‘Your firm is HUGE!’ (Image via Getty)
Ever since the recession hit, law schools have enrolled and graduated fewer and fewer students, and the legal profession as a whole took a major hit, having lost about 500,000 to 600,000 jobs that may never return. But despite the layoffs en masse that were a toll of the recession, the biggest of Biglaw firms are still employing thousands and thousands of attorneys — and they’ve been quickly growing in size.
But which U.S. Biglaw firm is the biggest of them all? Law360 (sub. req.) can help us answer that question. Last night, the website released its master list of the top 400 law firms in the U.S. by headcount, revealing that Kirkland maintained its stranglehold on the No. 1 spot, growing by more than 14 percent over the course of 2018 (with over 300 domestic attorneys more than the firm in second place on the ranking).
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Compared to last year’s ranking, the biggest of all Biglaw firms have remained the same, but have shifted ever so slightly in their positions, growing at an average rate of 3.86 percent, compared to the rest of the Top 100, which grew at a rate of 4.74 percent thanks to some major merger activity last year.
Below, you’ll find a list of the Top 10 largest law firms in the country by headcount:
1. Kirkland: 2,116 U.S. attorneys
2. Latham: 1,788 U.S. attorneys
3. Greenberg Traurig: 1,750 U.S. attorneys
4. Morgan Lewis: 1,712 U.S. attorneys
5. Jones Day: 1,687 U.S. attorneys
6. Sidley Austin: 1,661 U.S. attorneys
7. DLA Piper: 1,505 U.S. attorneys
8. Skadden: 1,456 U.S. attorneys
9. Lewis Brisbois: 1,308 U.S. attorneys
10. Holland & Knight: 1,232 U.S. attorneys
Click here to see the full list of the 400 largest law firms in the country.
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To the top 10, congratulations on keeping your Biglaw firms bigger than all the rest. For every other firm, keep growing and someday you’ll be a Biglaw behemoth too.
Law360 Reveals 400 Largest US Firms [Law360 (sub. req.)]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.