Post-COVID Attitudes of Gen-Z Survey Supplement

Before COVID-19 overtook the globe, we surveyed Gen-Z law students—and released Gen-Z: Shaping Tomorrow’s Law Firm Culture in May 2020—to learn more about their view of the legal profession and their expectations for practicing law. But after a year in a pandemic, we wanted to find out how exactly COVID impacted their view of legal practice, so we launched a follow-up survey in early 2021.

The results within Post-COVID Attitudes of Gen-Z show that:

1. Almost 66% of respondents said that how firms handled pay cuts, furloughs, and other cutbacks during the pandemic will play a role in how they evaluate them for their future careers.
2. Nearly 52% of respondents said BigLaw firms cared about their associates amid the challenges posed by the pandemic, while about 48% said they did not.
3. 73% of Gen Z respondents ranked whether firms offer “generous” parental leave policies as “very important” or “somewhat important.”
4. About 38% of Gen Z respondents said they planned to pursue a career in-house or at a non-profit after graduation, compared to 45% who planned to join a BigLaw firm. Additionally, 37% said achieving the rank of law firm partner has become less important to them since the onset of the pandemic – compared to 34% who said making partner has become more important to them over the past year.