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do most of them push themselves out or do they get pushed out? Do associates need to do a fabulous job to stay over 5 years? No interest in partnership. Just want the money till year 7.

Both. There is no guarantee you get to stay 7 years.
I’m starting to see that it’s a problem for this forum that most of the experienced posters seem to have left.

Good luck with your career OP, just do your research at firms. Also don’t assume you will want to
stay 7 years. You may want to leave or if you are too experienced it can be harder to find a job. Not always, but it’s unpredictable.

It entirely depends on not only the firm but the office and practice group as well. You’ll have firms that only want partnership prospects to survive to senior associate levels and firms that have a bunch of senior associates hanging around until year 8 or super-senior status. You might be able to figure this out by counting the ratio of 6th year and above associates to other associates in the group. Firms with higher ratios are likely to be firms with less strict up and out programs (of course, this could also just reflect holdover from the much larger entering classes pre-2009). IMO, firms moving away from the 8 year partnership track (the track at most firms now is more like 8-13 years) would make it easier to tough it out this long.

Most go to a different firm.

It depends. People burn out, circumstances change and the big law life no longer makes sense or they are fired

If you don’t want to make partner 3 or 4 years on you may get seconded to a big bank that pays in house attorneys 6 figures. A lot of my friends were offered at the end and took it. So that is one way you get out.

If you get offered a 8 to 6 gig making 200k most will jump ship.

I'd say most burn out and/or find that pays less but is more sustainable. A few get fired, but I think most that do land at another firm. A few quit law altogether.

In my experience, you don't need to do a fabulous job to stay 5 years. I think you just need to (a) settle into a busy practice group, (b) develop close relationships with people that give you work, (c) do average to above average work, and (d) do anything too crazy. You don't have to be a great legal mind to make yourself valuable to senior associates/partners.

shock259 wrote:I'd say most burn out and/or find that pays less but is more sustainable. A few get fired, but I think most that do land at another firm. A few quit law altogether.

In my experience, you don't need to do a fabulous job to stay 5 years. I think you just need to (a) settle into a busy practice group, (b) develop close relationships with people that give you work, (c) do average to above average work, and (d) do anything too crazy. You don't have to be a great legal mind to make yourself valuable to senior associates/partners.

I agree with this and I also say that it’s not uncommon at some places to feel as though you are doing basically the same thing.. while the specific issue or task may change overall, big picture your role is the same. Some people find that they want to reinvent their role but can’t where they work ( for many reasons) and feel as though they need a fresh, completely new start.

But it all depends on the firm, practice group and managing attorney/ partner.