More than 80% of lawyers think new entrants to the profession will feel the slog to reach partnership is not worth their while, according to a major new survey.

The research, carried out by Allen & Overy's flexi-working service Peerpoint, gathered views from more than 1,000 lawyers and law students on how attitudes around career aspirations are changing.

Eighty-one percent of respondents – which included both private practice and in-house lawyers – were of the belief that young lawyers entering the profession will feel that undertaking the path to partnership is not worth it, while one in four (24%) said they have, at some point, considered quitting the profession altogether.

This overall disillusionment, the report suggests, owes to a model that has failed to provide lawyers with a sufficient range of career options, leading to a frustration with conventional opportunities.

Even among those who still want to become partner, just 21% feel they will make it – with too much competition and too few clients to go around cited as the main deterrents.

Although partnership remains an ambition for many, attitudes are changing, and an increasing number are turning to less conventional means for job satisfaction, with 20% of respondents saying they want to see the profession move away from the partnership model.

Peerpoint CEO Richard Punt said: "Private practice has taken a very different shape to what it was some years ago, and people's aspirations are changing. Partnership, while nice, is no longer the consuming objective.

"Firms are selling the profession on a historic track record. But they have yet to work out how to pitch the future."

Peerpoint's report argues that much of this growing discontentment flows from an appetite among lawyers for more control over the quality and type of work they undertake, with an increasing number now viewing flexible working options such as consulting as a viable alternative.

More than half of the respondents to the survey (57%) said they would encourage colleagues to pursue a more flexible career as a legal consultant, while 38% have themselves considered it.

Punt suggested this can be attributed to a desire among many lawyers to reclaim control where it has otherwise been lacking. The seachange, he believes, owes less to the dearth of partnership opportunities than to lawyers discovering different ways to "meet their career objectives", with flexible working having now "entered the mainstream".

He said: "As people become more concerned about the way they develop, they look for greater control. And [in this regard] the consulting model is attractive, particularly to millennials."

When asked to pick the top four skills or attributes that lawyers of the future will need, the most popular response was greater technological skills, followed by a strong personal brand and network, and non-legal expertise.

On the point of whether consulting was a realistic option for newly-qualified lawyers, Punt said that, where firms are looking to streamline and become more cost-efficient, "less experienced lawyers are increasingly in demand", with the flexi-working model allowing lawyers to develop their careers, work "right at the cutting edge of tech" and "continue to reinvent themselves".