The Am Law 200
/
What It Is: The second tier of top performers from annual survey of law firms nationwide, with focus on key financial metrics: gross revenue, revenue per lawyer, and profits per partner. Separate rankings are available for each metric, as well as an overall performance ranking.
Why It Matters To You: While the Am Law 100 focuses on nationwide firms, the Am Law 200 gives numbers on many regional powerhouses. These are often up-and-coming law firms that may reach the Am Law 100, become merger or acquisition targets, or remain regional players. In addition to showing individual firms’ rise and fall, the Am Law 200 reveals many trends in law firm performance that have direct and indirect impact on legal hiring, compensation, and opportunities for advancement.
Considerations: Again, law firms are very aware of this ranking, and do what they can to influence their data. Some industry insiders have questioned whether such focus on these four financial metrics (which have changed the business of law) is healthy for law firms or for the legal industry.
Created By: The American Lawyer
Key Sample Findings
- 2018 Rankings: Although there was a reversal with gains countering last year's decline, this masked some weaknesses that may be creating a "hollow middle."
- Industry trends (2018) are favoring the Am Law 1oo over the Am Law 200 firms.
- The 'Hollow Middle' (2017): Clients are willing to pay high rates for high-end work and seek bargain-basement prices for commodity work, but there is less of an appetite for anything in between, the Am Law 200 results show.
- By the Numbers: The analysis of the Am Law 200 results, broken out into some fascinating data points. Previous years: 2017
Links
You May Also Be Interested In
- Behind the Numbers: The editors crunch the numbers and talk about what this year's results mean.
- BigLaw in Trouble?: Reports of Biglaw's death are greatly exaggerated.
