<p>I think that you got it backwards. The Vault survey cited by the OP is a survey of the most prestigious law firms in the country. For example, Wachtell, with its one office in NYC with only about 200 lawyers, would probably not be on any list of the largest firms in the country, especially after all of the mega-firm mergers of the last five or six years. The list that you cross-referenced, from the National Law Jouirnal, is a list of the largest law firms in the country. I definitely agree that size does not equate with prestige.</p>
<p>Sally, it’s the OP that got it backwards. The NLJ article cited by the OP in post #5, purporting to analyze what schools the “top 50” firms hire from, used the NLJ list - i.e., the 50 largest firms. In contrast, the OP’s first post was from the Vault report on the most prestigious firms. </p>
<p>While there’s some overlap, an analysis of what schools the 50 largest firms hire from really does not permit any valid conclusions about what schools the most prestigious firms hire from, or what percentage of the graduating class from the top law schools ends up at the most prestigious firms.</p>
<p>In addition to prestige, an important measure of a firm’s success is the measure of PPP – profits per partner (though there has been some manipulation of this number in recent years by firms that have created non-equity partnerships and/or “special counsel”/“senior counsel” type positions to create a smaller pool of partners sharing in the gravy – non-equity partners are partners in name only and are salaried, thus, they do not share in the profits of the firm). The top ten firms (nationally) determined by the American Lawyer to have the highest profits per partner in 2005 were:</p>
<ol>
<li> Wachtell - $3,790,000 (76 equity partners)</li>
<li> Cravath - $2,600,000 (87 equity partners)</li>
<li> Cadwalader -$2,545,000 (75 equity partners, has a non-equity track)</li>
<li> Paul Weiss - $2,475,000 (103 equity partners)</li>
<li> Sullivan & Cromwell - $2,410,000 (158 equity partners)</li>
<li> Simpson Thacher - $2,370,000 (155 equity partners)</li>
<li> Cahill Gordon - $2,285,000 (64 equity partners, has a non-equity track)</li>
<li> Kirkland & Ellis - $2,120,000 (192 equity partners, has a non-equity track)</li>
<li> Milbank - $2,020.000 (113 equity partners, has a non-equity track)</li>
<li> Davis Polk - $2,000,000 (148 equity partners)</li>
</ol>
<p>cosar,
You’re absolutely right! I misunderstood and thought that the OP was looking at the hiring trends of the 50 most prestigious firms, not the 50 largest firms. I completely agree that while it is nice to know that someone is coming on campus to interview the graduates of a law school, in terms of getting the most competitive jobs, you would want to look at how many graduates of a particular law school are hired by the most prestigious firms.</p>
<p>Thanks!
sally</p>
<p>I came across some stats about the total number of attorneys at the 250 largest law firms in the US. These firms have, in aggregate, 46,563 partners (the breakdown between equity and non-equity partners was not given), and 58,805 associates.</p>
<p><a href=“US Lawmen Are Going Great Guns | BCGSearch.com”>US Lawmen Are Going Great Guns | BCGSearch.com;