The ATL Power 100 Law Firms (2015)

Let's be clear: in this market, the "best" law firm is the one that will employ you. If you have a job, congratulations, you're number one. But the methods for evaluating the large law firms that are best at the business of practicing law are stuck in the past. The new normal means new challenges for firms. Is bigger always better? More revenue sounds nice, unless the firm is overly reliant on a few rainmakers who can jump ship and leave the rest of the firm scrambling for clients. Surely, the last client who cared about white-shoe status is somewhere trying to find a new ribbon for his typewriter.

With these rankings, Above the Law is trying to capture the strength and relevance of major law firms in today's market. Who are the market leaders? Which firms are still making and retaining their partners? Where do you want to work? Power, post-recession, is about what you are, not what you used to be.

The Power 100 blends objective data points (changes in headcount over time, “homegrown” partners, and number of women partners) with subjective feedback from over 20,000 associates, partners, and other members of the legal community. The result is a more complete picture of each firm, encompassing employee satisfaction, compensation, reputation, desirability as an employer, and data-driven measures of firm growth. The Power 100 is meant to offer a new perspective on some of the most prestigious and wealthy firms by using a new rubric to show how they stack up against the competition.




The Power 100 Rankings

Rank Firm Score
1 Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz 83.39
2 Kirkland & Ellis LLP 81.60
3 Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP 81.36
4 Sullivan & Cromwell LLP 80.85
5 Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP 80.71
6 Cravath, Swaine, & Moore LLP 80.67
7 Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP 79.61
8 Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP 79.54
9 Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP 78.93
10 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP 78.88
11 Latham & Watkins LLP 78.85
12 Covington & Burling LLP 77.52
13 Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP 77.00
14 Boies Schiller Flexner LLP 76.99
15 Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP 76.83
16 Munger Tolles & Olson LLP 76.65
17 Debevoise & Plimpton LLP 76.64
18 Sidley Austin LLP 76.62
19 Ropes & Gray LLP 75.69
20 WilmerHale 75.58
21 Jones Day 74.10
24 Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati 72.80
25 Cooley LLP 72.77
26 K&L Gates LLP 72.67
27 Paul Hastings LLP 72.61
29 Morrison & Foerster LLP 72.42
30 Perkins Coie LLP 72.42
31 Greenberg Traurig LLP 71.95
32 Shearman & Sterling LLP 71.77
33 Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP 71.62
35 Mayer Brown 71.47
36 Jenner & Block LLP 71.42
37 Vinson & Elkins LLP 71.34
38 Fish & Richardson P.C. 71.09
38 TIE McDermott Will & Emery 72.58
39 Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP 71.05
40 Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP 70.87
41 O’Melveny & Myers LLP 70.67
42 Proskauer Rose LLP 70.49
43 Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP 70.40
44 Hogan Lovells 70.31
45 Fenwick & West LLP 70.30
46 Milbank LLP 70.18
47 Irell & Manella LLP 69.91
48 Goodwin Procter LLP 69.37
48 TIE Alston & Bird LLP 69.37
50 Reed Smith LLP 69.31
52 Baker Botts 68.95
53 Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. 68.94
54 King & Spalding LLP 68.69
55 DLA Piper 68.50
57 Baker & Hostetler LLP 68.11
58 Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP 67.97
59 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP 67.93
60 White & Case LLP 67.92
61 Nixon Peabody LLP 67.74
62 Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP 67.44
63 Dechert LLP 67.42
64 Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP 67.18
68 Haynes and Boone, LLP 66.83
69 Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP 66.57
71 Winston & Strawn LLP 66.27
73 Littler Mendelson P.C. 66.06
74 Holland & Knight LLP 66.06
77 McGuireWoods LLP 65.71
78 Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP 65.65
79 Davis Wright Tremaine LLP 65.62
80 Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP 65.53
81 Norton Rose Fulbright †† 65.43
84 Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP 64.69
85 Squire Patton Boggs ††† 64.69
86 Baker McKenzie 64.37
87 Susman Godfrey 64.32
88 Seyfarth Shaw LLP 64.08
89 Crowell & Moring LLP 64.07
91 Cozen O’Connor 63.96
99 Blank Rome LLP 62.48
100 Ballard Spahr LLP 61.31

† Combines results from legacy firms SNR Denton and Frasner Milner Casgrain
†† Combines results from legacy firms Ogilvy Renault, Macleod Dixon and Fulbright & Jaworski
††† Combines results from legacy firms Patton Boggs and Squire Sanders




Methodology

Back in July, we launched the ATL Law Firm Reputation Survey, asking those of you working in Biglaw to rate your peers and competitors. For our purposes, we split “reputation” into two distinct aspects: 1) the reputed strength and quality of a firm’s practice, and 2) the perceived desirability of the firm as a potential employer. (For some, these factors will be functionally equivalent. For others, these are less overlapping considerations.) In addition, the ATL Law Firm Reputation Survey asked respondents to rate firms in their specific market for both practice quality as well as desirability as potential employers. (In creating the survey, we limited our city-specific firm choices to offices with at least 50 lawyers.)

Firms are rated on a scale with 100 possible points:

  • Reputation survey*
    “Strength and quality of practice”: 35%
    “Potential employer”: 15%
  • Leverage
    Ratio of equity partners to all other attorneys: 5%
  • Growth/decay
    % change in headcount since 2009: 5%
  • Percentage of women partners: 5%
  • “Homegrown” partners
    Likelihood of incoming associates making equity partner: 5%*
  • Insider satisfaction
    ATL Insider Survey: 5%**
  • Compensation rating: 25%***

Obviously, we are making value judgments in choosing and assigning weight to these metrics. For example, we are rewarding firms for maintaining low leverage, or for offering a relatively better chance for incoming associates to eventually ascend to partnership. Also, to be sure, law firms are not homogenous in their approaches to partnership tracks or compensation structures or other aspects that we have sought to measure here, but we have done our best to account for these differences and create a formula that allows for meaningful comparisons.

The perfect "ATL score" is 100. Each firm is awarded a maximum number of points based on the weight of each metric (a maximum of 25 points for highest compensation rating, 5 points for highest growth headcount, etc.). The points are awarded on a sliding scale from highest to lowest. (For certain categories, firms were placed into tiers and points were apportioned accordingly.) Those points add up to the total ATL score seen on the rankings table.



* Survey conducted in partnership with Kinney Recruiting.
** Data for the “homegrown” metric courtesy of Leopard Solutions.
*** Compensation rating accounts for the following 4 factors: first-year salary, recent track record for bonuses, profits per partner (as reported to Am Law), and survey data.





Questions about our rankings? Contact us at research@abovethelaw.com.




Comments