Top Most Prestigious Firms

CotoDeCasa · November 12, 2006, 7:13pm

Law Firms:

Featured Employers

From Vault

<a href=“http://www.vault.com/nr/lawrankings.jsp?law2004=2&top100=2&ch_id=242[/url]”>http://www.vault.com/nr/lawrankings.jsp?law2004=2&top100=2&ch_id=242</a>
1
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
2
8.912
New York, NY

2
Cravath, Swaine & Moore
1
8.850
New York, NY

3
Sullivan & Cromwell
3
8.444
New York, NY

4
Davis Polk & Wardwell
5
8.209
New York, NY

5
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates
4
8.143
New York, NY

6
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
6
7.844
New York, NY

7
Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton
7
7.731
New York, NY

8
Covington & Burling
8
7.513
Washington, DC

9
Latham & Watkins
9
7.503
Los Angeles, CA

10
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
10
7.438
New York, NY

11
Kirkland & Ellis
12
7.420
Chicago, IL

12
Shearman & Sterling
13
7.300
New York, NY

13
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
14
7.209
New York, NY

14
Williams & Connolly LLP
11
7.205
Washington, DC

15
Debevoise & Plimpton
17
7.157
New York, NY

16
Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP
16
7.090
Chicago, IL

17
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
18
7.058
Los Angeles, CA

18
Arnold & Porter
19
7.006
Washington, DC

19
Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering
15
6.942
Washington, DC

20
White & Case LLP
20
6.892
New York, NY

Law Firms:

Featured Employers

1 - 20 21 - 40 41 - 60 61 - 80 81 - 100

2004
RANK
LAW FIRM
2003
RANK
PRESTIGE
SCORE
LARGEST OFFICE

21
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
22
6.860
Los Angeles, CA

22
Jones Day
21
6.857
Cleveland, OH

23
Hale and Dorr LLP
23
6.832
Boston, MA

24
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP
27
6.689
New York, NY

25
Ropes & Gray
28
6.660
Boston, MA

26
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
26
6.647
New York, NY

27
Morrison & Foerster LLP
24
6.595
San Francisco, CA

28
Dewey Ballantine LLP
29
6.508
New York, NY

29
Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP
34
6.487
Chicago, IL

30
Hogan & Hartson L.L.P.
30
6.399
Washington, DC

31
Willkie Farr & Gallagher
35
6.327
New York, NY

32
Clifford Chance LLP
25
6.283
New York, NY

33
Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP
33
6.266
Armonk, NY

34
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P.
36
6.252
Washington, DC

35
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft
40
6.230
New York, NY

36
King & Spalding
32
6.224
Atlanta, GA

37
Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP
42
6.162
Los Angeles, CA

38
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
41
6.121
San Francisco, CA

39
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
48
6.119
Philadelphia, PA

40
Winston & Strawn LLP
37
6.073
Chicago, IL

CotoDeCasa · November 12, 2006, 7:31pm

<a href=“http://www.calicocat.com/2004/08/law-school-big-lie.html[/url]”>http://www.calicocat.com/2004/08/law-school-big-lie.html</a>

This is a good article.

system · November 12, 2006, 8:00pm

this sounds dubious to me. doesn’t “everyone know” that a lot of lawyers hate their jobs?

CotoDeCasa · November 12, 2006, 9:03pm

SF big law

CLASS YEAR BASE PRODUCTIVITY BONUS @ 2100

1st Year 2006 $135,000 $15,000

1st Year 2005 $135,000 $15,000

2nd Year 2004 $145,000 $20,000

3rd Year 2003 $155,000 $22,500

4th Year 2002 $170,000 $25,000

5th Year 2001 $190,000 $25,000

6th Year 2000 $200,000 $30,000

7th Year 1999 $210,000 $30,000

8th Year 1998 $220,000 $30,000

CotoDeCasa · November 12, 2006, 9:24pm

<a href=“Top 50 firmshire most from big names | National Law Journal”>http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1126256708738</a>

Even Harvard L-S, less than 1/3 got jobs at top 50

WHERE THE TOP 50 FIRMS HIRED FROM
Law school Associates hired in 2005 2004 J.D.s Percentage hired at top 50 firm

Columbia Law School 151 397 38%

Northwestern University School of Law 82 224 37%

University of Pennsylvania Law School 91 249 37%

University of Chicago Law School 69 191 36%

Stanford Law School 57 177 32%

Cornell Law School 59 186 32%

New York University School of Law 137 439 31%

Harvard Law School 166 551 30%

University of Virginia School of Law 103 359 29%

Duke Law School 61 237 26%

Yale Law School 46 183 25%

University of Michigan Law School 87 387 22%

University of California, Berkeley School of Law 72 322 22%

Georgetown University Law Center 149 687 22%

Vanderbilt Univeristy Law School 38 195 19%

University of Texas School of Law 88 466 19%

University of Illinois College of Law 39 214 18%

University of California at Los Angeles School of Law 48 328 15%

Univeristy of Notre Dame Law School 24 166 14%

Boston University School of Law 33 233 14%

firewalker · November 12, 2006, 9:45pm

Im liking those numbers. :)

unbelievablem · November 12, 2006, 10:24pm

the numbers in the article may be a little deceiving in this regard since many graduates at top law schools go to judicial clerkships straight out of law school. a more relevant percentage would probably be the percentage of those graduates entering private practice who end up at top firms. once you deduct those going to judicial clerkships, these percentages may end up representing a fairly large percentage of the remaining graduates.

sallyawp · November 13, 2006, 8:52am

Actually, law school graduates heading into practice areas other than litigation (in particular, corporate practice as practiced in the top law firms listed above from the Vault survey), do not often take clerkships before beginning to work at these law firms.

unbelievablem · November 13, 2006, 10:26am

sally- the point of my comment was to respond to the implication that relatively low percentages from these top schools were getting jobs at these top firms – perhaps it was not that poster’s intent, but i viewed what he/she was saying as indicating that even at the top schools, getting a position at one of these firms was fairly difficult – it ie, well less than 50%.

my point was that if you actually looked at the graduates choosing that career path at graduation, the percentage would be much much higher.

also, even if those going to clerkships represent those who eventually intend to go into litigation, many of those ultimately end up doing litigation at such top firms immediately after their clerkships (at least that was the experience of many people i knew who clerked – and they were heavily recruited by the top firms for such post-clerkship jobs). and they can represent a large percentage of the graduating students at the very top law schools.

the focus of the article quoted seemed to be the issue of where top firms hire from. the statement that:

seemed to try to flip this to a focus on where the top law schools grads are getting their jobs – and without taking into account the career paths of those who first go into clerkships before heading to law firms, i don’t think you get an accurate picture of that (which is not what the article seems to be trying to do anyway).

CotoDeCasa · November 13, 2006, 4:08pm

<a href=“http://www.summerassociate.com/[/url]”>http://www.summerassociate.com/</a>

Check this site. It is not unusual that HLS kids got rejected from
top 200 instead of top 50.

unbelievablem · November 13, 2006, 6:08pm

i am not really sure what you are trying to show by the citations you list here.

not every HLS or YLS student will get a job offer from every top firm with which they interview. some will get more job offers than others. but the fact that “it is not unusual that HLS kids got rejected” from top firms does not mean that students from HLS or YLS who wanted to work at some top firm were unable to do so – perhaps some were unable to – i don’t know, but you certainly can’t tell from the data you have cited thus far.

you really have to be careful about drawing generalized conclusions from limited stats or data.

CotoDeCasa · November 14, 2006, 1:12am

Best 20 to to work for

RANK
FIRM
SCORE 2006
RANK
1
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, L.L.P.
8.288
1

2
Morrison & Foerster LLP
8.242
8

3
Hogan & Hartson LLP
8.216
19

4
Dickstein Shapiro LLP
8.149
NR

5
Cooley Godward LLP
8.132
11

6
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
8.12
9

7
Jenkens & Gilchrist, PC
8.098
7

8
Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP
8.077
NR

9
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP
8.059
NR

10
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
8.038
NR

11
Ropes & Gray LLP
8.032
12

12 (tie)
Latham & Watkins LLP
8.029
20 (tie)

12 (tie)
Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
8.029
16

12 (tie)
Winston & Strawn LLP
8.029
3

13
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP
7.991
10

14
Irell & Manella LLP
7.956
NR

15
McKee Nelson LLP
7.949
NR

16
Davis Polk & Wardwell
7.943
4

17
Fish & Richardson P.C.
7.942
20 (tie)

18
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
7.935
NR

19
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
7.927
NR

20
Vinson & Elkins L.L.P.
7.921
NR

jonri · November 14, 2006, 1:21am

A lot of people who graduate from top law schools don’t want to work for large law firms-- at least straight out of school. Believe it or not, some folks go into government, e.g., the Department of Justice Honors Program, or work for non-profits. Some become DAs or public defenders. Some become academics. Some go into JAG. Of course, as unbelievablem said, there are many who clerk.

calipharius · November 14, 2006, 4:00am

Harvard, for example, sends 25% of its class on to judicial clerkships, and only 65% to private practice. At Columbia, 14% of the graduating class received judicial clerkships, with a whopping 79% joining law firms (class of 2005).

<a href=“http://www.law.harvard.edu/ocs/employers/student_statistics.htm[/url]”>http://www.law.harvard.edu/ocs/employers/student_statistics.htm</a>

<a href=“http://www.law.columbia.edu/jd_applicants/aboutcls/careerservices[/url]”>http://www.law.columbia.edu/jd_applicants/aboutcls/careerservices</a>

CotoDeCasa · November 14, 2006, 9:08am

HLS

100-25=75
30/0.75=40 Only 40% got jobs from 50

CLS

100-14=86
38/0.86=44 Only 44% got jobs from top 50

unbelievablem · November 14, 2006, 10:05am

actually, i would think a more relevant analysis might be:

HLS - 25% clerkship + 30% top law firm = 55% at top prestigious jobs
CLS - 14% cerkship + 38% top law firm = 52% at top prestigious jobs.

but even that still ignores those students who chose other paths (academia, gov’t, etc) that were perhaps more available to them because of the name on their sheepskin.

and even if all you really care about is those working at top law firms, you still don’t have a complete picture unless you know how many of those clerks end up at top firms.

you really can make raw stats mean a lot of different things. i’m still not really sure what the point is of throwing out all these numbers with nothing more.

sallyawp · November 14, 2006, 10:37am

I think that looking at the number of these top firms that interview and hire students from a particular law school does give a fairly accurate picture of what the job prospects will be for students from that particular law school, generally speaking, of course. I also think that looking at the number of these top firms that interview and hire students from a particular law school also gives a good picture of how that law school and its graduates is perceived by the legal community at large. Even in the absence of hard statistical data, I think that the information is valuable for these purposes.

unbelievablem · November 14, 2006, 10:55am

i don’t disagree that these stats give a general idea of the types of firms that hire from top law schools and the perceived ability of graduates of top law schools. it is where the op tried to use these stats apparently to imply that grads of cls do better than grads of hls that i think the op got lost in the numbers.

CotoDeCasa · November 14, 2006, 11:00am

Excerpt

<a href=“http://www.vault.com/dlcenter/excerpt/Law2007_excerpt.pdf[/url]”>http://www.vault.com/dlcenter/excerpt/Law2007_excerpt.pdf</a>

The team-player attitude seems to be especially
Important. Team player without debilitating egos.
Don’t be a jerk if you want a job at this firm.
Arrogance during an interview will get you nowhere.
Because every attorney here has the credentials and has earned the right to be arrogant but they are not

cosar · November 14, 2006, 11:26am

In addition to the points already made, which are valid, there’s another fundamental flaw in the analysis. The “Top 50” firms cited in the article are the 50 largest firms, not the 50 most prestigious firms. Thus, for example, it doesn’t include Wachtell, Cravath, Williams & Connolly, Debevoise, Wilmer, Hale & Dorr, Milbank, Fried Frank and a number of other firms in the “most prestigious” list from the first post. It does include a number of firms that are big, but not considered prestigious, such as Baker & McKenzie. The article also notes that five of the 50 firms did not report numbers (though it doesn’t identify which five). It doesn’t make a lot of sense to try to draw conclusions from this list.

Here’s a link to the NLJ “Top 50” for 2005:

<a href=“http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1131542411426[/url]”>http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1131542411426</a>

Top Most Prestigious Firms

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