Vault recently released its closely watched rankings of the nation’s 100 most prestigious law firms. It was there that we learned Cravath has held onto its title as the most prestigious firm in America for more than a decade, and that the top firms saw some interesting changes (including one major firm leaving the Top 10 thanks to kissing Trump’s ring).
But what if your firm wasn’t top-ranked in the Vault 100? Perhaps your firm isn’t the most prestigious, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have clout. Some law firms reign supreme when it comes to certain practice areas, and others are known to dominate entire regions of the country.
Which law firms are considered to be at the top of their game by practice area and region? Let’s find out!
For the purposes of the practice area ranking, Vault asked associates to vote for up to three firms they think of as the strongest in their own practice area, and the overall ranking indicates the firms that received the highest percentage of votes. Associates were not allowed to vote for their own firm. Pay attention, prospective laterals, because this ranking could be quite useful for you.
We’ve picked out a dozen of the practice areas that were ranked by Vault (you can see the full list by clicking here):
- Appellate Litigation: Williams & Connolly
- Bankruptcy/Restructuring: Kirkland & Ellis
- Energy, Oil and Gas: Vinson & Elkins
- General Commercial Litigation: Quinn Emanuel
- General Corporate Practice: Wachtell Lipton
- Intellectual Property: Fish & Richardson
- International: White & Case
- Labor and Employment: Littler Mendelson
- Private Equity: Kirkland & Ellis
- Real Estate: Gibson Dunn
- Securities/Capital Markets: Latham & Watkins (replacing Davis Polk)
- Tax: Skadden
Next up, we’ve got a ranking that matters to those who think “location, location, location” is the most important thing in life. Vault’s regional rankings are based on votes tabulated from associates who were asked to rate firms on a 1 to 10 scale based on their prestige within the region.
Here’s the list of prestige by region from Vault (you can see the full list here):
- Atlanta: King & Spalding
- Boston: Ropes & Gray
- Chicago: Kirkland & Ellis
- Florida: Holland & Knight
- Mid-Atlantic: Skadden
- Midwest: Kirkland & Ellis
- Mountain States: Gibson Dunn
- New York: Wachtell Lipton
- Northern California: Cooley
- Pacific Northwest: Perkins Coie
- South Atlantic: King & Spalding (replacing Alston & Bird)
- Southern California: Latham & Watkins
- Texas: Vinson & Elkins
- Washington, DC: Covington & Burling
Congratulations to the firms that moved up in this year’s practice area and regional rankings, and congratulations to all the firms that made the cut in the first place. It must be nice to see which firms associates consider as their peers in prestige, and it must be even nicer for partners to know whose pricing models they need to undercut the next time around.
Best Law Firms by Practice Area (2027) [Vault]
Best Law Firms by Region (2027) [Vault]
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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