Rank	Firm	Score
Atlanta
1	Alston & Bird LLP	81.42
2	King & Spalding	81.26
3	Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP	74.00
4	Jones Day	68.11
5	Dentons	62.18
6	Troutman Sanders LLP	61.29
7	Paul Hastings LLP	60.12
8	Greenberg Traurig, LLP	59.42
9	Bryan Cave LLP	57.30
10	Ballard Spahr LLP	45.28
Boston
1	WilmerHale	75.80
2	Ropes & Gray LLP	74.09
3	Goodwin Procter LLP	71.54
4	Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates	67.41
5	Fish & Richardson P.C.	66.91
6	Cooley LLP	65.51
7	Proskauer Rose LLP	62.00
8	Foley Hoag LLP	59.00
9	Choate Hall & Stewart LLP	57.42
10	Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C.	55.63
11	Foley & Lardner LLP	55.19
12	Greenberg Traurig, LLP	54.77
13	Nixon Peabody LLP	52.94
14	Seyfarth Shaw LLP	52.73
15	Sullivan & Worcester LLP	51.66
16	Goulston & Storrs, PC	49.47
17	Brown Rudnick LLP	44.72
18	Duane Morris LLP	42.12
19	Holland & Knight LLP	41.75
20	Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP	40.60
Chicago
1	Kirkland & Ellis LLP	85.00
2	Sidley Austin LLP	83.39
3	Latham & Watkins LLP	81.17
4	Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates	79.75
5	Mayer Brown LLP	74.53
6	Jones Day	73.41
7	Jenner & Block LLP	72.79
8	McDermott Will & Emery LLP	71.67
9	Winston & Strawn LLP	68.42
10	Baker & McKenzie	65.91
11	Ropes & Gray LLP	65.67
12	Perkins Coie LLP	62.60
13	Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP	62.32
14	Greenberg Traurig, LLP	62.29
15	Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP	61.84
16	DLA Piper	59.22
17	Foley & Lardner LLP	57.59
18	Dentons	57.48
19	Seyfarth Shaw LLP	57.44
20	Reed Smith LLP	57.29
21	Bryan Cave LLP	56.14
22	Schiff Hardin LLP	54.28
23	McGuireWoods LLP	53.51
24	Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP	53.10
25	Chapman and Cutler LLP	47.96
Houston
1	Vinson & Elkins LLP	83.78
2	Latham & Watkins LLP	79.45
3	Baker Botts LLP	70.11
4	Susman Godfrey L.L.P.	68.79
5	Norton Rose Fulbright	64.42
6	Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP	63.80
7	Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP	62.96
8	Jones Day	61.92
9	King & Spalding	61.75
10	Andrews Kurth LLP	59.12
Los Angeles
1	Latham & Watkins LLP	84.87
2	Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP	81.95
3	Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates	78.62
4	Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP	78.14
5	Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP	76.53
6	Kirkland & Ellis LLP	75.25
7	O'Melveny & Myers LLP	73.35
8	Irell & Manella LLP	72.57
9	Sidley Austin LLP	71.26
10	Paul Hastings LLP	70.09
11	Morrison & Foerster LLP	66.98
12	Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP	66.01
13	Proskauer Rose LLP	65.13
14	Alston & Bird LLP	64.56
15	Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP	64.47
16	Arnold & Porter LLP	64.06
17	Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP	63.80
18	Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP	62.35
19	Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP	62.21
20	Jones Day	60.99
21	Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP	58.96
22	DLA Piper	58.87
23	Dentons	58.35
24	Winston & Strawn LLP	57.80
25	Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP	57.00
New York
1	Davis Polk & Wardwell	84.62
2	Sullivan & Cromwell LLP	80.58
3	Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP	80.28
4	Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP	79.66
5	Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP	79.09
6	Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP	78.66
7	Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates	77.33
8	Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz	77.14
9	Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP	76.81
10	Debevoise & Plimpton LLP	75.27
11	Kirkland & Ellis	74.20
12	Latham & Watkins LLP	73.65
13	Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP	73.32
14	Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP	70.97
15	Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP	69.75
16	Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP	68.78
17	Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP	67.61
18	WilmerHale	66.71
19	Covington & Burling LLP	66.49
20	Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP	65.40
21	White & Case LLP	65.36
22	Sidley Austin LLP	64.76
23	Jones Day	63.99
24	Shearman & Sterling LLP	63.96
25	O'Melveny & Myers LLP	62.98
Philadelphia
1	Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP	77.08
2	Baker & Hostetler LLP	72.30
3	Dechert LLP	72.00
4	Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP	63.82
5	Reed Smith LLP	63.16
6	Pepper Hamilton LLP	62.16
7	Duane Morris LLP	60.26
8	Ballard Spahr LLP	59.97
9	Blank Rome LLP	57.35
10	Fox Rothschild LLP	52.44
San Francisco
1	Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP	76.28
2	Kirkland & Ellis LLP	76.03
3	Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP	75.77
4	Latham & Watkins LLP	74.08
5	Covington & Burling LLP	73.41
6	Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati	71.84
TIE7	Cooley LLP	70.18
TIE7	Morrison & Foerster LLP	70.18
8	Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP	70.00
9	Keker & Van Nest LLP	66.91
10	Sidley Austin LLP	66.74
11	Jones Day	65.45
12	Paul Hastings LLP	65.28
13	O'Melveny & Myers LLP	64.88
14	Ropes & Gray LLP	64.61
15	Fenwick & West LLP	62.55
16	Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP	61.72
17	Reed Smith LLP	60.24
18	Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP	59.98
19	Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP	57.49
20	Seyfarth Shaw LLP	57.22
21	Baker & McKenzie	53.80
22	Winston & Strawn LLP	53.45
23	Duane Morris LLP	50.40
24	Dentons	49.76
25	Farella Braun + Martel LLP	49.04
Silicon Valley
1	Davis Polk & Wardwell	78.11
2	Cooley LLP	77.53
3	Latham & Watkins LLP	77.31
4	Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates	74.11
5	Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati	73.34
6	Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP	70.71
7	Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP	70.58
8	Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP	70.56
9	Morrison & Foerster LLP	70.13
10	Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP	69.05
Washington, DC
1	Covington & Burling LLP	79.89
2	Kirkland & Ellis LLP	78.67
3	WilmerHale	77.17
4	Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP	75.62
5	Williams & Connolly LLP	75.09
6	Sidley Austin LLP	74.93
7	Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP	74.20
8	Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates	73.42
9	Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP	72.90
10	Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP	72.31
11	Jones Day	70.82
12	Arnold & Porter LLP	70.38
13	Latham & Watkins LLP	70.22
14	Hogan Lovells US LLP	69.28
15	Paul Hastings LLP	68.85
16	Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP	68.63
17	O'Melveny & Myers LLP	67.54
18	Morrison & Foerster LLP	66.47
19	White & Case LLP	66.08
20	Jenner & Block LLP	65.76
21	Ropes & Gray LLP	65.34
22	Mayer Brown LLP	65.07
23	Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati	63.96
24	Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP	63.85
25	Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP	63.72

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Over the summer, we conducted the ATL Law Firm Reputation Survey, asking those of you working in Biglaw to rate your peers and competitors. Included in these rankings were market-specific questions, inquiring about both the reputation of firms in each survey participant's city as well as each firm's desirability as a potential employer. In creating the survey, we limited our city-specific firm choices to offices with at least 50 lawyers. Our office rankings include the following markets: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Washington, DC.

Firms are rated on a scale with 100 possible points:

• Market-specific reputation survey*
  “Strength and quality of practice”: 35%
  “Potential employer”: 15%
• Leverage
  Ratio of equity partners to all other attorneys: 5%
• Growth/decay
  % change in headcount since 2010: 5%
• Percentage of women partners: 5%
• Partnership prospects
  % of all non-partners who made partner in the most recent promotion cycle: 5%**
• Insider satisfaction
  ATL Insider Survey: 5%
• Compensation rating: 25%***

Clearly, we are making value judgments in choosing and assigning weight to these metrics. For example, we are rewarding firms for maintaining low leverage, or for offering a relatively better chance for incoming associates to eventually ascend to partnership.

Also, to be sure, law firms are not homogenous in their approaches to partnership tracks or compensation structures or other aspects that we have sought to measure here, but we have done our best to account for these differences and create a formula that allows for meaningful comparisons.

The perfect "ATL score" is 100. Each firm is awarded a maximum number of points based on the weight of each metric (a maximum of 25 points for highest compensation rating, 5 points for highest growth headcount, etc.). The points are awarded on a sliding scale from highest to lowest. (For certain categories, firms were placed into tiers and points were apportioned accordingly.) Those points add up to the total ATL score seen on the rankings table.

* We limited our city-specific firm choices to offices with at least 50 lawyers. Survey conducted in partnership with Kinney Recruiting.
** Promotion data courtesy of NavForward.
*** Compensation rating accounts for the following 4 factors: first-year salary, recent track record for bonuses, profits per partner (as reported to Am Law), and survey data.

 

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