As we complete the rollout of our 2025 Outside Counsel Rankings, we focus this week on the law firms rated highest by in-house counsel at specific types of organizations.
As a reminder, our survey asked more than 500 in-house attorneys to tell us which firms their organization engages for legal services and indicate the highest level of legal work for which they engage the firms. The levels of work were defined along a four-point scale:
- Cost-efficient, bulk tasks
- Routine matters
- High-value, complex matters
- “Bet-the-company” matters
The ratings for each firm were averaged and the law firms with the highest scores made it into our list of the Top Outside Counsel. We also drew up industry-specific rankings based on the sectors represented by the in-house lawyers surveyed.
For our organization rankings, we segmented the responses based on the type of organization in which the respondents work to compile lists of the highest-rated firms among eight groups:
- Fortune 250 Companies
- Fortune 500 Companies
- Fortune 1000 Companies
- Other Public Companies
- Large Private Companies (with 1,000+ employees)
- Midsize Private Companies (with 100-1,000 employees)
- Small Private Companies (with fewer than 100 employees)
- Nonprofit Institutions
The firm that appears most frequently across types of organizations is Sidley Austin, which ranks in six different categories. Five other firms feature on at least three lists:
- Sidley Austin (6): Fortune 500, Fortune 1000, Other Public, Large Private, Midsize Private, Small Private
- Kirkland & Ellis (4): Fortune 1000, Large Private, Midsize Private, Small Private
- Latham & Watkins (4): Fortune 250, Other Public, Large Private, Midsize Private
- Cooley (3): Other Public, Small Private, Nonprofit Institutions
- DLA Piper (3): Fortune 250, Fortune 1000, Large Private
- Morgan Lewis (3): Fortune 250, Fortune 500, Nonprofit Institutions
For the complete lists of firms, check out the full organization rankings here.
