The NALP Foundation released its 2025 report on associate attrition rates this week
A new survey of Canadian and US law firms has found that 83 percent of associates who departed their firms in 2025 left within five years of being hired.
According to the National Association for Law Placement Foundation’s latest report on law firms’ associate hiring and departures, lateral associates, associates of colour, and those who had not participated in their firm’s summer program left their firms at higher rates than entry-level associates, white associates, and those who participated in summer programs.
While the NALP Foundation surveyed 141 firms that collectively made 6,335 associate hires and saw 4,442 associate departures in 2025, only six of those firms are Canadian. The Canadian firms account for 123 of the total associate hires and 32 of the associate departures.
Notably, the rate at which associates left those Canadian firms within five years of hire was 91 percent – higher than the rate reported at participating US firms.
In many cases, the firms were responsible for these departures. The top reasons many Canadian law firm associates left their firms included their firms not believing they were meeting work quality standards (29 percent) or productivity standards (16 percent), as well as attitude or “fit” concerns (13 percent).
Other associates left Canadian firms because they were hired by firm clients (13 percent), faced an unclear advancement path (13 percent), or wanted to pursue better partnership prospects (13 percent).
“As far as the reasons that they’re leaving, they’re very similar” to the reasons why associates left US firms in 2025, says Jennifer Mandery, vice president for research at the NALP Foundation. She added that approximately half of the associates who left Canadian law firms last year went on to take associate positions at other firms, compared to about 42 percent of associates at US firms who made the same move.
The next most common move for both Canadian and US-based associates was for in-house roles, Mandery says.
Overall, the NALP Foundation’s report found that the associate attrition rate among its respondents dipped slightly to 19 percent in 2025 from 20 percent in 2024.
Firms with 100 or fewer lawyers reported a higher attrition rate (24 percent) than larger firms. Male and female attrition rates were similar (21 percent and 19 percent), while associates of colour saw a significantly higher attrition rate (25 percent) than their white peers (16 percent).
Fiona Trevelyan, president and CEO of the NALP Foundation, says one takeaway from the report "that the legal profession probably needs to be quite attentive to is the trend of associates leaving their firms earlier in their tenure.
“That could be quite challenging for firms if that rate continues to tick up,” Trevelyan adds. “It’s definitely something to be attentive to from a talent management perspective.”
The NALP Foundation’s 2025 report also marks the first time the organization has examined how AI has impacted associates’ careers. Less than one percent of 2025 departees left their firms due to a “desire for support/training using AI tools,” and the same percentage of departees left their roles for artificial intelligence/tech positions.
At the moment, the NALP Foundation is “really just gauging this information for benchmarking purposes, as law firms are continuing to incorporate AI and adopt AI,” Mandery says.
“We would expect maybe a slighter uptick in this moving forward a few years down the road.”
