Lateral Partner retention remains a defining metric for the legal industry. Every lateral hire represents a huge investment of time, money and resources. Because of this, the success of these moves has significant implications for any law firm's health.

Following our recent analysis of lateral Partner retention in the AM Law 100, we're now shifting our focus to the AM Law second hundred.

Based on input from a number of firms, the first three years after a hire represent a key "make or break" window. It is within this timeframe that a firm is likely to gain a sense of whether a lateral hire will result in success, or not.

Using publicly-available data tracked by Pirical legal professionals (PLP), we've analyzed how many of the lateral Partner hires made by AM Law 101-200 firms between 2020-2022 exited the firm within 3 years of joining.

Note on methodology

Each firm's retention rate is based on the cohort of lateral 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 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.

At 94%, Atlanta tops the chart for highest Partner retention rates in the AM Law second hundred and is the only US City to surpass the 86% average retention rate.

Boston and Houston saw the lowest retention rates at 80%, both far below average.

Private Client and Labor and Employment practice areas had the highest rates of lateral Partner retention at 87% and 86% respectively, surpassing the average retention rate of 84%.

However, Partners practicing in Intellectual Property law were significantly more likely to leave within the 3 year timeframe. Retention in this practice area fell below average at 79%.