So what do associates really think of their employers? ALB sought to gauge job satisfaction levels among the next generation of leaders within the legal profession.

There's good news and bad news. First the bad: one in four survey participants say they plan to leave their employer within a year. Nearly two-thirds want to move in-house, or to another firm.

Not all career moves are voluntary, though. In Bangkok, a Freshfields lawyer is not looking forward to changing jobs. "The work is good - it's a shame the Bangkok office will be closing on 31 December. I'm not sure yet where I'll go after Freshfields but I'll aim to continue in Bangkok," says the lawyer.

On the upside, an overwhelming majority, 82%, find their work environments friendly. "I feel, after the departure of the original managing partner, the work environment here is much more friendly," discloses one participant.

About half agree that their salaries are competitive, while a third disagree. As for working long hours, the majority of those surveyed say that working days of 10 hours or more are rare. That constant cliché many firms claim to want to achieve - work-life balance - is a reality for more than 50% of the respondents.

Another cliché is that 'you are only as good as your teacher'. As an associate from Llinks in Shanghai comments: "How much an associate can learn and how they feel about Llinks and whether they would like to stay here for more than two years, to some degree, depends on which partner they are assigned to work for."

The results from the ALB associate survey on the issue of mentoring and training are mixed. A newcomer at Lehman Lee & Xu law firm in Beijing says that he would like to get "more of an introduction and explanation from HR". Meanwhile, Baker & McKenzie gets top marks from one Hong Kong lawyer who says that the firm is committed to professional development of staff.

Half the respondents agree that an effective mentoring program is in place at their firms, 40% disagree, while 10% are undecided. Slightly more than a quarter disagree that their firm provides good training and professional development. The majority, however, believe otherwise.

While there are plenty of happy associates, few are averse to revealing workplace  shortcomings. One respondent from Allen & Gledhill in Singapore likes the assignments the big firm gets from its clientele. "But other than the work, all other factors including working environment, welfare and the treatment towards associates can be greatly improved," the lawyer says.

A lawyer at Minter Ellison in Hong Kong renders criticism of his firm succinctly: "Good firm, nice partners. No leadership." The rapid growth of Jones Day in Shanghai in the past two years leads one lawyer to construe that as the source of the office's problems. A somewhat conflicting comment from a Jones Day lawyer based in Singapore is that client development has been slow, and that there is not enough work. This lawyer describes the Singapore office as, "hampered by  weaknesses of practices in China and [the] structured finance practice in Hong Kong."

Harsher criticism of firms include one complaint about racial discrimination in Hong Kong, another of being treated like kids at a Malaysian firm and comments from a concerned lawyer about how the Singapore office of an international firm is "viewed as a 'liability' by head office" and "a poor member of [an] international network".