U.S. News to Rank Law Firms: Will Give Legal Prestige Whores 'Cradle-to-Grave' Service

If you enjoyed making crucial decisions on where to receive your undergraduate and post graduate education based on a list in a magazine, you are going to love what is coming next. The WSJ Law Blog reports that U.S. News & World Report will be getting into the business of ranking law firms.

US News & World Report, in connection with the folks who bring you the Best Lawyers survey, have announced that they’ll soon be, yes, ranking the best law firms….
We checked in with a spokesperson at Best Lawyers, who told us that it’s actually going to be two surveys — the best law firms and the best law firms to work for. The best law firms survey, at least, will be based partly on a survey sent to lawyers, general counsel and others, and partly on hard data. They’re still apparently working on nailing down the criteria they plan to use.

Will these new rankings be useful? Will they provide critical information to law school graduates trying to make the best choice about where to start their career? Who cares!
My milk shake brings all the boys to the yard,
and they’re like, its better than yours,
damn right its better than yours.

More details on how U.S. News intends to make sure lawyers carry a huge chips on their shoulders for all their livelong days, after the jump.


So, how expansive will the U.S. News list be? It looks pretty inclusive:

The U.S. News/Best Lawyers Law Firm rankings will evaluate more than 3,000 law firms across the United States using a wide range of objective data as well as individual assessments from more than 40,000 private practice lawyers, 20,000 clients, and thousands of law firm employees. The results of this evaluation, as well as articles about legal careers and the law, will be featured in a variety of print and online products focused on both consumers and legal professionals.

Again, it is hard to know just how useful these rankings will be without getting a look at the methodology U.S. News will be using. But what if the new U.S. News rankings differ significantly from the Vault rankings? Will industry professionals still trust Vault, while clients are star struck by U.S. News? Or vice-versa? Or will U.S. News end up as a late entry into a field that Vault already dominates?
Questions abound. But there won’t be any solid answers until the fall of 2010.
We can’t wait.
Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy! U.S. News to Rank the Law Firms [WSJ Law Blog]

Sponsored