Choosing a Mountain States Law Firm

The Mountain States are beautiful, they have many excellent legal markets to work in, and they also feature some unique practice opportunities (water law, as a specific subset of environmental law, comes to mind). Covering cities such as Denver, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix, among others, our Mountain States rankings cover a huge range of cities, firms, and practices. This article compares the top five Mountain States-headquartered firms from the 2024 Mountain States regional prestige rankings. For more Mountain States options, you can review Vault’s Mountain States prestige rankings and the Vault profiles of any firms you’re interested in.

The five top-ranked Mountain States-based firms based on Vault’s 2024 regional prestige rankings are Holland & Hart; Snell & Wilmer; Davis Graham & Stubbs; Brownstein Hyatt; and Wheeler Trigg. Below are a few relevant highlights about each of these firms.

Holland & Hart

The #3 firm in the Mountain States, Holland & Hart operates 13 U.S. offices, including its Denver headquarters. The firm employs over 250 attorneys and associates here describe the culture as friendly and balanced, with a reasonable billable hour requirement and good support for work-life balance. Partnership here is transparent and realistic, and both non-partner opportunities at the firm and exit opportunities are strong as well.

Snell & Wilmer

Snell & Wilmer holds the #8 spot in Vault’s Mountain States prestige rankings this year. Snell & Wilmer operates out of 11 U.S. and one international offices, employing over 250 attorneys. Headquartered in Phoenix and now one of Arizona's largest law firms, the firm is known in the West for its securities litigation practice and for helping clients in both the U.S. and Mexico with cross-border deals. The firm also has a significant practice in the gaming industry, in and around Las Vegas in particular.

Davis Graham & Stubbs

Landing at #12 in Vault’s 2024 Mountain States prestige rankings and appearing on this year's Top 150 Under 150 list, Davis Graham & Stubbs employs over 100 attorneys out of two U.S. offices, including their Denver headquarters. The firm is regionally famous for its corporate finance & governance, M&A, natural resources, environmental law, real estate, and complex litigation practices. The firm's industry expertise includes energy, mining, technology, hospitality, private equity, manufacturing, asset management, and aviation.

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

Ranked at #13 in Vault’s 2024 Mountain States prestige rankings, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck employs over 150 attorneys operating out of 12 U.S. offices, including its Denver headquarters. The firm handles a variety of legal issues, including corporate and business law, energy and natural resources, gaming, intellectual property, litigation, and real estate. They also have a very robust water law practice, one for which they are regionally renowned.

Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell

Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell sits at #18 in our Mountain States prestige rankings, and also appears in several categories of our Best Midsize Firms to Work For rankings, cracking the top 25 in Formal Training, Technology & Innovation, Pro Bono, Selectivity, and Career Outlook. The firm employs over 100 attorneys in its two U.S. offices, including its Denver headquarters, and appears on our Top 150 Under 150 list for 2024. Associates describe the culture as friendly and collegial. The firm has no billable hour requirement, and the firm has realistic counsel and partner tracks.

***

The Mountain States region may not be *home* to any of the Vault 100, but the locally-based firms do very well throughout the region, particularly in some of the uniquely in-demand practice areas there, such as natural resources and water law. Just about every practice area is available to jobseekers in these markets, and some of the most beautiful places in the world are here as well. Wheeler Trigg is also noteworthy for its placement in our Best Midsize Firms to Work For rankings. You can learn more about all these firms (and many others) through Vault’s law firm profiles and the firms’ websites. Remember: Think hard about your priorities, because no one firm is best at everything.

Best of luck from all of us at Vault Law on your legal job search!