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Peter Balchin: I'm anon at 08.44. The training and experience at sought after City firms can be amazing. I think what attracts applicants are (in no particular order): the salary; the prospect of having law school fees paid plus a living allowance; the possibility of 'seats' in overseas offices, or with a client; having a nice shiny name on their CV (a bit liking being Oxbridge - everyone else assumes it means you must be very special); the chance to work on international transactions (no idea why this is a draw, but it was often said to be); the chance to work on things which could be in the papers.

While all of these things could happen, the odds are against too many coinciding, and anyway luck can balance things out. For example, working on an international transaction may sound great, but can become hell if the time zones are wrong, the client is a sh*t, the lead partner is stressed and barks a lot, the rest of the team are dysfunctional, etc.

Most important of all, law firms are full of people, and some firms (or departments) have reputations for not being especially, well, visitor friendly, because of people who work in them. In general, stressed departments like corporate (big paper heavy deals in short time spans) appear to have more than their due proportion of over stressed and snappy teams, and are therefore more likely to mangle juniors who may not be robust enough to handle it. The job may end up done, impeccably, but it won't always have been fun for everyone.
On the other hand such a department can be terrific for a slightly different personality type who gels with someone senior enough in the team to get decent attention.

As for attrition … the last stat I recall was that by 4PQE 20% in the City had left private practice. The attrition is built into City recruitment and promotion efforts, and after Lehmans the understandable fact that no-one in the City with a job would willingly give it up (so much less attrition) caused a bit of tension all round, and forced a reduction or even suspension of graduate recruitment schemes in many firms.