Top Litigation Firms by Law School Pedigree

Lawyers as a group dislike uncertainty, and “prestige”—whether of schools or firms—serves as an organizing principle and social validator, letting everyone know where they stand. The lawyer hive mind consistently orders itself in precise ways: consider how the U.S. News “T14” is basically set in stone and how the Vault rankings remain remarkably stable year after year. As late as 2015, Biglaw remains as clubby as Bertie Wooster.

There are two broad ways to think about this phenomenon:

  1. The practitioners of law at the highest level exist in a sort of closed loop and that is how it should be. The filter of “prestige” is a necessary thing. While the most talented and capable people will presumably succeed regardless, we need some way to differentiate among the rest. But when a person’s talent level is fundamentally unknowable, prestige might not be a perfect tool, but it is what we have. The assumption that one must be doing something right in order to become associated with prestigious institutions is rational.
  2. This obsession with credentialism is harmful to the profession. This nebulous concept of “prestige” is too dubious a metric upon which to base the choice of a school or employer.

Whichever camp you fall in, there is no gainsaying the outsized role prestige plays in both the educational and professional wings of the legal industry.

A glance at these rankings shows that boutiques dominate the top of the list, “outperforming” their larger competitors in terms of credentials. Of course, some might say it’s inapt to compare boutiques and Biglaw as they have such distinct recruitment models. (For example, large firms don’t have to fill up summer associate classes.) Yet if Biglaw serves as the talent funnel for the high-end boutiques, then either the prestige of law school really does correlate with eventual attorney quality OR the boutiques are as beholden to the entrenched credentialism as the rest of the profession, only maybe more so.




The List

RankFirmAttorney CountMedian RankMean School IQR
1Bancroft PLLC1524.8
2Willenken Wilson1343.9
3Kellogg Huber6944.5
4Bartlit Beck7946.0
5Lankler Siffert2646.3
6Morvillo Abramowitz3565.1
7Keker & Van Nest8265.9
8Sanford Heisler2865.9
9Robbins Russell3076.1
10Williams & Connolly11776.4
11Covington & Burling40187.5
12Bird Marella3588.1
13Boies, Schiller & Flexner227812.2
14Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher49099.2
15Zuckerman Spaeder769.59.8
16Yetter Coleman321010.4
17MoloLamken221010.9
18Jenner & Block2571011.6
19Morrison & Foerster3801011.6
20Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan2011013.5
21Goldman Ismail18119.6
22Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr6331212.9
23Kobre & Kim451314.0
24Weisbrod Matteis191314.2
25Hughes Hubbard & Reed2181316.1
26Susman Godfrey1001511.3
27Gibbs & Bruns321515.0
28Arnold & Porter3991516.4
29Beck Redden461528.0
30Paul Hastings3471616.9
31Horvitz & Levy361617.4
32Browne George141617.5
33Crowell & Moring2772020.8
34Fish & Richardson2662023.6
35Alston & Bird3982024.3
36Steptoe & Johnson3082024.6
37Winston & Strawn5142026.2
38Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner2832027.4
39Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell2892731.3
40Bickel & Brewer442834.8
41Kilpatrick Townsend & Stocktown2882925.2
42Faeger Baker Daniels3562931.7
43Barnes & Thornburg2922941.9
44McKenna Long & Aldridge2683638.0
45Levine Lee103639.7
46Baker & Hostetler4563641.3
47Lee Tran & Liang303834.1
48Pepper Hamilton2914943.8
49Jackson Lewis LLP2525657.0
50Blank Rome2856159.3
51Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart4016160.1




Methodology

To determine our list of eligible litigation firms, we identified all the Amlaw 100 firms where the majority of attorneys are classified as litigators plus the most relevant litigation boutiques. We factored in the findings of various trade journals, such as the NLJ Litigation Hot List.

We assigned median and average values to the litigators' law school alma maters in order to generate the ranking. (We relied on the US News rankings, as it ranks essentially all law schools, in contrast to our own ATL Top 50 Law Schools.)

  • “Attorney Count”: Number of litigation attorneys at law firm. Includes lawyers with JDs from a US institution working in US offices.
  • “Median School Rank”: Median US News ranking of law schools attended by firm's lawyers.
  • “Mean School IQR”: Mean of middle 50% of US News rankings of law schools attended by firm's lawyers.





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




This feature is presented by Lake Whillans Litigation Finance. Lake Whillans is a litigation finance firm providing funding for companies in litigation or arbitration. To learn more about us, and litigation finance generally, visit us at our website, lakewhillans.com. To ask a specific question, suggest a topic, or simply say hello, drop us a line at inquiry@lakewhillans.com.




Comments