Welcome to Attorney Intelligence, the weekly newsletter from PointOne where we break down the forces reshaping the legal industry from the inside out.

For years, the talent equation at large law firms was relatively straightforward: pay well, build a strong brand, and talented lawyers would come. That formula still works. High compensation, signing bonuses, and fast partnership tracks remain powerful incentives. In many ways, they are the profession’s golden handcuffs.

But the conversation around talent is slowly expanding. Compensation still opens the door, and the team you work with — especially the partners you learn from — remains one of the biggest factors in whether lawyers stay and build their careers at a firm. What’s relatively new is that the day-to-day experience of practicing law, including the systems and processes around the work itself, is increasingly becoming part of that equation.

That is where innovation starts to matter. Not the symbolic version — the quarterly innovation committee or the press release about a tool nobody uses. What matters is operational change: how work flows through the firm, how lawyers organize their time, and how much friction exists in the daily mechanics of the job.

These changes matter internally, but they also have direct consequences externally.

Law firms ultimately win business through reputation and relationships, and those depend heavily on the client experience. Faster responses, clearer communication, and more predictable billing are all outcomes clients value. Lawyers need the right infrastructure to deliver that consistently and continue to build trust with clients.

In other words, improving the experience of practicing law also improves the experience of working with lawyers.

Firms that invest in both dimensions — talent and client service — are positioning themselves for the next phase of the profession.

1- Why compensation alone is no longer sufficient to retain talent

Associates aren’t leaving law, but they are leaving law firms

According to the NALP Foundation, 82% of associates leave within five years. The fourth year — right when most firms say associates finally become profitable — is often where attrition peaks. Associate attrition reached 20% in 2024, and BCG Attorney Search's 2026 Legal Talent Movement Report suggests the trend is accelerating, with firm-wide attrition across all seniority levels reaching 27%.

Attrition is accelerating even as the overall legal workforce grows, with MIT recently observing a 6.4% increase in total employment across all legal services. That dynamic implies that attrition among associates has less to do with flagging supply and more to do with the emergence of attractive alternatives to the partner track. Robert Half reports that 91% of legal hiring managers are struggling to find skilled candidates, as the strongest candidates have more options than ever: In-house roles, legal tech companies, lateral moves, launching their own practice, or leaving law entirely. The legal talent pool is deep. The willingness to settle is not.

Innovation matters more in the job search

A plurality of opportunities for skilled young professionals means that compensation alone may not be enough to retain talent. Young lawyers are increasingly taking lifestyle into account when deciding where to work. A recent piece in The American Lawyer put it plainly: More laterals and associates are treating innovation as a deciding factor when selecting their next opportunity. Why? Because a firm’s approach to innovation speaks to how effectively that firm’s environment supports the way lawyers actually want to practice.

2- Firms can leverage AI to create a better work experience

Making innovation a core part of law firm identity

A&O Shearman is probably the clearest example of a law firm implementing an innovation-first talent strategy. They didn't just adopt AI: They made it part of the firm's identity. Their tech incubator Fuse, their deep partnership with Harvey (A&O Shearman became the first law firm to deploy it at enterprise scale in December 2022), their Markets Innovation Group putting lawyers and software engineers side by side — all of it sends a specific signal to young talent. If you want to work at the frontier of the industry, come work here. True to its word, the firm started rolling out agentic AI for antitrust filings, cybersecurity, fund formation, and loan review in April 2025.

Buying software licenses doesn't make you an innovation-first firm. What A&O Shearman understood early is that innovation has to change what it actually feels like to work there — for everyone, not just the associates.

That "everyone" part matters, because the talent problem isn't one problem. It's two — and they require different answers.

How to attract Gen Z lawyers

Gen Z associates are now the fastest-growing segment of the legal workforce, and their relationship with technology is fundamentally different from earlier generations. They expect the tools they use at work to feel as modern as everything else in their lives. Clunky systems that haven't evolved in a decade are an immediate source of frustration.

Despite the common stereotypes, Gen Z lawyers are not necessarily more transient than their predecessors. Legal tech company Clio found that 62% of entry-level hires since 2020 have stayed at their first firm for at least three years, compared with 52% of millennials at the same stage. So what makes a young lawyer more likely to stay? Research suggests that younger lawyers stay when firms invest in their development and provide an environment where they can actually grow.

Training in emerging technologies is one form this investment can take. Lawyers entering the profession increasingly seek exposure to AI-assisted research, data literacy, business development, and client relationship management — capabilities that reflect how legal expertise now intersects with technology, analytics, and strategic advisory work.

Offering supplemental training can sweeten the deal. But what can make a law firm especially attractive to a young associate is demonstrating that its leadership is rethinking the role itself. Legal operations, legal engineering, legal product management — these career paths barely existed five years ago but now represent feasible and attractive alternatives to the partner track. Firms that support these paths robustly are positioning themselves to better bring in and retain talented candidates by showing those candidates how they are prepared to cultivate the next generation of lawyers.

Thomson Reuters' Future of Professionals Report backs this up — nearly 80% of legal professionals believe AI and automation will significantly shape their work. Gen Z isn't waiting for that future. They're choosing firms that are already building around it.

How to retain experienced attorneys

There's a side of the talent conversation that doesn't get enough attention: the practicing attorneys already at your firm, doing great work, who quietly start thinking about leaving. When they do, it's rarely about the work itself. They love the work. It's everything around it that wears them down.

Ask any practicing attorney what frustrates them most and you'll hear the same answer: timekeeping. It follows them home. It's the thing they try to reconstruct from memory at the end of the week. It turns an otherwise rewarding career into a grind. And it's one of the top reasons lawyers start looking at in-house roles.

New timekeeping technologies not only offer to alleviate the pain of manually entering time, but also to support attorneys in their day-to-day work: Capturing what they’ve been working on, helping them stay organized, and sending timely reminders. A picture-perfect reconstruction of their day can help them pick up right where they left off, no matter how long ago they first opened a case.

That's the shift PointOne is building toward. Rethinking one of the most universally disliked parts of legal practice and turning it into something that makes lawyers' lives tangibly better. When your tools remove frustration instead of creating it, people don't just stay — they do better work. And they stop daydreaming about going in-house.

Legal Bytes

HaystackID Acquires eDiscovery AI — HaystackID acquired AI legal technology company eDiscovery AI, integrating generative AI-powered workflows into its core offerings. Expect a demo at Legalweek 2026 (March 9–12, NYC).

The Mobile-AI Gap Nobody's Talking About — 80% of lawyers now use AI at least weekly, but 75% are doing it exclusively on desktops. Only 20% primarily use AI on mobile — even though legal work happens everywhere. The firms that solve mobile AI access will have an edge.

In-House Teams Outpacing Law Firms on AI Adoption — The ACC/Everlaw GenAI Survey found corporate legal AI adoption more than doubled in one year, jumping from 23% to 52%. 64% of in-house teams now expect to depend less on outside counsel because of the AI capabilities they're building internally.

Law Firm Mergers Driving Record Lateral Hiring — Mergers across U.S. law firms are transforming the lateral market in 2026. Firms competing for talent are offering signing bonuses, flexible work, and accelerated partnership tracks. Lateral hiring hit five-year highs in 2025 and is expected to keep climbing.

Curious about transforming your talent strategy with expanded AI offerings?

Book a demo to see how PointOne is rethinking timekeeping — turning one of the most frustrating parts of legal practice into a tool that actually works for lawyers, not against them.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week,

Katon