Last week, we gave you a sneak preview of Vault’s 2009 law firm rankings: the top 50 firms ranked by prestige, and the top 20 firms ranked by quality of life.
Now the complete 2009 rankings are available. In addition to the prestige and “best to work for” rankings, they include the diversity and partner prestige rankings.
You can access all the rankings through this gateway page, or by clicking on the links below. Enjoy!
Top 100 Law Firms: 2009 Rankings (portal page) [Vault]
Top 100 Law Firm Prestige rankings [Vault]
The Best 20 Law Firms to Work For [Vault]
The Best 20 Law Firms for Diversity [Vault]
Partner Prestige Rankings [Vault]
Earlier: ATL Exclusive: A Sneak Peek at the 2009 Vault Rankings! (Part 1 of 2)
ATL Exclusive: A Sneak Peek at the 2009 Vault Rankings! (Part 1 of 2)
Vault rankings
- Biglaw, Covington & Burling, Job Searches, Kirkland & Ellis, Magic Circle, McKee Nelson, Media and Journalism, Vault rankings
ATL Exclusive: A Sneak Peek at the 2009 Vault Rankings!
(Part 2 of 2)
By
David Lat
This morning we brought you a special sneak preview of the 2009 Vault law firm rankings (to be released in full on Tuesday, August 12, over at the Vault website). We passed along two compilations: (1) firms ranked 26-50 by prestige, and (2) firms 11-20 on the “best to work for” list.
Now, as promised, we bring you the balance of the rankings: firms 1-50 by prestige, and all 20 of the “best to work for” firms.
Check out the lists, plus comment from Vault law editor Brian Dalton, after the jump.
Continue reading “ATL Exclusive: A Sneak Peek at the 2009 Vault Rankings!
(Part 2 of 2)”
Readers, we bring you some very exciting news. Just in time for fall recruiting, the folks over at Vault are releasing their highly influential — indeed, authoritative — law firm rankings. The rankings, along with informative and interesting write-ups of the ranked firms, will be available in Vault’s law guides. (Vault’s Guide to the Top 100 Law Firms is basically a Biglaw job seeker’s Bible.)
The official release date for the 2009 rankings is this coming Tuesday, August 12. But the Vault crew kindly offered Above the Law an exclusive preview of the new list, consisting of the top 50 firms for prestige and the 20 firms rated as “Best to Work For.” Obviously we wet ourselves just a little bit enthusiastically accepted Vault’s offer of an early look.
Check out the first half of the ATL preview — firms ranked 26-50 by prestige, and 11-20 on the “best to work for” list — along with explanatory commentary from Vault law editor Brian Dalton, after the jump.
Continue reading “ATL Exclusive: A Sneak Peek at the 2009 Vault Rankings!
(Part 1 of 2)”
There are already about a half-dozen major law school ranking schemes out there. So why not create one more?
The folks over at Vault, already famous for their super-influential law firm rankings, have tried their hand at ranking law schools. Not surprisingly, given Vault’s focus on the world of large law firms, even their law-school rankings are Biglaw-centric. From the press release:
Vault solicited employers’ points of view by surveying law firms across the country on which schools produce the best associates. With 58% of law school graduates entering private practice, and no other firm-determined rankings, Vault’s law school rankings fill an important gap with their emphasis on employability.
Nearly 400 hiring partners, associate interviewers and professional recruiting staff rated law schools on a scale from 1-10 based on how well their graduates are prepared to achieve success in the firm environment.
The Vault top 10 law schools, plus links and commentary, after the jump.
- Biglaw, Cleary Gottlieb, Cravath, Davis Polk, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Simpson Thacher, Skadden Arps, Sullivan & Cromwell, Vault rankings, Wachtell Lipton, Weil Gotshal
Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Most Prestigious of All?
By David Lat
Each year, just in time for fall on-campus recruiting season, Vault releases its prestige rankings of the nation’s biggest law firms. Here’s a report on the results of the latest survey, from The Recorder:
In big law, prestige is important. And an annual survey from career-oriented Web site Vault attempts to gauge just how impressive it is to work at the country’s top firms by asking more than 15,000 associates to rank their prestige factor.
The top ten firms were: Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Sullivan & Cromwell; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Davis Polk & Wardwell, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton; Latham & Watkins; Weil, Gotshal & Manges; and Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
Executive summary: New York firms rule the roost. Nothing new there.
But lawyers at Latham & Watkins, based out in La-la-land, were happy with their top 10 finish:
“It’s certainly important and it is impressive that Latham has the reputation it has,” said Kimberly Posin, a fourth-year associate in Latham’s Los Angeles office. “Clients look to and appreciate the prestige factor.”
It’s also a key factor for law students who are interviewing at various firms and scouring the rankings to help make decisions, she said.
Within the firm itself, it was fun to get the e-mail detailing the results.
“It’s something that’s nice to talk about,” Posin said, “[to] call our friends at competing firms and say ‘Look at this.’”
Calling your friends to brag about how your firm is more prestigious than their firm? Isn’t that a tad obnoxious, Kimberly?
Top 100 Law Firms [Vault]
Associate Survey Finds NY Firms Win Bragging Rights [The Recorder]
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Ed. note: The Asia Chronicles column is authored by Kinney Recruiting. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates, counsels and partners in Asia than any other recruiting firm in each of the past six years. You can reach them by email: asia@kinneyrecruiting.com.
Deal flow has clearly picked recently up for most US associates, counsels and partners in Hong Kong/China and Singapore. We are on the phone with a lot of these folks on a daily basis, many of whom we have known for years. Further, the head of our Asia team, Evan Jowers, and Kinney’s founder and president, Robert Kinney, frequently meet in person with leading US partners in Asia to assess their needs and keep on top of the inside scoop at as many firms as possible. The need for legal recruiting help in Asia from experienced recruiters appears to be live and well. In March, Evan and Robert were in Beijing at such meetings, in April, Evan was in Hong Kong, and for half of June Evan will be in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Thus its pretty easy for us to tell when there has been an across-the-market pick up in capital markets and corporate work.
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