The ATL Power 100 By Office (2015)

The Power 100 Rankings by Office

Rank Firm Office Score
1 Kirkland & Ellis LLP Chicago 83.87
2 Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz New York 82.55
3 Ropes & Gray LLP Boston 81.83
4 Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP Philadelphia 81.15
5 Alston & Bird LLP Atlanta 80.71
6 Davis Polk & Wardwell New York 80.38
7 Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP Los Angeles 80.03
8 Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP New York 79.94
9 Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP Los Angeles 79.67
10 Kirkland & Ellis LLP San Francisco 78.65
11 Latham & Watkins LLP Los Angeles 78.25
12 Covington & Burling LLP DC 78.15
13 TIE Sullivan & Cromwell LLP New York 77.98
13 TIE Sidley Austin LLP Chicago 77.98
15 Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP New York 77.67
16 WilmerHale Boston 77.56
17 Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP New York 76.77
18 King & Spalding Atlanta 76.46
19 Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP DC 75.90
20 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates Chicago 75.80
21 Dechert LLP Philadelphia 75.73
22 Vinson & Elkins LLP Houston 75.59
23 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates DC 75.27
24 Latham & Watkins LLP Chicago 75.16
25 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates New York 75.12
26 WilmerHale DC 74.09
27 Kirkland & Ellis LLP DC 74.03
28 Davis Polk & Wardwell Silicon Valley 73.98
29 Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP New York 73.83
30 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates Los Angeles 73.73
31 Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP San Francisco 73.33
32 Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Silicon Valley 73.30
33 Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP Atlanta 73.28
34 Kirkland & Ellis LLP Los Angeles 73.25
35 O'Melveny & Myers LLP Los Angeles 73.21
36 Latham & Watkins LLP Houston 72.92
37 Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP DC 72.81
38 Latham & Watkins LLP San Francisco 72.77
39 Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP Los Angeles 72.76
40 TIE Debevoise & Plimpton LLP New York 72.31
40 TIE Cooley LLP Silicon Valley 72.31
42 Latham & Watkins LLP Silicon Valley 72.18
43 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates Boston 71.58
44 Latham & Watkins LLP DC 71.02
45 TIE Reed Smith LLP Philadelphia 70.93
45 TIE Williams & Connolly LLP DC 70.93
47 Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP New York 70.70
48 Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati San Francisco 70.69
49 Irell & Manella LLP Los Angeles 70.61
50 Pepper Hamilton LLP Philadelphia 70.55
51 Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP New York 70.53
52 Sidley Austin LLP DC 70.48
53 Morrison & Foerster LLP San Francisco 69.99
54 Latham & Watkins LLP New York 69.74
55 Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP DC 69.52
56 Covington & Burling LLP San Francisco 69.31
57 Jones Day Chicago 69.22
58 Goodwin Procter LLP Boston 68.97
59 Jones Day DC 68.83
60 Arnold & Porter LLP DC 68.75
61 Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP New York 68.68
62 Jones Day Atlanta 68.67
63 Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP San Francisco 68.62
64 Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP New York 68.55
65 Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP Philadelphia 68.44
66 Hogan Lovells US LLP DC 68.36
67 Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP San Francisco 68.27
68 Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP DC 68.18
69 Morrison & Foerster LLP Silicon Valley 68.11
70 Baker Botts LLP Houston 68.02
71 Sidley Austin LLP San Francisco 67.92
72 Susman Godfrey L.L.P. Houston 67.86
73 Fenwick & West LLP San Francisco 67.79
74 Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP DC 67.62
75 Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP Silicon Valley 67.60
76 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates Silicon Valley 67.54
77 Mayer Brown LLP Chicago 67.49
78 Baker & Hostetler LLP Philadelphia 67.41
79 Morrison & Foerster LLP Los Angeles 67.08
80 Paul Hastings LLP Los Angeles 66.56
81 Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP Silicon Valley 66.28
82 Jenner & Block LLP Chicago 66.25
83 Sidley Austin LLP Los Angeles 66.20
84 Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C. Boston 65.86
85 McDermott Will & Emery LLP Chicago 65.72
86 McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP Atlanta 65.68
87 Fish & Richardson P.C. Boston 65.48
88 Cooley LLP San Francisco 65.46
89 Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP Los Angeles 65.40
90 Jones Day San Francisco 65.37
91 Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP New York 64.82
92 O'Melveny & Myers LLP San Francisco 64.72
93 Greenberg Traurig, LLP Los Angeles 64.69
94 Greenberg Traurig, LLP Atlanta 64.66
95 Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP Silicon Valley 64.52
96 Paul Hastings LLP Atlanta 64.21
97 Paul Hastings LLP San Francisco 64.10
98 Covington & Burling LLP New York 64.07
99 Troutman Sanders LLP Atlanta 63.65
100 Ropes & Gray LLP San Francisco 63.57




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. Included in these rankings were market-specific questions, inquiring about both the reputation of firms in each survey participant's city as well as each firm's desirability as a potential employer. In creating the survey, we limited our city-specific firm choices to offices with at least 50 lawyers. Our office rankings include the following markets: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Washington, DC.

Firms are rated on a scale with 100 possible points:

  • Market-specific 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%***

As with the Power 100, 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.




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