Another day, another ranking for lawyers to ogle in a search for meaning as they attempt to get through the day’s billables. Such is the life of a Biglaw attorney, always on the hunt for confirmation that their firm is the best firm, the one that’s hitting all of its essential metrics year after year. If that sounds like you (and you might as well admit it, it probably does), then you should check out the latest offering from the American Lawyer, the annual A-List ranking.
Are you unfamiliar with this ranking? Here are all of the metrics that it measures to determine which Biglaw firms are the best of the best:
[The A-List] recognizes firms based on a combination of factors, both financial and cultural: revenue per lawyer, pro bono commitment, associate satisfaction, racial diversity and gender diversity (the percentage of equity partners who are women), with RPL and pro bono given double weight. Each metric measures Am Law 200 firms’ relative performance—a firm’s score in a given category is based on its ranking among all 200 firms. Each category, as well as the overall score, is based on a 100-point scale.
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That said, the full top 20 firms and their scores are listed at the American Lawyer, but we’ve listed the top 10 firms here to satiate your rankings cravings (with the firms’ total scores noted parenthetically):
- Munger Tolles & Olson (93.3)
- Ropes & Gray (92.1)
- WilmerHale (91.8)
- Morgan Lewis (89.4)
- Orrick (88.0)
- Skadden (87.6)
- Cleary Gottlieb (85.4)
- Akin (84.9)
- Willkie (84.5)
- Gibson Dunn (84.4)
Congratulations to all of the firms that made this year’s Am Law A-List.
The 2024 A-List: Top 20 Firms [American Lawyer]
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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 X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.