Among law firms, there’s an ongoing “arms race” for talent. In 2025, lateral movement hit a five-year peak—”one of the most robust years for legal talent movement on record.” Big questions remain about what’s driving this movement. Still, the nuts and bolts of reshuffling legal talent warrant attention. The dynamics of leaving and staying affect firms’ internal operations and culture, as well as the extent to which alumni “give back” to their former firms.
At a granular level, this aggregated movement stems from individual lawyers’ stay-or-leave decisions with respect to their current jobs, and—critically—how these choices shape lawyers’ affective perceptions of their firms. Over the last decade, public accounting has been struggling with human capital issues more directly, and law firms might look to the sector for best practices in an era defined by turnover. New research and some commentary, below the fold.
In Turnover Experiences in Public Accounting and Alumni’s Decisions to “Give Back,“ Lindsay Andiola, Derek Dalton, and Nancy Harp draw on survey data to show that accountants’ decisions to leave their firms typically follow months of deliberation—a process of change, rather than a moment. (Popular coverage of this study is by Joseph Brazel at Forbes.)
These extended leaving processes present various opportunities for intervention along the way, including at the moment of exit. According to Andiola, Dalton, and Harp, firms “seem cognizant” of these leverage points. But credibly operationalizing interventions is challenging, especially in terms of work-life balance. Similarly, the authors find that accountants’ “social bonds” with colleagues proved important in stay-or-leave decisions. In this regard, firms’ internal mentoring programs offer both an opportunity and a challenge, with failed promises and inadequate follow-through associated with leaving decisions. Finally (and predictably), negative shocks—one-time events—can play a material role in accountants’ decisions to exit.
At least as crucially, Andiola, Dalton, and Harp also address the affective and business ties that firms maintain with those who have left—whether accountants who leave “give back” to their former firms. Some firm-switching is both inevitable and healthy. But one hallmark of a profession is a durable network of connections among its members, and that network calls on firms to sustain longitudinal relationships, among other things, with those who leave. It’s not an easy task. The authors emphasize business development and post-departure referrals, but giving back also should encompass firms’ reputation and other social forms of reciprocity.
Overall, the authors advocate that firms “take a ‘lifetime’ view of employees.” This advice holds weight in accounting, and it translates well to law—especially as competition for human capital in both professions reaches new levels of intensity.
The same logic, of course, holds true for law schools, where leaving is intrinsic to a successful educational outcome. That fact makes “giving back” less of an alumni-relations afterthought and more of a strategic variable. As talent churn reaches new heights in the legal profession, law schools should take the opportunity to revisit and renew their emphasis on factors that influence students’ inclination to give back—on the affective relationships that can yield networks with employers, pipelines for future matriculants, and reputational benefits across various legal communities.
Andiola, Dalton, and Harp’s study suggests that these affective relationships can’t be built only in the weeks surrounding graduation, when departure and nostalgia are unusually salient. As with firms and their human capital, the full history matters. That’s why legal education needs to ace both the action and messaging in the current environment—on mentoring, work-life balance, and economic issues such as the incoming federal student loan cap. The stakes, in terms of giving back, are high.
Related TaxProf Blog coverage:
- Student Groups Ask ABA Council to Review Recruiting Timelines (Jan. 14, 2026)
- TaxProf Op-Ed: Stephens on LL.M. Degrees and Student Loan Limits (Nov. 15, 2025)
