News Flash: Huge New York firms suffer mid-level associate attrition

The New York Post reports that according to NALP, 37 percent of associates leave large firms within the first three years and 77 percent leave within the first five years. It's not clear from the article whether those are New York or national figures.

Okay, so it's not a news flash. In fact, it utterly lacks shock value.

According to the article, the reason for this attrition is that associates find they don't like drinking from fire hoses. I find that entirely credible, though it's not the only reason people leave — one of the associates interviewed for the article was leaving his firm to take a position with an investment bank, hardly a line of work known for excellent 'work-life balance.'

Basic economic principles hold that everyone has a point at which he or she will trade off income for the opportunity to do things other than the activity that generates that income. On the margin, the value of the extra money to that person is less than the value of the extra time. Since I don't work at a big NYC firm, I've got no direct personal insight into the associate life there, but based on some accounts I've heard I have a vision of that life that makes choosing another path look very sensible indeed.