Survey Says Law Firms Need Not Fret About the Millennials

The oldest members of the Millennial generation have moved into partnerships at major law firms, and it turns out they share most of the attitudes and habits of those they’re replacing, according to a new study by the National Association for Law Placement, which tracks data on the legal profession.

The newer partners “appear to be cut from the same patterns as their predecessors” when it comes to commitment to their work, their overall satisfaction, and how closely their values align with their firms and clients, according to the report released Thursday.

That said, a majority of associates responding to the survey said they don’t aspire to partnership. Of those who said they did, more were male than female, and fewer were white while more were minorities.

As older partners reach retirement age, concern became public over whether Millennials would be willing to follow the template set by the Baby Boomer generation, which founded and grew a number of law firms.

“There really were no underlying incidents that inspired this research,” said James G. Leipold, NALP’s executive director.

“We all simply felt as if there were so many stereotypes and generalizations about generational differences and generational conflict, without there being any real research into those differences in the legal workplace, we wanted to be able to add some fact-based findings to the ongoing dialogue about multiple generations in the workplace.”

On its website, the Washington-based NALP describes itself as an association of more than 2,500 legal career professionals “who advise law students, lawyers, law offices, and law schools in North America and beyond.”

Its study, “Multiple Generations in Law Firms: Working Together,” set out to answer whether the conventional process of passing the torch to the next generation would continue.

“Despite a great deal of hand-wringing and nervous speculation about the real and imagined foibles of the Millennial generation, the answer appears to be an unequivocal yes,” the report found. It defined that generation as those born between 1981 and 1996.

The conclusions were based on a survey in 2019 of nearly 2,500 lawyers across a cross-section of firms, including elite, national, and regional firms.

Commitment to Work

Newer partners, the report found, prefer to work more often from home —a conclusion reached before the coronavirus pandemic — and have a slightly higher opinion of the work ethic and skills of associates than their predecessors. But, overall, the similarities between and among various law firm generations were far greater than the differences.

“For all the reporting on Millennials’ supposed differences from prior generations, the reasons they were drawn to their current firms were remarkably consistent,” the report found.

Firm atmosphere and culture were big draws for lawyers in selecting their firms, according to the report. That applied whether the lawyers were Millennials, Gen Xers, or Baby Boomers. The report bracketed Gen Xers as born between 1965 and 1980, after the post-World War II Boomers but before those who attained adulthood at the turn of the century.

“The responses of Millennial partners matched closely with those of Gen X and Baby Boomer partners in many important areas, including commitment to work, overall satisfaction and values consistent with those of their firm and clients,” according to the report findings.

Large percentages —72% and over — of respondents “agreed or strongly agreed that work is a central part of their lives and a significant majority of all three generations believe finding meaning in their work to be important,” the report said.

Who Aspires to Partner

But there were “meaningful differences” when the different roles of partner and associate were compared, the report found.

Some 59% of associates, for example, replied that they did not aspire to become partners at their current firms. More men— 46%— wanted to become partners than women, who were at 39%.

The percentages of those aiming for partner were higher at regional firms than national firms and the most elite firms. Less than one-third of associates in New York City wanted to become partners compared to 45% elsewhere.

Overall, a higher percentage of black and Latinx associates than white associates aimed to become partners in their current firms, a finding that Leipold said was the “most surprising” to him. Some 46% of black associates and 60% of Latinx associates aspired to become partners at their current firms, compared to 42% of white associates.

Even so, black associates were less likely to see their values closely aligned with those in the firm. Latinx and white associates were four times as likely to feel alignment as black associates, and far less likely to cite lack of diversity than their black counterparts.

When asked what job they want in a decade, associates in general revealed greater divides. Those who want to be partner were generally very satisfied with their careers.

But those who did not were more negative. One respondent said, “If I could change one thing in my career, I would work in a constructive environment where I felt like success was even a possibility and that the people around me wanted me to succeed, rather than one that is passive aggressive where I feel cut down and belittled on a daily basis.”

At the large law firms, only 33% of starting associates said they aimed to be partner. Percentages rose in succeeding years, but the report said that it was surprising to find that “partnership appears to be unattractive to associates from the beginning of their law firm careers.”

This may indicate that firms need to “focus more development effort on those interested in partnership, while providing alternative career paths within the firm for talented, valuable lawyers who don’t wish for the partnership life,” the report noted.

In addition to having permanent associates, temporary associate pools or stronger reliance on paralegals and technology, firms could also consider reducing the overall size of incoming classes and more careful screening of those who wish to be partners, the report said.