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With the greatest respect @5:04, people will have used you as a stepping stone if they considered that they could get something more elsewhere (whether in pay, job satisfaction, job security, career prospects, or anything else). People use the Magic Circle as a stepping stone as much as they do high street firms. I'm not suggesting that you don't treat your staff fairly, but there's probably a reason why you've not kept your trainees.

More generally, lawyers need to get over the top-managed model. They need more rungs, more ways to specialise, more options for progression and paths to follow. Most firms have trainee / solicitor / senior solicitor / partner, with the partner doing most (if not all) of the managing and the rest just getting on with the job (without any real difference as their experience grows, apart from doing more more quickly and with fewer mistakes).

Accountants have done a really good job getting over this problem. Why can't we?