Non Billable’s Review of 2025 Law Firm Partner Attrition and the Firms Hit Hardest, cites Edwards Gibson data
15th January 2026
Taking a closer look at the partner moves landscape in 2025, Non-Billable’s recent article, “London's record year of partner moves and who felt them the most”, by Rachel Scepanovic, uses our 90th edition of Law Firm Partner Moves in London to tell the story of the firms who suffered the greatest partner attrition.
The piece uses our dataset to illustrate the scale of attrition at this year’s most impacted firms: Paul Hastings, A&O Shearman, and Kirkland & Ellis. To contextualise these numbers, Non‑Billable also features commentary from our director, Sloane Poulton, whose insights help unpack the underlying dynamics behind the headline losses. 
On Paul Hastings, Poulton noted:
"There has been a bit of an exodus of senior partners moving to competitor firms. Many of the partners that left have been long-term, career partners and equity partners made up at Paul Hastings, who have decided that the firm is no longer for them."
He also offered insight into the firm’s broader dynamic:
"Paul Hastings has been one of those firms that hasn’t been afraid to recruit, it has always been out there speaking to people and making big hires, but something hasn’t quite clicked this year in London," Poulton said.
On A&O Shearman, our data shows that several high-value departures went beyond expected post-merger churn, as Poulton explained:
"There has been quite a bit of collateral damage and some disharmony post-merger. These are proper partners leaving A&O Shearman, and I’m sure the firm would have wanted to keep many of them rather than lose them to elite US firms."
Read the full Non-Billable article “London's record year of partner moves and who felt them the most” here.