The Brief:
Mallesons climbs from 6th to 1st as the top pick for lawyers aged 18-39, with HSF Kramer right behind in 2nd.
Young lawyers rate their own firm’s culture highest at 83% positive, but just 59% rate their pay positively.
Mallesons has taken the top spot in Lawyers Weekly’s 2025-26 Top 25 Attraction Firms ranking among lawyers aged 18 to 39, jumping from 6th place last year.
The list, now in its 11th edition, asks lawyers in private practice which firms they’d consider moving to. This cut looks specifically at students, grads and junior lawyers, the cohort every firm is fighting hardest to win over.
HSF Kramer climbed three spots to 2nd. Lander & Rogers jumped from 9th to 3rd. Allens dropped from 1st to 4th.
Hamilton Locke and DWF both crack the top 10 for the first time. MinterEllison and Clayton Utz are the biggest fallers, each dropping six places.
The rankings
2025-26 | 2024-25 | Law Firm | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | 6 | Mallesons | +5 |
2 | 5 | HSF Kramer | +3 |
3 | 9 | Lander & Rogers | +6 |
4 | 1 | Allens | -3 |
5 | 7 | Hall & Wilcox | +2 |
6 | - | Hamilton Locke | - |
7 | 4 | Ashurst Perkins Coie | -3 |
8 | 2 | MinterEllison | -6 |
9 | 3 | Clayton Utz | -6 |
10 | - | DWF | - |
612 private practice lawyers responded to the survey between 1 April and 31 May, nominating up to five firms and then picking a top choice. Participants cannot vote for their own firm.
Mallesons’ rise tracks with Prosple’s 2026 Reputation Rankings, which also crowned Mallesons for having the best reputation amongst graduates. Not a bad first outing for a firm that only just dropped the King & Wood name.
What matters
Firms are already excelling on culture. 83% of lawyers aged 18 to 29 rate their firm’s culture as “excellent” or “good”, the highest-scoring attribute in the survey. Just 10% call it “poor” or “terrible”.
Pay is another story. Only 59% rate their remuneration positively, the lowest-performing attribute overall, with 6% rating it “poor” and 3% “terrible”. That’s barely up from 56% last year.
Wellbeing support is going backwards. 68% rate their firm’s support positively, down from 72% last year. 8% call it “poor” or “terrible”.
Recognition is a sore spot too. Almost a third (31%) of young lawyers don’t rate their firm’s recognition of individual performance positively, and positive recognition ratings have dropped from 72% to 69% year on year.
Source: Lawyers Weekly