Which Firms Are Considered The 'Best Places To Work' In NYC?

Which firms are considered the cream of the crop for employees in the city that never sleeps?

Since 2008, Crain’s New York Business has produced a list of the Best Places to Work in New York City. Each year, a few law firms sneak onto the list, much like the situation with Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list.

This year, eight law firms made Crain’s list, while only six made Fortune’s list, as of January 2014. Just two firms overlap between Crain’s and Fortune’s lists.

Which ones are considered the cream of the crop in the city that never sleeps?

Before we get to the top law firms to work for, let’s check out Crain’s methodology:

Crain’s New York Business partnered with Best Companies Group, an independent research firm that dispatched surveys to more than 21,000 employees in New York City. To be eligible, businesses had to employ 25 or more workers within the city’s five boroughs. Scores from employees, who answered a confidential 87-question survey, were combined with scores from a 93-question survey of employers. Questions focused on everything from benefits to opportunities for advancement. Results from the employee surveys made up 75% of the total score; results from the employer surveys made up 25%.

By the way, Crain’s changes the number of workplaces that make the list each year. In 2012, 50 businesses made it, in 2013, 75 businesses made it, and in 2014, 100 businesses made it. If your law firm got left behind in 2012, or even in 2013, you’re probably doing just fine — we’re sure your firm is a great place to work, but people were just too busy taking advantage of your incredible work perks to fill out the industry surveys that are flooding their inboxes. If you didn’t make it onto 2014’s super-inclusive list, you might want to consider making some changes — your employees cry more than they laugh and may be drowning in work.

These are the eight law firms on Crain’s 2014 Best Places to Work in NYC list:

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Alston & Bird and Cooley are the only firms to appear on both Crain’s list and Fortune’s list. Congratulations to both firms for this high achievement. Getting people to fill out questionnaires can be excrutiatingly painful! (By the way, if you’ve got a minute or two, please fill out our ATL Insider Survey. See, that wasn’t so bad.)

Vivia Chen of The Careerist had some color commentary on the Crain’s list:

Do you notice anything curious about this list? All of the firms are out-of-towners. Not one of them is a New York-born firm. (Crain’s does list some smallish New York-based firms, including Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz and Hogut Newman.)

Not exactly shocking. I mean, what self-respecting, swaggering big New York firm would be caught dead on a “nice” place to work list?

She’s got a point there. Here are the best perks we saw at the Biglaw firms:

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  • Drinker Biddle & Reath: DBR provides both emergency childcare and eldercare for its employees, and allows kids to come to its corporate events.
  • Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton: The longer you stay, the better the gifts you get — like $3K towards a trip at the 45-year mark.
  • WilmerHale: If you’ve been with the firm for 10 years, they’ll pay you to go away… for two months, on a relaxing sabbatical.
  • Alston & Bird: Everyone loves to have fun at this law firm — they even have bake-off contests — and they didn’t have any actual layoffs in 2014.
  • Cooley: The firm is very transparent with employees at its yearly “State of the Firm” address, and isn’t related in any way to Cooley Law School.

So, readers, have these rankings actually been earned? Can you think of a law firm that deserves to be recognized, but hasn’t been? Please give us your thoughts.

2014 Best Places to Work in NYC [Crain’s New York Business]
Five Big Firms Are on 100 Best Places to Work List [The Careerist]