The ATL Regional Law Firm Rankings (2016)

The Top Regional Offices

Rank Firm Score
Atlanta
1Alston & Bird LLP81.42
2King & Spalding81.26
3Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP74.00
4Jones Day68.11
5Dentons62.18
6Troutman Sanders LLP61.29
7Paul Hastings LLP60.12
8Greenberg Traurig, LLP59.42
9Bryan Cave LLP57.30
10Ballard Spahr LLP45.28
Boston
1WilmerHale75.80
2Ropes & Gray LLP74.09
3Goodwin Procter LLP71.54
4Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates67.41
5Fish & Richardson P.C.66.91
6Cooley LLP65.51
7Proskauer Rose LLP62.00
8Foley Hoag LLP59.00
9Choate Hall & Stewart LLP57.42
10Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C.55.63
11Foley & Lardner LLP55.19
12Greenberg Traurig, LLP54.77
13Nixon Peabody LLP52.94
14Seyfarth Shaw LLP52.73
15Sullivan & Worcester LLP51.66
16Goulston & Storrs, PC49.47
17Brown Rudnick LLP44.72
18Duane Morris LLP42.12
19Holland & Knight LLP41.75
20Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP40.60
Chicago
1Kirkland & Ellis LLP85.00
2Sidley Austin LLP83.39
3Latham & Watkins LLP81.17
4Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates79.75
5Mayer Brown LLP74.53
6Jones Day73.41
7Jenner & Block LLP72.79
8McDermott Will & Emery LLP71.67
9Winston & Strawn LLP68.42
10Baker & McKenzie65.91
11Ropes & Gray LLP65.67
12Perkins Coie LLP62.60
13Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP62.32
14Greenberg Traurig, LLP62.29
15Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP61.84
16DLA Piper59.22
17Foley & Lardner LLP57.59
18Dentons57.48
19Seyfarth Shaw LLP57.44
20Reed Smith LLP57.29
21Bryan Cave LLP56.14
22Schiff Hardin LLP54.28
23McGuireWoods LLP53.51
24Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP53.10
25Chapman and Cutler LLP47.96
Houston
1Vinson & Elkins LLP83.78
2Latham & Watkins LLP79.45
3Baker Botts LLP70.11
4Susman Godfrey L.L.P.68.79
5Norton Rose Fulbright64.42
6Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP63.80
7Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP62.96
8Jones Day61.92
9King & Spalding61.75
10Andrews Kurth LLP59.12
Los Angeles
1Latham & Watkins LLP84.87
2Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP81.95
3Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates78.62
4Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP78.14
5Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP76.53
6Kirkland & Ellis LLP75.25
7O'Melveny & Myers LLP73.35
8Irell & Manella LLP72.57
9Sidley Austin LLP71.26
10Paul Hastings LLP70.09
11Morrison & Foerster LLP66.98
12Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP66.01
13Proskauer Rose LLP65.13
14Alston & Bird LLP64.56
15Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP64.47
16Arnold & Porter LLP64.06
17Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP63.80
18Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP62.35
19Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP62.21
20Jones Day60.99
21Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP58.96
22DLA Piper58.87
23Dentons58.35
24Winston & Strawn LLP57.80
25Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP57.00
New York
1Davis Polk & Wardwell84.62
2Sullivan & Cromwell LLP80.58
3Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP80.28
4Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP79.66
5Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP79.09
6Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP78.66
7Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates77.33
8Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz77.14
9Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP76.81
10Debevoise & Plimpton LLP75.27
11Kirkland & Ellis74.20
12Latham & Watkins LLP73.65
13Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP73.32
14Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP70.97
15Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP69.75
16Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP68.78
17Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP67.61
18WilmerHale66.71
19Covington & Burling LLP66.49
20Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP65.40
21White & Case LLP65.36
22Sidley Austin LLP64.76
23Jones Day63.99
24Shearman & Sterling LLP63.96
25O'Melveny & Myers LLP62.98
Philadelphia
1Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP77.08
2Baker & Hostetler LLP72.30
3Dechert LLP72.00
4Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP63.82
5Reed Smith LLP63.16
6Pepper Hamilton LLP62.16
7Duane Morris LLP60.26
8Ballard Spahr LLP59.97
9Blank Rome LLP57.35
10Fox Rothschild LLP52.44
San Francisco
1Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP76.28
2Kirkland & Ellis LLP76.03
3Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP75.77
4Latham & Watkins LLP74.08
5Covington & Burling LLP73.41
6Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati71.84
TIE7Cooley LLP70.18
TIE7Morrison & Foerster LLP70.18
8Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP70.00
9Keker & Van Nest LLP66.91
10Sidley Austin LLP66.74
11Jones Day65.45
12Paul Hastings LLP65.28
13O'Melveny & Myers LLP64.88
14Ropes & Gray LLP64.61
15Fenwick & West LLP62.55
16Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP61.72
17Reed Smith LLP60.24
18Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP59.98
19Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP57.49
20Seyfarth Shaw LLP57.22
21Baker & McKenzie53.80
22Winston & Strawn LLP53.45
23Duane Morris LLP50.40
24Dentons49.76
25Farella Braun + Martel LLP49.04
Silicon Valley
1Davis Polk & Wardwell78.11
2Cooley LLP77.53
3Latham & Watkins LLP77.31
4Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates74.11
5Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati73.34
6Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP70.71
7Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP70.58
8Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP70.56
9Morrison & Foerster LLP70.13
10Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP69.05
Washington, DC
1Covington & Burling LLP79.89
2Kirkland & Ellis LLP78.67
3WilmerHale77.17
4Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP75.62
5Williams & Connolly LLP75.09
6Sidley Austin LLP74.93
7Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP74.20
8Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates73.42
9Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP72.90
10Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP72.31
11Jones Day70.82
12Arnold & Porter LLP70.38
13Latham & Watkins LLP70.22
14Hogan Lovells US LLP69.28
15Paul Hastings LLP68.85
16Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP68.63
17O'Melveny & Myers LLP67.54
18Morrison & Foerster LLP66.47
19White & Case LLP66.08
20Jenner & Block LLP65.76
21Ropes & Gray LLP65.34
22Mayer Brown LLP65.07
23Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati63.96
24Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP63.85
25Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP63.72




Methodology

Over the summer, we conducted 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 2010: 5%
  • Percentage of women partners: 5%
  • Partnership prospects
    % of all non-partners who made partner in the most recent promotion cycle: 5%**
  • Insider satisfaction
    ATL Insider Survey: 5%
  • Compensation rating: 25%***

Clearly, 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.



* We limited our city-specific firm choices to offices with at least 50 lawyers. Survey conducted in partnership with Kinney Recruiting.
** Promotion data courtesy of NavForward.
*** 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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