She explains, If you can show that you can do the work, the work will come to you. Generally speaking, associates say, in your second year, you will be staffed under a senior associate. In your third and fourth year you will focus on a particular area and your work will increase exponentially. To make partner, an insider says, you have to show the potential to generate business. The partnership track is said to be seven to 10 years, although I haven t heard anybody who had made it by the seventh year.
Partners talk about it in a fairly direct way, a source says.
By your sixth to seventh year, you will know if you re on the track. Since, you have a pretty decent idea of whether you re going to make partner or not by the fifth and sixth year, that s when so many people leave. Most people leave to go in-house, and a few jump to the business side.