Vault Releases 2014 Regional Law Rankings

Vault.com has just released its annual Regional Law Rankings, which reflect the prestige of firms within specific legal markets—including Atlanta, Boston, California, Chicago, Miami, the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, New York City, Northern California, Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, Texas and Washington, DC.

While the Vault Law 100 provides a broad overview of the most prestigious firms nationwide, our Regional Rankings offer jobseekers a more targeted perspective on the top firms in specific geographic regions. These rankings are based on the opinions of associates who took our Law Firm Associate Survey earlier this year. In our annual survey, associates are asked to rate the prestige of peer firms in their area on a scale of 1 to 10 (associates are not allowed to rate their own firms and are asked to only rate firms with which they are familiar). Our rankings indicate the highest-rated firms in each geographic region.

The law firms in our Regional Rankings include firms that may be renowned nationally or internationally as well as locally; regardless of size, what they all have in common is that they have established themselves as leaders in their area.

Here is a glimpse of the 2014 Regional Law Rankings, including the top firm in each region for both this year and last year, as well as a sample of our survey respondents’ views of the firms. While most of the regional leaders remain the same, Miami and DC each have new No. 1 firms.

For a full list of the Best Law Firms in Each U.S. Region, click here.

Atlanta: King & Spalding (last year: King & Spalding)

• “Atlanta powerhouse,” “top-notch,” “best in the South” 

Boston: Ropes & Gray (last year: Ropes & Gray)

• “best in Boston,” “brilliant,” “friendly place”

Chicago: Kirkland & Ellis (last year: Kirkland & Ellis)

• “the gold standard of big firms,” “the best in Chicago”

Miami: White & Case (last year: Greenberg Traurig)

• “great international practice,” “good for bank finance,” “great white-collar”

Mid-Atlantic: Skadden (last year: Skadden)

• “awesome,” “top dog,” “king of M&A”

Midwest: Jones Day (last year: Jones Day)

• “a big firm with diverse strengths,” “looks great on a resume”

New York City: Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz (last year: Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz)

• “best corporate law firm ever,” “compensation kings,” “the best and the brightest”

Northern California: Morrison & Foerster (last year: Morrison & Foerster)

• “best in San Francisco, ”“the cool kids,” “great atmosphere,” “doorway to Asia”

Southern California: Gibson Dunn (last year: Gibson Dunn)

• “excellent litigators,” “great in L.A.,” “extremely influential”

Pacific Northwest: Perkins Coie (last year: Perkins Coie)

• “best in Seattle,” “great for election law”

Texas: Baker Botts (last year: Baker Botts)

• “Texas powerhouse,” “leader in oil and gas,” “top-notch plaintiffs’ shop”

Washington, DC: Williams & Connolly (last year: Covington & Burling)

• “small but powerful,” “the nation’s best defense-side litigation firm,” “best of the best in DC”