Top 10 Biglaw Brands In The U.S.
Why not just ask the clients who they trust?
(Image via Getty)
There are a lot of ways to measure the strength of a law firm. We receive annual reports on total revenue, profits per equity partner, revenue per lawyer… and after covering this industry for this long, I can run down the arguments for and against each metric. Every ranking has some merit, except of course a rote listing of head count.
But the most straightforward appraisal of a firm’s strength in the marketplace is just to ask clients who they trust. Thomson Reuters released a report this week “based on data compiled from a Sharplegal market research study of the global legal market across 55 countries with more than 2,000 senior in-house counsel, as well as 746 interviews conducted with senior legal buyers in the U.S.” to determine what Biglaw brands carry the most gravitas with the people who matter.
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Are there problems with a survey of clients? Sure. It’s often a lagging indicator of a firm’s actual strength as clients cling to perceptions of past incarnations of the firm. Conversely, it can overreact to recent events and ding a firm for a high-profile partner defection or reward a firm for a one-off big-ticket deal. On the other hand, when it comes to bringing in business, perception may be more real than reality.
So here’s the top 10:
1. Kirkland & Ellis
2. Latham & Watkins
3. Jones Day
4. Skadden
5. DLA Piper
6. Morgan Lewis
7. Sidley
8. Gibson Dunn
9. Baker McKenzie
10. Hogan Lovells
No surprises that the firm known for shelling out the big bucks to corner the market on talent earns the top spot when it comes to trust. Jones Day, historically a winner in these sorts of rankings, tumbled from first place to third. This tracks an earlier Thomson Reuters-sponsored brand ranking that used a different methodology to rate global firms and found Jones Day falling five spots. Maybe Jones Day is proving that corporate America continues to have a short attention span when it comes to the whole “firms laying the ground work for conspiracy theories culminating in deadly insurrections” thing.
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There are a lot of Biglaw firms on this list (maybe the head count does matter?), but DLA Piper and Baker McKenzie making the top 10 is interesting as the two biggest firms in the country per the NLJ 500 get a bad rap among snooty attorneys as just “big for big’s sake.” But as it turns out, their model has pushed them above many more storied whiteshoe firms when it comes to impressing clients.
There’s a lot more data in the full report, including an impressive jump for Faegre Drinker who jumped 22 spots from last year to land at 16th. You can sign up and check out the full list here.
Top 20 U.S. Law Firm Brands [Thomson Reuters]
Joe 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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