Biglaw

The Best Brands In Biglaw: A Mostly Subjective Ranking That We Can Talk About!

Are these the best law firms in the world? Maybe. Maybe not.

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Everyone loves a good ranking. There’s something about the human psyche — or at least the American psyche — that can’t get enough of putting things in a proper order and imbuing that list with outsized importance.

Some rankings are fairly objective. We can rank the top scoring teams of the season and we can tell everyone which firms are making the most money. Or… maybe we can. What those rankings mean is another question altogether. Top scorers don’t necessarily win. Revenue generating behemoths may be houses of cards. But there’s at least something tangible there.

Other rankings are more subjective. That doesn’t actually render them meaningless. In a sense, they can be more “accurate” because they covertly reflect a tangled mess of overlapping objective factors that the respondents may not be able to consciously untangle. Still, it’s a list of “feels” so a ranking like this has to be taken with an ample dosage of sodium.

BTI Consulting Group just put out its 2019 list of “brand elite,” which attempts to track the firms that clients trust by tracking clients’ “unprompted responses to the consulting firm about which law firms they believe meet a number of different criteria making up a strong brand.”

It’s actually a cool way of getting to the heart of who clients trust. On the other hand, it’s far more Family Feud than Jeopardy. When clients speak highly of a particular firm, are they complimenting the firm or their law school buddy who handles some limited work for them? We don’t know. It’s a collection of “feels” — take it for what it’s worth and don’t give it more determinative power than it warrants.

So, with that said, “we asked a bunch of GCs about the best brand in Biglaw… survey says!”

1 Skadden
2 Jones Day
3 Latham & Watkins
4 Morgan Lewis
5 Gibson Dunn
6 Kirkland & Ellis
7 Reed Smith
8 Hogan Lovells
9 Sidley Austin
10 Dentons

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The full list goes to 28 — which is a weird cut off number for a ranking, but whatever — and you can check it out over here.

GCs Name The 28 Best-Branded Law Firms Of 2019 [Law360]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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