The associate mentorship factor

Good mentorship is crucial for early-stages development as a lawyer. This isn't a guide to the quality of the mentoring – for that you'll have to read the Inside View – but this table gives an idea of how many experienced lawyers you'll have on hand to ask stupid questions from and generally mould you into a competent lawyer.

Worth noting is that the largest recruiters lie almost exclusively towards the bottom of the table. This is because the Manhattan elites operate a more pyramidal staff structure than elsewhere. So when you read in our editorials that associates at the biggest firms genuinely felt like they were handed responsibility, and definitely didn't feel like a cog in a machine, and you think 'wait, surely that can't be true?' this table might explain why these associates do in fact enjoy some responsibility, despite the giant size of the hiring class. It's clear from this that these firms want the most self-sufficient candidates.

At the biggest firms, their hiring models unashamedly rely upon some attrition at the mid-level, and making partner is very competitive. Outside of New York, partner-associate ratios are closer to 1:1, and they hire in lower numbers with a more genuine intent to raise you to partnership. Both types of firm have pros and cons.

 Firms not listed did not provide sufficient data.