2017 Office 100 Law Firm Rankings

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Lots of people rank law firms. And you can dice up law firm rankings in so many ways: by “prestige,” revenues, and more. That’s all great, but if you are going to work in a Biglaw firm, you are going to be working in a specific office. And that office is going to make or break your experience with your firm. Not all offices are created equal, even within the same firm. There are firms that aren’t thought of very highly overall, but a specific office of their operation might be doing great work and be the place for your kind of thing.

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? 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.

The Office 100 blends objective data points (changes in headcount over time, promotional prospects, and number of women partners) with subjective feedback from over 22,000 associates, partners, and other members of the legal community. The result is a more complete picture of each individual office, encompassing employee satisfaction, compensation, reputation, desirability as an employer, and data-driven measures of firm growth. The Office 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 both against their competitors and across their own offices.

The ATL Office 100 Law Firm Rankings

Rank Firm City Score
1Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLPNY79.36
2Kirkland & Ellis LLPDC78.23
3Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & KatzNY78.22
4Kirkland & Ellis LLPLos Angeles77.49
5Kirkland & Ellis LLPNY76.92
6Latham & Watkins LLPDC75.77
7Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLPNY75.67
8Kirkland & Ellis LLPChicago75.35
9Covington & Burling LLPDC75.08
10Latham & Watkins LLPHouston75.03
11Williams & Connolly LLPDC74.97
12Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLPLos Angeles74.76
13Latham & Watkins LLPNY74.55
14Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLPNY74.47
15Covington & Burling LLPNY74.25
16Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLPDC73.97
17Sidley Austin LLPDC73.89
18Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLPNY73.63
19Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and AffiliatesLos Angeles73.61
20Latham & Watkins LLPLos Angeles73.58
21Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLPDC73.29
22Latham & Watkins LLPChicago73.02
23Sullivan & Cromwell LLPNY72.99
24Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and AffiliatesChicago72.74
25Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and AffiliatesDC72.3
26Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and AffiliatesNY72.08
27Davis Polk & WardwellNY71.97
28Sidley Austin LLPDallas71.84
29Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLPDC71.51
30Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLPNY71.4
31Debevoise & Plimpton LLPNY70.72
32Sidley Austin LLPChicago70.44
33Latham & Watkins LLPSilicon Valley70.22
34Jones DayDallas70.13
35Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLPSilicon Valley70.11
36Sidley Austin LLPLos Angeles70
37Sidley Austin LLPNY69.74
38Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLPNY69.59
39Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLPLos Angeles69.05
40Ropes & Gray LLPDC69.02
41Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLPDC68.46
42Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and AffiliatesSilicon Valley68.36
43Jones DayDC68.12
44Arnold & Porter LLPDC67.98
45Paul Hastings LLPDC67.95
46Jones DayHouston67.72
47Shearman & Sterling LLPNY67.69
48Jones DayChicago67.55
49Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLPNY67.37
50Morrison & Foerster LLPLos Angeles67.3
51Munger, Tolles & Olson LLPLos Angeles67.18
52Vinson & Elkins LLPHouston67.15
53Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLPHouston67.14
54Irell & Manella LLPLos Angeles66.84
55Vinson & Elkins LLPDallas66.58
56Paul Hastings LLPLos Angeles66.5
57Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLPSilicon Valley66.32
58Davis Polk & WardwellSilicon Valley66.24
59WilmerHaleDC65.99
60Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLPDallas65.91
61Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLPDC65.64
62Paul Hastings LLPNY65.46
63Cooley LLPSilicon Valley65.36
64Jones DayNY65.19
64Jones DayLos Angeles65.19
65Jones DaySilicon Valley64.97
66WilmerHaleNY64.68
67WilmerHaleSilicon Valley64.51
68Proskauer Rose LLPNY64.5
69Mayer Brown LLPNY64.41
70Morrison & Foerster LLPSilicon Valley64.24
71Mayer Brown LLPChicago64.23
72Proskauer Rose LLPLos Angeles64.19
73Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLPDC64.18
74O'Melveny & Myers LLPLos Angeles64.09
75Ropes & Gray LLPChicago63.95
76Mayer Brown LLPDC63.84
77Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLPNY63.81
77Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLPSilicon Valley63.81
78Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLPDC63.78
79Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLPLos Angeles63.68
80O'Melveny & Myers LLPDC63.61
80Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLPNY63.61
81Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLPNY63.42
82Morrison & Foerster LLPNY63.36
83Hogan Lovells US LLPDC63.11
83Jenner & Block LLPDC63.11
84Morrison & Foerster LLPDC62.88
85Arnold & Porter LLPNY62.51
85Arnold & Porter LLPLos Angeles62.51
86Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLPHouston62.47
87Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLPDallas62.42
88Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLPDC62.39
89Cooley LLPNY62.34
90Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLPNY62.22
91Hogan Lovells US LLPNY62.02
92King & SpaldingNY62.01
93Cooley LLPDC61.99
94Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLPLos Angeles61.81
95White & Case LLPDC61.78
96Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLPLos Angeles61.61
97King & SpaldingHouston61.57
98Vinson & Elkins LLPDC61.33
98Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLPNY61.33
98Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLPDC61.33
99Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLPDC61.17
100Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLPNY61.12




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.



* 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.