Biglaw, Rankings, Real Estate

ATL Power 100 By Office: You Work In An Office, Which One Is The Best?

Other people rank Biglaw by "firms," we get into the weeds and rank them by office.

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Conventional wisdom says you can’t compare apples to oranges. That’s stupid. Of course you can. Oranges are better. An orange is a delicious treat, while an apple is a healthy “snack” for people too embarrassed to have another bag of Doritos. Orange juice is also clearly superior to apple juice. The only people who truly prefer apples are those without the patience or dexterity to peel an orange.

Lots of people rank law firms. We even did it. And you can dice up law firm rankings in so many ways: most prestigious firm, safest firm, elite-est-ist firms, best firms in inter-coastal lowland regions.

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 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.

And let’s drop the artifice that every graduating law student has a burning desire to work in New York or L.A. or Dallas. Some do. Some just want to work at the “best” firm they can, and they don’t really care which stop they have to take on the Acela. You think anybody wants to live in New Haven for three years? Come on. They go to Yale because it’s the best. And they’ll go to San Francisco or Chicago if there’s a better offer on the table out there than in New York City.

As usual, Above the Law wants to help you. So let’s look at some of the more interesting office disparities, and then look at our full list…

Kirkland & Ellis finished #2 in our overall Power 100. Impressive. You know what’s more impressive? K&E’s Chicago office was our #1 office. Chicago! K&E Chicago rated higher than Wachtell New York.

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It just goes to show that the world of Biglaw is not NYC or bust. K&E Chicago is #1. K&E San Francisco is #10. Kirkland’s D.C. office is #27, while it’s #34 in L.A. But Kirkland New York — an office with 400 attorneys — doesn’t make our top 100. Now, part of that means that K&E dominates its market in Chicago more than it does in New York. The next highest ranked Chicago office is Sidley Austin Chicago at #13. But it also suggests that, despite Kirkland’s overall strength as a firm, there are better places to work in Manhattan than K&E.

Don’t blame us, Kirkland New York people. It looks like K&E NYC fell out of our top 100 because of crazy low “insider” and “employer desirability” scores. It’s not our fault that the people working there aren’t that thrilled and their local peers aren’t that jealous.

There are other firms with these kinds of splits. Covington & Burling D.C. is at #12 (no big surprise). Covington NYC is down at #98. Ropes & Gray Boston is #3, while Ropes & Gray’s San Francisco office is #100.

If you want to work in New York, you’re looking at the usual suspects: Wachtell, Davis Polk, Cravath, Sullivan & Cromwell. I don’t think that there are a lot of people who are trying to decide between working at Skadden in Los Angeles, or working at Alston & Bird in Atlanta. But A&B Atlanta is ranked #5 on the list, while Skadden L.A. is ranked #30. That gives you something to think about.

You’re working at a firm, in an office, but most importantly, you are working for people. The people in your office will have a lot more to do with your career happiness than the national recognition of your firm.

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Click the link below to see the full ATL ranking of the nation’s top law firms by office, as well as our methodology.

See the complete rankings (and methodology) here.

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