We tend to look at the health and stature of Biglaw firms through metrics like profits-per-partner and high-profile engagement tables. But those numbers are self-reported by the firms themselves and, ultimately, self-serving.
What firms should really be interested in is what clients think of them. For Biglaw firms, the clients that matter are corporate counsel 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 2017 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, more than 1,000 in-house lawyers—from nearly 500 companies and 50+ cities—shared with us their evaluations of their companies’ outside law firms. Our survey was direct. We essentially 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.
Litigation Finance: An Innovative Way for Legal Departments to Add Value
The ATL Outside Counsel Rankings are an innovative look—from the clients' perspective—at Biglaw's most trusted and sought-after firms. Increasingly, those clients face enormous challenges aligning legal expenses with business objectives.
Innovative corporate legal departments are exploring litigation financing as a useful tool to help their companies control costs and provide flexibility. A recent Lake Whillans survey of more than 1,000 in-house counsel found that already more than one-quarter of in-house counsel have firsthand experience with litigation finance:
Source: Lake Whillans 2018 survey of over 1,000 in-house and corporate counsel
Their reasons for doing so are various and multi-faceted:
Source: Lake Whillans 2018 survey of over 1,000 in-house and corporate counsel
Outside Counsel:
Top Tier Firms
- Boies, Schiller & Flexner
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Covington & Burling
- Cravath, Swaine & Moore
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Debevoise & Plimpton
- Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
- Goodwin
- Irell & Manella
- Keker, Van Nest & Peters
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Latham & Watkins
- Munger Tolles & Olson
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
- 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
- Clifford Chance
- Cooley
- DLA Piper
- Fenwick & West
- Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson
- Hogan Lovells
- Holland & Knight
- Jenner & Block
- Jones Day
- K&L Gates
- McDermott Will & Emery
- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
- Morrison & Foerster
- Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker
- Ropes & Gray
- Shearman & Sterling
- Sidley Austin
- Vinson & Elkins
- White & Case
- Winston & Strawn
Top Outside Counsel by
Industry
Consumer Products
- Baker McKenzie
- Holland & Knight
- Jenner & Block
- Latham & Watkins
- Morrison & Foerster
- Perkins Coie
- Sidley Austin
- Skadden
- Venable
- White & Case
Energy
- Akin Gump
- Baker McKenzie
- Baker Botts
- Bracewell
- Haynes & Boone
- Jackson Walker
- Norton Rose Fulbright
- Vinson & Elkins
- Weil Gotshal
- Skadden
Media/Entertainment
- Cooley
- Covington & Burling
- Davis Wright Tremaine
- Gibson Dunn
- Greenberg Traurig
- Loeb & Loeb
- Manatt Phelps
- Munger Tolles & Olson
- Weil Gotshal & Manges
- Winston & Strawn
Life Sciences/Health Care
- Cooley
- Goodwin Procter
- Latham & Watkins
- McDermott Will & Emery
- Morrison & Foerster
- Proskauer
- Ropes & Gray
- Skadden
- WilmerHale
- Wilson Sonsini
Finance
- Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft
- Cahill Gordon & Reindell
- Cleary Gottlieb
- Clifford Chance
- Cravath Swaine & Moore
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Debevoise & Plimpton
- Kirkland & Ellis
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
Tech
- Baker McKenzie
- Cooley
- Cleary
- Davis Polk
- Farella Braun
- Fenwick & West
- Morrison & Foerster
- Gibson Dunn
- Goodwin Procter
- Wilson Sonsini
A Significant Majority of In-House Counsel Would Use Litigation Finance Again
Source: Lake Whillans 2018 survey of over 1,000 in-house and corporate counsel
FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE by Industry
Would you use litigation finance again?
Source: Lake Whillans 2018 survey of over 1,000 in-house and corporate counsel
Questions about our rankings?
Contact us at research@abovethelaw.com.
