Law school failed to prepare 45% of junior associates for practice, survey finds

April 29 (Reuters) - Nearly half of law firm associates believe law school did not adequately prepare them for practice, a new survey has found.

Among the 546 junior associates surveyed in January and February by legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa and legal data intelligence provider Leopard Solutions, 45% said law school did not sufficiently prepare them for their current role. And 31% said their law firm experience didn’t meet their expectations coming out of law school according to the study, released on Monday.

When asked what they would change about their law school experience, the most common answer provided by the surveyed associates was more practical skills and a greater focus on transactional practices.

Many of the 31% of respondents who said their law firm experience did not meet their expectations in law school cited legal education’s focus on litigation and a lack of training in the type of legal work they now do.

Leopard Solutions CEO Laura Leopard attributed some of the dissatisfaction among the lawyers surveyed to the fact that many of them were in law school or began their law firms careers during the COVID—19 pandemic.

“It’s clear that the lack of facetime and personalized training is still having an impact on their development,” Leopard said, noting that many associates have missed out on “vital” in-person training opportunities as a result of the pandemic.

The survey also found that most junior associates are satisfied with their career path. The majority of the surveyed respondents—83%—said they would make the same choice to work for their current firm. And 79% said they are satisfied with their assigned work. Slightly more than two thirds, 67%, said they plan to stay at their firms for three or more years, while just 9% said they plan to leave within the next year.

Men were 15 percentage points more likely to say they plan to stay at their firms than were women, and were also more likely than women to say they aspire to law firm partnership, the survey found.

Law firms should pay close attention to those gender disparities, said Nathan Peart, managing director of the MLA’s associate practice group.

The survey is, “consistent with other data that show that female attorneys note the prevalence of issues like the gender pay gap more acutely than their male colleagues,” he said.

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