Pirical Rankings: Which AM Law 100 Firms Have The Best Lateral Partner Retention?
Can law firms turn seamless integration into a major competitive advantage? One persistent pain point in lateral hiring is the "flight risk" of a new Partner within their first few years. To address this, we have revamped our Pirical Rankings on Partner Retention- a deep dive into how lateral success rates stack up across the AM Law 100 when measured against a three-year window.
A three to five year window is a good indicator of whether a hire has successfully integrated. By this stage, a Partner would have transitioned their clients, integrated into the firm's culture, and started pulling their weight financially. Using publicly-available data tracked by Pirical, we've analysed how many of the lateral Partner hires made by AM Law 100 firms between 2020-2022 have exited within 3 years of hiring.
Note on methodology: excludes firms that made fewer than 5 lateral 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 Partners that left but didn't lateral to another firm, eg. retired.
Ranked: Which AM Law 100 Firms Have the Highest Lateral Partner Retention Rates?
Lateral Partner hires and how many then left the firm within the first 3 years
Global, AM Law 100, >5 Lateral Partner Hires, Jan 2020 - Dec 2025
Firms With Retention Greater Than 90% Source Talent Mainly From The AM Law 50
The firms with the highest retention appear to have cracked the code for "sticky" hiring, successfully sourcing talent that has remained at the firm through 2025. Leading this elite group of talent suppliers is Kirkland & Ellis, accounting for nearly 7% of these long-term placements, followed by White & Case (2.6%) and Latham & Watkins (2.5%).
Notably, every firm on this list of successful hire sources sits within the AM Law 50, suggesting that the highest performing firms find the most success when recruiting from their direct peers.
Partner Retention Rates Are Highest in the Major European & US Legal Hubs
Paris leads for stability by city with a 90% retention rate, followed by London (82%), and New York City (82%). In contrast, markets like Los Angeles (75%), Dallas (74%), and Houston (74%) see much higher early turnover. These lower retention rates suggest that in high-growth, competitive regions, firms face a steeper challenge in keeping new hires beyond the initial three-year mark.
Cybersecurity Retention Falls Well Below the 79% Practice Average
When breaking down retention by practice, Labor and Employment (84%) leads, followed closely by Project Development (82%) and Litigation (81%). These groups appear to have more successful integration periods, with fewer partners exiting in the first three years.
Cybersecurity, Privacy & Data Protection has the lowest retention at 68%, which is well below the 79% average for these practices. Insurance (77%) and Capital Markets (77%) also show higher than average early turnover.
Note on methodology
Source: Publicly-available data tracked by Pirical Legal Professionals (PLP)
Excludes: Firms with less than 5 lateral Partner hires and mergers
Timeframe: Jan 2020 - Dec 2025
The retention rate is based on the cohort of lateral Partner hires made between 2020 and 2022. We tracked the percentage of these specific Partners who exit their firm within 3 years of their hiring date. The final number represents the percentage of the hires who remained at the firm after the three year window.
Data is derived from tracked lateral Partner moves, numbers may be slightly incomplete due to limited public information. Exits include Partners that left but didn't lateral to another firm, eg. retired.
Analysis powered by Pirical Legal Professionals (PLP)
Pirical Legal Professionals is the largest attorney database built with the most comprehensive data on the market. Specifically designed for legal recruitment and legal market research.
Pirical seamlessly aggregates data from a wide range of public sources, tracking over 700,000 attorney profiles worldwide. Our data helps law firms source lateral talent quicker, identify candidates with key client relationships, map competitor firm strategies & team structures, and much more.
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