Move Over Wachtell, There's A New Firm At The Top -- Vault Top 100 Firms (2017)
There's a new most prestigious firm in town.
The big news from last year’s vault Top 100 rankings was that there was no big news. The rankings, particularly at the top, remained pretty much the same with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz claiming the top spot for the thirteenth year in a row. But all that has changed, and there’s a new most prestigious firm in town: Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
Vault notes that for close watchers of the rankings, it was only a matter of time until Cravath took over that number 1 ranking:
“Cravath has been nipping at Wachtell’s heels for the top spot for the last few years,” said Matt Moody, Vault’s Senior Law Editor. “Perhaps the recent slowdown in deal work is what pushed Cravath over the top. Although they are both very well regarded in M&A and litigation work, Cravath, which is roughly twice the size of Wachtell, has a slightly broader array of highly-ranked practice areas.”
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Or should we say re-took the number 1 ranking. Way back in 2003, before Wachtell began its epic run, Cravath held the top spot.
Though the survey closed in April, well before Cravath announced its associate raises and kicked off an industry-wide move to join the MoneyLaw club, Cravath’s influential move is likely to help perpetuate the firm’s prestige in the future. And despite epic bonuses, Wachtell still has not announced any change to its base salary scale, which may impact perceptions of the firm’s prestigiousness going forward.
There are other big changes to the top 10. Latham & Watkins moved up an impressive three slots to number 7. Gibson Dunn & Crutcher made it to the promised land of the top 10, while Weil Gotshal & Manges fell out of the top 10, now ranked at number 11.
Here are the top 10:
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1. Cravath, Swaine & Moore (+1)
2. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (-1)
3. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (no change)
4. Sullivan & Cromwell (no change)
5. Davis Polk & Wardwell (no change)
6. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (no change)
7. Latham & Watkins (+3)
8. Kirkland & Ellis (-1)
9. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton (-1)
10. Gibson Dunn & Crutcher (+1)
There were also noteworthy moves outside of the Top 10. Boies, Schiller & Flexner fell 4 spots to 16. Dentons is ranked #68, which is a 12-spot climb from last year, which was, in turn, nine spots ahead of where it was the year before that, bringing it closer to the prestige levels once held by legacy firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. Litigation boutique Susman Godfrey also made an impressive leap, going from unranked last year to 53 this year. Indeed, five firms are newly ranked this year, and five drop out of the rankings entirely.
Winners that entered the Top 100:
Susman Godfrey (53); Keker & Van Nest (90); Fox Rothschild (94); Littler Mendelson (96); and Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel (97)
Losers that dropped from the Top 100:
Dorsey & Whitney; Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton; Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner; Manatt, Phelps & Phillips; and Troutman Sanders
Congrats to all the firms that made the list; you’re the most prestigious in the land.
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Vault Law 100 [Vault]
Vault’s Top 100 Law Firms for 2017 [Vault]
Earlier: 2016 Vault Law Firm Rankings: Self-Perpetuating Prestige
2015 Vault Law Firm Rankings: The Nation’s 100 Most Prestigious Law Firms
2014 Vault Law Firm Rankings: Which Firm Is The Most Prestigious In The Land?
Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).
