Lifestyle is more important than ever for US associates

It will come as no surprise that work-life balance is a key priority for many young lawyers, especially those who are relatively new to the profession. But according to a report published by LexisNexis in April 2024, it is now the most important factor for lawyers looking to move firms. This is further supported by Buchanan Law's most recent US Data Report, which also found that just under 20 per cent of associate moves were due to lifestyle decisions, further confirming the significant shift in associate attitudes towards prioritising a work-life balance.

In part, this shift can be attributed to sustained media coverage which has grown over time, creating increased awareness of the issue. Indeed, stories about work-life balance - particularly in corporate law firms - have a surprisingly long history.

They first started to appear during the busy boom years before 2007. But it was during the aftermath of the global financial crisis, as corporate deals began to recover momentum, that they really gained traction as legal publications on both sides of the Atlantic found that work-life balance headlines served as effective hooks for often overworked young lawyers.

Over the past decade, such articles have become ubiquitous, incrementally helping to shape opinion to the point where they now reflect a fundamental generational shift in social attitudes that can be described as the new normal. This paradigm shift, now cemented in the minds of many millennials, is even more prevalent among Gen Z.

Post-pandemic, it has become even more apparent, emerging as the dominant view among more junior lawyers. As a result, first to fourth year associates now place a greater emphasis on lifestyle factors early on in their careers - a trend which was not previously commonplace within the legal sector, particularly in the US.

The pandemic, of course, was the real catalyst for change: it led many people to consider their lives and the role of work within it, causing them to re-examine their priorities. Although young lawyers are far from unique in this regard, the intensity and duration of their working hours made their reappraisal arguably more soul-searching than those in less demanding careers with more normal working hours. Having re-evaluated at length how they spend their time, many of them came to believe that law firms need to rethink what work means to the lawyers who devote so many hours to them.

Historically, those who strived to reach the upper echelons of corporate law were incredibly driven by ambition to make it through to partnership. They fully accepted that long hours and hard work were integral to fulfilling that ambition.

Go back a generation and most young lawyers started out with partnership ambitions - they wanted to try as hard as they could to make the grade. But things have changed. Among the stated priorities of today’s young lawyers, enhanced lifestyle now trumps potential partnership, as far fewer now hold partnership ambitions. In conversation, it is increasingly common for them to say that they want to stay at their current firm as long as they can survive, and then move on somewhere that better suits their lifestyle ambitions.

Across the age spectrum, junior, mid-level and senior lawyers tend to have different priorities when deciding to make a move. In our experience, we are seeing notably more associates and attorneys looking to move on the basis of lifestyle rather than career ambition - a point which is reinforced by our survey’s findings. In generational terms, the younger the lawyer, the more likely they are to consider work-life balance as a critical prerequisite when choosing a law firm and, more especially, when deciding to move to another firm which may better suit their lifestyle expectations.

Due to continued growth in the levels of senior associate compensation, many who fall into this bracket are now less inclined to push towards the traditional progression route to partner, instead opting to remain in positions that allow for a more favourable work-life balance.

There is geographic variation, of course. The increased desire for lifestyle change has been at its most visibly acute among those working in big legal centres, such as New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles or Chicago, where the pressure, expectations, and billable hours targets are at their highest. But post-pandemic, the trend towards lifestyle choice is no longer confined to big legal hubs: it has also accelerated in many other cities where young lawyers share similar lifestyle aspirations.

Across the associate spectrum, this mentality has led to the continued rise of cities such as Miami and Denver in associates’ thinking, as they are increasingly prioritising location and lifestyle over traditional progression.

Nor is this phenomenon confined to the US: managing partners in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Brussels, and indeed, right across the major legal hubs in Europe, will tell you that their young lawyers are also craving a better work-life balance in pursuit of greater freedom to do other things in life beyond work.

The drivers of change are not confined to the collective experience and groupthink of young lawyers working in law firms, fueled by an avalanche of media stories and attitudinal surveys. It also has its roots in university campuses and law schools, where work-life balance and lifestyle expectations have become ingrained as topics for student discussion before they even enter the workplace.

We certainly see many more recent graduates who have already developed a fixed mindset: what can the workplace give to me, not what can I give to the workplace? They know they have other options.

Money is part of the problem. Associate compensation structures are largely automatic, whereas they used to be much more driven by individual performance – billable hours, or contribution to the firm. Young lawyers know what they will be paid for entering BigLaw.

So, what can law firms do?

Tying compensation more to individual performance would be a good starting point, especially on the bonus element which should vary much more from individual to individual. Competition matters. If a young lawyer chooses to do more work than the person next to them, they should know that they will be rewarded for it accordingly. Equally, those who choose not to should know what they are missing out on. There must be a consequence of choice.

Firms also need to be more aggressive early on when identifying who will ultimately pursue partnership, and should try and assess that potential much earlier. Currently, many large firms do not start assessing until associates reach the six or seven-year mark. Instead, from the second or third year onwards, they could start to separate people into another track where it is clear that some are making a choice not to do so. Everyone would then know where investment and effort are being made and where the largest bonuses are likely to be given.

Advice for candidates

Ideally, a career in BigLaw means that every young lawyer has plenty of ambition. But those with partnership ambitions are increasingly scarce. So do not be afraid to stand out from the competition as someone who is genuinely ambitious, who wants to step into a firm, go above and beyond, and achieve something exceptional.

Because relatively few young lawyers now have such ambitions, opportunity exists more than ever in big firms to separate yourself from the rest: to become a partner and achieve some really great things. It does not mean that you do not care about your lifestyle or having a work-life balance; but given the opportunity, you want to stand out. Partners will be much more favorable if you can differentiate yourself from the rest, especially as a junior or mid-level associate. Inevitably, there is a huge caveat: everyone must do what best suits their life. Ultimately, such choices are entirely personal.

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