The Am Law 100

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The Am Law 100

What It Is: Top 100 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 performer ranking.

Why It Matters To You: In addition to showing individual firms’ rise and fall, the Am Law 100 reveals many trends in law firm performance that have direct and indirect impact on legal hiring, compensation, and opportunities for advancement.

Considerations: 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: American Lawyer

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The Am Law 200

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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

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The Global 100

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The Global 100

What It Is: Worldwide annual survey of law firms, 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: Like many other businesses, law firms are becoming more global. The Global 100 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

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The NLJ 500

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The NLJ 500

What It Is: Annual survey of the nation’s largest law firms.

Why It Matters To You: In addition to showing individual firms’ rise and fall, the ranking reveals many trends in law firm performance that have direct and indirect impact on legal hiring, compensation, and opportunities for advancement.

Considerations: This survey only considers size, measured by average number of full-time equivalent attorneys.

Created By: The American Lawyer

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U.S. News & World Reports Best Law Firms

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U.S. News & World Reports Best Law Firms

What It Is: Ranks law firms by practice area, considering factors such as expertise, responsiveness, understanding of a business and its needs, cost-effectiveness, civility, and integrity.

Why It Matters To You: If you know what practice areas interest you, you can check out this list to see what firms excel in them. The ranking is also easily sortable by state and/or city. Also take a look at the profiles of lawyers at these firms to get a sense of what needs to be done to succeed on these career paths.

Considerations: Remember no list is perfect. Large firms have more clients and more clout. As with many of these lists, large firms are over-represented while small firms and boutiques are under-represented. There are plenty of excellent lawyers doing excellent work in excellent firms that—because of the way rankings are constructed—may never appear on these lists.

Created By: U.S. News & World Reports

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Vault Best Law Firms for Diversity

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Vault Best Law Firms for Diversity

What It Is: This ranking is based on each firm associates’ ranking of how the firm does at creating, maintaining, and fostering a diverse workforce.

Why It Matters To You: Associates rate their own firms on how effective they are at fostering a diverse working environment.

Considerations: The ranking includes separate categories for diversity as it relates to minorities, women, LGBT individuals, individuals with disabilities, and military veterans. The formula weighs the five categories evenly for their overall ranking.


Created By: Vault

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Vault Best Law Firms in Each Practice Area

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Vault Best Law Firms in Each Practice Area

What It Is: Yearly rankings of firms by practice areas ranging from Antitrust to Environmental Law to IP Boutiques and everything in between.

Why It Matters To You: These firms were voted strongest in each practice area by associates working in that area at peer firms.

Considerations: To reach their rankings, associates are invited to vote for up to three firms in their practice area, but can’t nominate their own. It is important to consider that this is the only criteria considered in the ranking. It is also useful to note there is a significant backlog of years and it is easy to look at compare which have firms have risen and fallen over the years.

Created By: Vault

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Vault Best Law Firms in Each U.S. Region

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Vault Best Law Firms in Each U.S. Region

What It Is: Yearly ranking of firms by regions, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Mountain States, New York, Pacific Northwest, Southern California, Texas, and Washington, D.C.

Why It Matters To You: Associates rate the reputations of peer firms in their own region. These rankings reveal the most prestigious law firms by region across the U.S.

Considerations: Each regional ranking is based on associates who actually work in that region. There is a significant backlog of years in order to easily trace the rise and fall of various regional law firms and includes more specific regions than a lot of the other rankings that either focus solely on metropolises or combine large swaths of the country into neat categories.


Created by: Vault

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Vault Best Law Firms to Work For

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Vault Best Law Firms to Work For

What It Is: Annual ranking of U.S. law firms, rated on lawyer experience by law firm associates worldwide.

Why It Matters To You: Rankings are calculated for overall quality of life, weighing factors like satisfaction; firm culture; hours; compensation; substantive work; business outlook; career outlook; associate/partner relations; transparency; formal and informal training; pro bono; and overall diversity. The ranking is also easily sortable by these factors so you can choose which qualities matter most.

Considerations: Potential a great overview and apples-to-apples comparison of what’s it’s actually like to work there.

Created By: The Vault

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Vault Best Midsize Law Firms to Work For

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Vault Best Midsize Law Firms to Work For

What It Is: This is a ranking of the leading midsize firms based on what associates say their work life is really like.

Why It Matters To You: Easily sortable by a variety of factors ranging from an overall ranking to rankings based on compensation, diversity, firm culture, hours, quality of work, and satisfaction.

Considerations: Associates are asked to rank their own firm on a 1-to-10 scale for each of several quality of life categories. Since these rankings are based on perceptions of attorneys who work at each for each firm, it is important to note that some of them may be biased in favor (or against) their firms.


Created by: Vault

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Vault Best Summer Associate Programs

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Vault Best Summer Associate Programs

What It Is: This is a ranking of best summer associate programs based on the associates’ experiences.

Why It Matters To You: Junior lawyers look back on their experiences as summer associates to rate how much fun the programs were and how effectively they prepared them for life as practicing attorneys. Decide which values matter most to you in a summer associate program.

Considerations: Junior associates are asked to provide rankings on a 1-10 scale for how well the summer program prepared the associate for life at the firm and how fun the summer associate program was. Junior associates often have limited experiences beyond their current firms and thus may not have as strong a basis for comparison.

Created By: Vault

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Vault Law 100

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Vault Law 100

What It Is: Annual ranking of U.S. law firms, rated on prestige by some 18,000 (give or take) associates worldwide.

Why It Matters To You: In addition to revealing the changing fortunes of law firms, the Vault Law 100 shows trends in what law firm associates think of BigLaw firms.

Considerations: This survey focuses on the opinions of law firm associates—not law firm partners or clients—who may not have sufficient information to make judgments about firms prestige in the marketplace. 

Created By: Vault

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Vault Top 150 Under 150

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Vault Top 150 Under 150

What It Is: List of leading midsize law firms with fewer than 150 attorneys.

Why It Matters To You: Check this out if you like the idea of being a big fish in a small pond, work-life balance, and a better chance at making partner.

Considerations: Easily sorted by practice areas and locations, although the firms are not ranked. Prioritizes leading law firms with fewer attorneys.

Created By: Vault 

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Women Partner Watch

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Women Partner Watch

What It Is: An annual firm-by-firm look at the percentage of women elected partner at Am Law 100 and 200 firms.

Why It Matters To You: This survey lets you know what progress law firms are making in terms of gender equity in hiring.

Considerations: Retention and satisfaction of these women partners might not be reflected in the sheer numbers. The survey was retired in 2014.

Created By: The American Lawyer

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