Hastings and positive at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

The two readings do not contradict each other. The leaving rate counts lawyers at every level, while partner flow leaves associates out, because firms that train their own associates expect many of them to move sideways. A firm can add partners faster than it parts with them and still post a high rate if its associate ranks turn over quickly. The partner track is the next place to look: time to partner is longer than the market at White & Case and longer at Paul Hastings, and in line with the market at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Where the wait is long, associates have more reason to look elsewhere.

Firm lists count individual hires, not lawyers who arrived as one team in the same quarter. For a firm above its class median, the first check is to split the rate by level. If partner flow is positive and the excess sits with associates on a long track, the rate is a cost of the model and the answer is pace of promotion. If partners are leaving as fast as they arrive, it is a retention problem at the top, and that one needs a partner-by-partner review.

Greenberg Traurig and Barnes & Thornburg run the other way. Greenberg Traurig is the 4th most active lateral hirer and the 2nd for partners, with a leaving rate below the market and a positive net partner flow. Barnes & Thornburg ranks in the 26-50 group of hirers, yet partners made about 50% of its lateral hires, against 27.7% across the market. Its leaving rate is also below the market, and its time to partner is shorter than the market's.

Set beside the first group, the contrast is in the associate bench and the track. Both firms hire partners heavily, but neither shows the long route to partnership seen at two of the firms above the market rate. A firm with a rate under its class median hires for growth; a firm above it hires partly to stand still. Before setting a lateral budget, work out how much of it only refills seats.

Heavy hirers draw on different pools. About 90% of the lateral hires at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in the last 12 months came from firms of 1,000+ lawyers. At Barnes & Thornburg, the largest source was firms of 400-999 lawyers, at about 45% of hires. Across the market, moves from one firm of 1,000+ lawyers to another made up 39.0% of lateral moves in the same 12 months.

A large firm above its median that refills seats only from other large firms is fishing in the class with the highest leaving rate and the most competition for the same people. Widening the search to firms of 400-999 lawyers, where the median rate is 13.2%, reaches lawyers who move less often and face fewer rival offers, at the cost of a longer approach.

Start with the class line, not the market line. A firm of 1,000+ lawyers below 14.8% is in the lower half of its class; between that and 18.7% it should watch; above it, act. For firms of 150-399 lawyers the same three zones break at 11.9% and 15.7%.

A firm above its class median should then run four checks. First, split departures by level: a positive net partner flow with associate churn is a promotion question, not a partner retention one. Second, ask where leavers went; with 86.1% of leavers joining another firm, name the rivals that took them and compare their offer. Third, measure the partner track against the market, since a long track sits beside a high rate at two of the firms read here. Fourth, check the replacement pool: if every hire comes from the largest firms, add the 400-999 lawyers class to the search. Sartori & Partners tracks these lines monthly from public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles.