Above the Law's Outside Counsel Rankings: Who You Gonna Call?

For the second year, Above the Law asked in-house counsel what they thought of their outside law firms. Of course, there are a multitude of ways of rating and ranking law firms, from deal tables to “profits-per-partner” to “prestige.” But there is no more crucial issue to firms than what clients — or potential clients — think of them. For Biglaw firms, the clients that truly matter are GCs and legal departments at America’s top companies.

Who do in-house counsel call when they need legal help? Who do they call when their company can’t afford to lose? The Above the Law Outside Counsel Rankings have been generated exclusively from surveys to in-house counsel at top companies. Their opinion is a true measure of law firm “prestige,” — the kind that leads directly to business.

Methodology

In late 2018 and through January of this year, we reached out to corporate counsel and in-house attorneys at thousands of companies, ranging from small and medium-sized private companies to large public corporations. Ultimately, roughly 1,000 in-house lawyers — from nearly 500 companies and over 40 cities — shared with us their evaluations of their companies’ outside law firms. Our survey was direct. We asked counsel two simple questions: 1.) “Which law firms does your company engage for legal services?” and 2.) “Please indicate the highest level legal work for which your company will engage the particular firm(s).” The “levels” of work were defined along a four-point scale:

  • Cost-efficient, bulk tasks (1)
  • Routine matters (2)
  • High-value, complex matters (3)
  • “Bet-the-company” matters (4)

Because of the “blunt instrument” nature of our question, we felt the resultant ratings were inapt for the purposes of an ordinal ranking. Thus, our first and second tiers comprise the 50 firms with the highest mean ratings based on this scale. Only firms with a minimum threshold number of ratings — as adjusted for firm size — were eligible for inclusion.

Outside Counsel:
Top Tier Firms

  • Boies, Schiller & Flexner
  • Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
  • Cooley
  • Covington & Burling
  • Cravath, Swaine & Moore
  • Davis Polk & Wardwell
  • Debevoise & Plimpton
  • Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
  • Irell & Manella
  • Keker, Van Nest & Peters
  • Kellogg Hansen
  • Kirkland & Ellis
  • Latham & Watkins
  • Paul, Weiss
  • Perkins Coie
  • Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
  • Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
  • Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
  • Sullivan & Cromwell
  • Susman Godfrey
  • Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
  • Weil, Gotshal & Manges
  • Williams & Connolly
  • Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr
  • Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Outside Counsel:
Second Tier Firms

  • Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
  • Alston & Bird
  • Arnold & Porter
  • Baker Botts
  • Baker McKenzie
  • Cadwalader
  • Cahill Gordon
  • Clifford Chance
  • DLA Piper
  • Fenwick & West
  • Freshfields
  • Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson
  • Goodwin Procter
  • Jenner & Block
  • Jones Day
  • K&L Gates
  • Mayer Brown
  • Milbank Tweed
  • Morrison & Foerster
  • Munger Tolles
  • O’Melveny & Myers
  • Proskauer
  • Ropes & Gray
  • Sidley Austin
  • White & Case

Top Outside Counsel by
Industry

Consumer Products

  • Baker McKenzie
  • Fenwick & West*
  • Hogan Lovells*
  • Holland & Knight
  • Jenner & Block
  • Latham & Watkins
  • Morrison & Foerster
  • Skadden
  • Venable
  • White & Case

Energy

  • Akin Gump
  • Baker Botts
  • Bracewell
  • Gibson Dunn*
  • Haynes & Boone
  • Jackson Walker
  • Latham & Watkins*
  • Norton Rose Fulbright
  • Vinson & Elkins
  • Weil Gotshal

Media / Entertainment

  • Davis Polk*
  • Davis Wright Tremaine
  • Gibson Dunn
  • Kirkland & Ellis*
  • Loeb & Loeb
  • Manatt Phelps
  • Munger Tolles & Olson
  • O’Melveny & Myers*
  • Paul Weiss*
  • Weil Gotshal & Manges

Life Sciences / Healthcare

  • Cooley
  • Goodwin Procter
  • King & Spalding*
  • Latham & Watkins
  • McDermott Will & Emery
  • Ropes & Gray
  • Skadden
  • Weil Gotshal*
  • White & Case*
  • Wilson Sonsini

Finance

  • Cahill Gordon & Reindell
  • Cleary Gottlieb
  • Cravath Swaine & Moore
  • Davis Polk & Wardwell
  • Debevoise & Plimpton
  • Kirkland & Ellis
  • Simpson Thacher*
  • Sullivan & Cromwell
  • Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
  • Weil Gotshal*

Tech

  • Cooley
  • Cleary Gottlieb
  • Davis Polk
  • Farella Braun
  • Fenwick & West
  • Morrison & Foerster
  • Orrick*
  • Gibson Dunn
  • Goodwin Procter
  • Wilson Sonsini

Stay tuned for the release of the Organization Rankings in the coming weeks.

Questions about our rankings?

Contact us at [email protected].