We recently looked at lateral Partner retention across the AM Law 100. But how does retention vary by practice group?

This is the first in a new series looking at three-year lateral Partner retention in the AM Law 100 cut by practice. AM Law 100 firms made over 2,100 lateral Litigation Partner hires between 2020 and 2022, making it the largest practice by hire volume.

Lateral partner hires are one of the most significant investments a law firm can make, and retention is a key indication of  whether the hire has worked. Based on input from a number of firms, a key window of initial success for a lateral Partner hire are the first 3 years.

Using publicly-available data tracked by Pirical, we've analyzed how many of the lateral Litigation Partner hires made by AM Law 100 firms between 2020 and 2022 remained at  the firm within 3 years of joining.

Note on methodology

Each firm's retention rate is based on the cohort of lateral Litigation Partner hires made between Jan 2020 - Dec 2022, and how many of those hires subsequently left the firm within the first 3 years of joining.

Excludes firms that made fewer than 5 lateral Litigation 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 Litigation Partners that left but didn't lateral to another firm, eg. retired.

Among the firms with above-average retention (above 84% within the first 3 years), Boies Schiller Flexner was the most common source of the hire, accounting for 3.08% of moves. As a litigation focused firm, Boies stands out as a distinct pipeline for the best-retaining firms.

Reed Smith (1.98%) was the next most common source, followed by the US Department of Justice (1.76%). AM Law top 50 firms including Kirkland & Ellis (1.54%), King & Spalding (1.32%), Winston & Strawn (1.10%), and Gibson Dunn (1.10%) round out the top sources, alongside Stoel Rives (1.21%).

Bankruptcy & Restructuring Litigation has the strongest lateral Partner retention within the first 3 years at 92%, well above the 81% litigation average. Securities Litigation (86%) and Antitrust Litigation (84%) are the next highest.



Banking Litigation is the practice with the lowest retention at 69%, meaning nearly one in three lateral Banking Litigation Partners left within 3 years. IP Litigation (77%) and Insurance Litigation (78%) also show higher than average rates of early exits.

Houston (87%), London (86%), and Salt Lake City (85%) show the strongest lateral Litigation Partner retention rates.

In contrast, Los Angeles (75%), Dallas (75%), and San Francisco (78%) have the lowest retention. Texas splits sharply: Houston tops the cities on retention, while Dallas is the second-lowest, suggesting that the two Texas markets pull lateral Litigation Partners in very different directions.