ATL Law Firm Rankings: Top-Rated Firms By Category

A look at the top-rated firms for employee satisfaction, partnership prospects, compensation, and more.

Based on the traffic we’ve been seeing, there is considerable interest in the new ATL Power 100 Ranking of law firms. The Power 100 blends objective data with subjective feedback from over 20,000 law firm associates and partners. The result is a holistic picture of each firm, encompassing employee satisfaction, compensation, reputation, desirability as an employer, and data-driven measures of firm growth. The Power 100 offers a new perspective on how Biglaw firms stack up.

Today we share the leading firms in some of the individual categories of our rankings formula: Which firms have the highest growth rate? The lowest leverage? Which firms’ lawyers are happiest with their pay? Which firms are considered the most desirable employers?

Top 5: Strength and quality of practice. Survey respondents were asked, “On a scale of 1 through 5, where 5 means ‘preeminent’ and 1 means ‘extremely weak,’ please rate the following national firms for the strength and quality of their practices.” Respondents were asked to rate only firms with which they were familiar.

1. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 4.69
2. Cravath, Swaine & Moore 4.58
3. Sullivan & Cromwell 4.52
4. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom 4.42
5. Williams & Connolly 4.32

Top 5: Desirability as a potential employer. Survey respondents were asked, “On a scale of 1 through 5, where 5 means ‘highly desirable’ and 1 means ‘completely undesirable,’ how would you rate these firms in your particular city or region as potential employers?”

1. K&L Gates 4.63
2. Williams & Connolly 4.29
3. Shook, Hardy & Bacon 4.25
4. (tie) Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 4.22
4. (tie) Kilpatrick Townsend 4.22

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Top 5: Most-satisfied associates and partners. These firms had the highest overall insider ratings (1 – 10 scale), an average of the ratings for all of the “quality of life” categories.

1. Cooley 9.02
2. (tie) Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman 8.83
2. (tie) Mintz Levin 8.83
4. Jackson Walker 8.74
5. Haynes and Boone 8.64

Top 5: Most satisfied with compensation (1-10 scale, according to firm insiders.)

1. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 10.00
2. Boies, Schiller & Flexner 9.80
3. Cooley 9.56
4. Cahill Gordon & Reindel 9.33
5. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan 9.24

Top 5: Leverage. Ratio of equity partners to all other attorneys. Firms were rewarded for low leverage.

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1. Dentons
2. DLA Piper
3. K&L Gates
4. White & Case
5. Squire Patton Boggs

Top 5: Highest growth rate. Percentage increase in headcount over the past five years. Growth is good.

1. Dentons
2. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
3. Williams & Connolly
4. Littler Mendelson
5. McKenna Long & Aldridge

Top 5: Highest percentage of women partners. The more, the better, obviously.

1. Littler Mendelson 28%
2. Ballard Spahr 25%
3. (tie) WilmerHale 24%
3. (tie) Shook, Hardy & Bacon 24%
5. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati 23%

Top 5: Best chances to make “home grown” partner. We compared the sizes of incoming first-year associate classes with the new partnership classes (excluding laterals) eight years later (or whatever the relevant time frame would be for the particular firm). These five firms offered incoming associates the best chance to ascend to partnership.

1. Davis Wright Tremaine
2. Cozen O’Connor
3. Greenberg Traurig
4. Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney
5. Mintz Levin

Interested readers should watch this space: ATL will be rolling out some interesting variations on law firm rankings in the coming days. You can review the full Power 100 rankings here. If you have comments or questions about the rankings, please email research@abovethelaw.com.