Angela Vorpahl: You hear all about BigLaw and the top ranked law firms in the country,
but who are these firms?
How is that ranking even determined?
And are they as big a deal as they're made out to be?
Angela Vorpahl: Hey guys, I'm Angela Vorpahl.
If you're new to the channel, welcome, welcome, welcome, so happy to have you.
In this video I'm going to give you guys a breakdown of the top 100 law firms in the
United States, an explanation of how that ranking is reached, and then stayed tuned
until the end for some insights into whether or not working for one is really something
you should even be going after.
Angela Vorpahl: But before we get started, be sure to hit that subscribe button, tap
that notification bell so that you'll be notified every time we release a new video every single
Tuesday.
Let's dive in.
Angela Vorpahl: There are two main sources for the top 100 US law firms, the Am Law 100
and the Vault 100.
The Am Law 100 is the list of the top 100 law firms in the US by gross revenue.
For 2019 you can see the top 10 law firms are Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Baker
McKenzie, DLA Piper, Skadden, Sidley, Hogan Lovalls, Morgan Lewis, Jones Day, and White
& Case.
Angela Vorpahl: The Vault 100 is the list of the top 100 US law firms as determined
by the prestige, or industry reputation, based on scores from those in the legal industry.
For example, this past year almost 20,000 law firm associates were asked to rate law
firms on a scale of one to 10 based on prestige.
Survey respondents were not allowed to rate their own law firms, and were asked to rate
only those law firms with which they were familiar.
And the top law firms on that list are different than the Am Law 100, so you see Cravath; Wachtell;
Skadden; Sullivan & Cromwell; Latham & Watkins; Davis Polk; Simpson Thatcher; Kirkland & Ellis;
Gibson, Dunn; and Paul, Weiss.
Angela Vorpahl: Another cool feature of the Vault 100 rankings is that they break down
the top 100 law firms by other features, so the top 100 law firms by region, by practice
area, and best law firms to work for, for example.
That's really helpful so that you can look where you are in law school, what market you're
looking to work in, and see what the top law firms are in that market area, because those
can be very different from the top 100 law firms nationwide.
A perfect example of this is that when I was in law school in Dallas, I had never even
heard of Cravath, which is ranked number one by prestige, but that makes sense because
they only have offices in New York.
So if I had wanted to stay at work in Dallas, Cravath wouldn't have even been an option
for me.
Angela Vorpahl: A newcomer to the law firm ranking game is Above the Law with their Above
the Law Power 100.
Now Above the Law, or ATL, is a really well known name for legal industry news, but hasn't
done rankings for very long, just since 2015.
And the Above the Law methodology is much more nuanced.
They say that they blend objective data points like changes in head count over time, promotional
prospects, number of women partners, with more subjective feedback from over 20,000
associates, partners and other members of the legal community.
The goal that they state for their ranking is to get a more complete picture of each
firm, encompassing employee satisfaction, compensation, reputation, desirability as
an employer, and data-driven measures of firm growth.
And so the top 10 law firms for 2018, which is the most recent year available, is Wachtell;
Williams & Connolly; Quinn, Emanuel; Davis Polk; Covington & Burling; Simpson Thatcher;
Cravath; Kirkland & Ellis; Debevoise & Plimpton; and Latham & Watkins.
Some very similar names to the other list, and some newcomers.
Angela Vorpahl: For all three sources, the Am Law 100, the Vault 100, and the Above the
Law Power 100, I'm going to link the top 100 law firms by each source in the description
below, so that you guys can go check those out.
The next question is, are the top 100 ranked US law firms the only BigLaw law firms in
the United States?
And the answer to that is no.
BigLaw is a much more subjective term.
There is no official industry definition for it.
Generally speaking, when people refer to BigLaw, they're referring to law firms that paid market
rate salaries and bonuses, and require market rate billable hours.
And so yes, that's going to include those top 100 law firms, but that's going to include
a whole lot of other law firms as well, including smaller boutique type law firms that can sometimes
even out pay market salaries and bonuses, and out require the market yearly billable
hours.
Angela Vorpahl: Now you know who the big players in the US legal market are, who those top
100 rank law firms are, what BigLaw law firm criteria really means.
Then the next question is, do you want to work at a BigLaw law firm?
Should you aspire to work at one of these places?
That's going to be a very personal decision for each individual.
But there are some pretty consistent advantages and disadvantages to working in BigLaw that
you're going to experience regardless of where you go.
The advantages are; name recognition, so people in the legal industry are going to know who
that law firm is, they're going to know that they're well respected and that they're prestigious,
and that is going to give you clout in your professional career.
Similarly, it's going to give you CV strengths.
So regardless of where you go afterwards, you're always going to have working for that
law firm on your CV, and that's going to help you with lateral opportunities to other law
firms, or even to in house positions, government positions, nonprofit positions, things like
that.
And third, and hugely for most people, is it's going to give you a big paycheck.
Angela Vorpahl: The disadvantages are just as well known, and number one is going to
be the long hours.
I actually made a video, that I'll link in the description below, detailing not only
the average billable hours but also how many hours in the office that translates into.
So you guys can see what it means to work at a top rate law firm or a BigLaw firm in
terms of day to day work and time in the office.
Then the second disadvantage is going to be the kind of work you're doing.
Generally speaking, if you work at a BigLaw firm and one of these top ranked law firms
the first couple of years, regardless of what practice area you're in, is going to be more
menial work, because there are going to be a lot of other associates and there's going
to be a trickled down job association work association system.
As compared to a smaller law firm, for example, where they're going to have fewer attorneys,
and so it's going to be more of an all hands on deck approach.
You're probably going to have better, more substantive experience early on because just
by sheer numbers they're going to need your help and you're going to be learning by doing.
Whereas in a bigger law firm or a top ranked law firm, you're generally going to have to
work the grind for a couple of years before you're given those more substantive opportunities.
Angela Vorpahl: That's it for this video.
If you guys enjoyed it, let me know by giving a big thumbs up and commenting "Tribe on"
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That's it for this week.
I will see you guys next week in the next video.
Thanks so much for watching and have a great week.
Bye.