What do associates at major law firms care about more than money? Prestige, of course. But, at the end of the day, sometimes being a leader when it comes to compensation is enough to boost a firm’s prestige. As luck would have it, the closely watched Vault 100 rankings are here to remind lawyers at the nation’s largest law firms about exactly which ones are considered the most prestigious.
In last year’s Vault 100 rankings, Cravath — the firm that matched Milbank’s $190K associate salary scale last summer with over-the-top monetary compensation for senior associates — retained its number 1 slot after elbowing Wachtell Lipton out of the position it had held for 13 years in 2016. Was Cravath able to keep its cachet as the most prestigious Biglaw firm in the country in the latest Vault rankings?
Of course it was. Here’s what Mary Kate Sheridan, Vault’s senior law editor, had to say about Cravath’s placement in the latest rankings: “Cravath has become synonymous with ‘prestige,’ and its position as the nation’s top law firm is a combination of its high-profile work and industry influence. The firm is recognized as having the best corporate practice in the country, and its litigators are hard to match. On top of its elite practices, the firm continually sets the compensation scale and has defined associate hiring and training as we know them.” Sorry, Wachtell, but Cravath is now .377 points more prestigious than your firm.
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Although Cravath and Wachtell kept their first- and second-place spots in the latest edition of the Vault rankings, there was some movement in the middle of the Top 10. Without any further ado, here are the Top 10 Most Prestigious Law Firms based on Vault’s Annual Associate Survey for 2020:
- Cravath, Swaine & Moore (no change)
- Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (no change)
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (no change)
- Sullivan & Cromwell (no change)
- Latham & Watkins (no change)
- Kirkland & Ellis (+2)
- Davis Polk & Wardwell (-1)
- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (-1)
- Gibson Dunn & Crutcher (no change)
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison (no change)
There was one noteworthy move within the Top 10. Kirkland, a firm that’s doing so well that it just held a meeting to let everyone know its partners are rolling around in money, hopped over DPW and Simpson Thacher to claim the #6 spot. Outside of the Top 10, Milbank, which was ranked at No. 40 last year, soared to No. 25 this time around, with Vault survey respondents careful to remember how the firm affected their bank accounts with comments like: “Milbank scale,” “gave me a raise,” “market leader,” and last, but certainly not least, “Milbank more like thrill-bank.”
Congratulations to all of the Biglaw firms that made the latest edition of the Vault 100 rankings. How did your firm do this time around? Email us, text us at (646) 820-8477, or tweet us @atlblog to let us know how you feel.
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Vault’s Top 100 Law Firms For 2020 [Vault]
Vault Law’s 2020 Prestige Rankings Are Here! [Vault]
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.