Our Research
The NALP Foundation has served the legal community with benchmark research and informational resources on lawyer careers and the law as a profession since 1996. You are invited to explore the many current and past research initiatives through the details provided below.
Copies of published reports can be ordered from the
Foundation's online Bookstore.
Stay Study
The NALP Foundation's newest study explores the key factors that drive law firm associate retention. The Stay Study will identify the key reasons that associates elect to remain at their firms, critical information for law firm leaders as they assess the efficacy and focus of their retention efforts. This landmark study will collect data on the importance of a number of factors important to associates (including firm policies, benefits, mentoring, firm culture, DEI support, and work/life balance) and segment the findings by seniority, firm size and location, and demographic cohorts. Law firms interested in participating in this study should contact Jennifer Mandery at jmandery@nalpfoundation.org.
Associate attrition has been a primary focus of the NALP Foundation for more than a decade. Reports on findings from national surveys provide an amazing array of best practices and reliable data that spans from 1988 to the present. Our annual Update on Associate Attrition reports contain key analyses on critical issues for law firm talent planning, including whether departures are to peer firms. Also included in the reports is information on where associates go, why they leave, whether employers consider their departures "desired" or not, and whether departures were related to performance, economic market conditions, or other factors. Law firms interested in participating in this study should contact Jennifer Mandery at jmandery@nalpfoundation.org.
Law School Alumni Employment & Satisfaction
The NALP Foundation and NALP have provided the legal industry with the Law School Alumni Employment & Satisfaction study since launching our first report on the Class of 2010. The study measures employment status and career satisfaction three years after graduation, exploring an array of satisfaction dimensions in order to help gain a better understanding and insight into how the law school experience prepared law students for post-graduation employment. Law schools interested in joining the study should contact Jennifer Mandery at jmandery@nalpfoundation.org.
Keeping the Keepers
The NALP Foundation broke new ground with this benchmark study of associate attrition, aiming the spotlight on attrition data and trends over a multi-year period. The data provides insights into why associates leave their employers and how to better manage unwanted departures. The reports also include detailed best practices for law firms, law schools and graduates. The first report in the Keeping the Keepers series was published in 1998, followed by updates in 2003, 2013 and 2021.
After the JD
After the JD is a longitudinal study that follows law school graduates in the first ten years of their careers. It is the largest and most ambitious study ever undertaken of the legal profession, and it aims to create a definitive picture of how the early careers of lawyers develop in the early twenty-first century. The focus of the study is to define and explain the multiple factors that affect, if not determine, the career trajectories of law graduates.
There are three publications from this study, After the JD: The First 10 Years, After the JD II and the recently released After the JD III: Third Results from a National Study of Legal Careers.