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ATL March Madness for Law Firms, Round 3: Legal Employment’s Elite Eight

Monday, March 30, 2009 8:20 PM - By Kashmir Hill

Above the law march madness.jpgWe’re down to eight firms in our 2009 March Madness for Law Firms. It’s an NCAA-style tournament in which ATL readers vote to crown one firm Biglaw’s safest — the place where you are most likely to still have your job at year’s end.

The real NCAA tournament heads into the Final Four this weekend, and we plan to catch up with them. We’re bringing you the Legal Employment Elite Eight match-ups today, with polls open until midnight on Wednesday, April 2. We’ll then head into the Final Four, with Biglaw’s two safest firms competing for the crown on Monday.

There were many upsets in the latest round of ATL March Madness. Heading into the Elite Eight round, it looks like Vault prestige seeds mean little. Over 6800 people voted in the most popular match-up of the Sweet Safe Sixteen, helping Paul Weiss (V13) fend off Skadden (V4). Williams & Connolly (v14) managed to squeak out a victory over Sullivan & Cromwell (V3), in a tight competition with a final score of 51-49.

Heading into the weekend, Debevoise (V12) was beating Davis Polk (V5), but when the buzzer sounded at midnight Sunday, some last-minute voters managed to hand a narrow victory to DPW. The final score was 50.1 to 49.9.

There were a few blowouts as well: Kirkland 72 - Linklaters 28; Cravath 80 - Sidley 20; and Wachtell 82 - Gibson 18.

Meanwhile with regard to the real NCAA tournament, there are 738 ATL readers and one Elie Mystal competing in pool over at ESPN. Elie would like to point out that he’s tied for fifth in that tournament at the moment. K. Eimicke is at the front of the pack for now though, and looking good to win a gavel-shaped ATL stress ball should UNC go all the way.

After the jump, we’ve got new ATL March Madness brackets, the polls for the Elite Eight round, and commentary from ATL’s Dick Vitale, Lord Oberon.

2009 March Madness brackets elite eight.jpgThe Elite Eight contests are below. Voting ends on Wednesday at midnight.

Lord Oberon, the Dick Vitale of ATL March Madness, weighs in with commentary, after the polls.




Lord Oberon, an ATL reader who is playing the part of Dick Vitale for ATL March Madness, weighed in on the Sweet Safe Sixteen. Oberon’s back as a commentator on the Elite Eight, noting that of the firms still in competition, Covington, Wachtell, WillConn have not reported to AmLaw yet, so they are not included in this round-up. Oberon has factored RPL (revenue per lawyer) and leverage into the commentary this time around, per the request of commenters. Here’s what Oberon has to say:

Interestingly, despite commenters’ general opinions, Kirkland may be somewhat of a Cinderella story among the Elite Eight. Kirkland is the only one to increase both partners (6.8%; the largest increase) and other lawyers (4.6%; the largest increase), while increasing Gross Revenue (7%; the largest increase and largest Gross Revenue). In addition, PPP is slightly up, and leverage (non-equity partner lawyers per equity partner) is slightly down (-2%). The only negative indicator for Kirkland is that RPL was down (-3.4%), which is likely attributable to its 5% attorney expansion.

Not surprisingly, Paul Weiss did really well: Gross Revenue (6.3%; second largest increase), RPL (0.2%; largest increase) and PPP (3.5%; second largest increase) are all up. Unfortunately, those profits came at the expense of some of their lawyers. Paul Weiss increased its equity partnership 2.7% but reduced other lawyers 3.4% (second largest decrease), thereby reducing overall leverage by 6% (second largest reduction; although also the second largest leverage (4.7:1)).

On the other side, Cravath is really suffering. Gross Revenue (-18.2%; the only reduction among the Elite Eight), PPP (-24%; the largest decrease), and RPL (-18.2%; the largest decrease) have all fallen during the economic downturn. In addition, while the partnership has remained steady at 90, Cravath cut 4% of its other lawyers (largest decrease) thereby reducing leverage by 4.6% (to 3.9:1; second lowest leverage). Those reductions have allowed Cravath’s equity partners to keep their PPP the highest of the reporting Elite Eight (Wachtell hasn’t reported).

Weil’s figures explain the news of last week. Weil decreased its equity partnership by 4% (only firm to do that) while increasing other lawyers 3.4%, which caused an 8% increase in leverage (to 5.5:1; the largest leverage and only firm to increase) and reduction in RPL (2.2%) to $1.035M (smallest RPL). All of this has occurred despite Weil’s general increase in Gross Revenue (4.8%).

Davis Polk’s increase of both equity partners (5%; second largest increase) and other lawyers (4.5%) reduced its leverage by 0.5%. Unfortunately, those increases caused Gross Revenue to be flat (0%; only Cravath’s Revenue dropped farther), and RPL (-10%; second largest reduction) and PPP (-5%; second largest reduction) to be down. Despite those reductions, Davis Polk has the highest RPL ($1.23M) of the Elite Eight—which doesn’t really help their partners given that their PPP is the lowest of the reporting Elite Eight firms—and the least leverage (2.9:1).

Polls close Wednesday, April 2, at midnight. Look out for the Final Four later this week.

Earlier: Prior ATL March Madness 2009 posts

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