What would the top vault rankings look like for litigation? Forum

[Anonymous User]

It's no secret that Vault prestige gears towards M&A. I'm curious how the vault rankings would look like for litigation. For example, Paul Weiss would probably be more highly ranked whereas Latham might be a bit lower, but would the rankings look about the same or vastly different?

[Anonymous User]

Different. I imagine places like Quinn and Boies would be way higher. I also imagine a lot of the litigation boutiques that do not even make it on Vault would be pretty high. Check out which firms are on Band 1 litigation via chambers & partners. It seems to me that it is a very different game because a lot of the top litigation firms tend to be a lot smaller than the top M&A firms.

[Anonymous User]

http://www.chambersandpartners.com/Usa/ ... per_273416

http://www.chambersandpartners.com/Usa/Editorial/41266

M&A v. litigation is pretty much the same for rankings, except Paul Weiss and Latham switch places and Davis Polk joins band 1 for litigation. Granted the litigation list is just New York, but then again, the Vault rankings seem to list only New York.

[Anonymous User]

For those who don't want to peruse Chambers:

NY:
Band 1 - Cravath, DPW, Paul Weiss, STB, Skadden, S&C, Wachtell
Band 2 - Boies, Cleary, Debevoise, Kirkland, Quinn, Weil

DC:
Band 1 - Williams & Connolly
Band 2 - Baker Botts, Hogan, Kirkland, WilmerHale

Chicago:
Band 1 - Bartlit Beck, Kirkland, Sidley, Jenner
Band 2 - Winston, Mayer

LA/SF:
Band 1 - GDC, Keker, Munger, Quinn
Band 2 - Latham, MoFo, OMM, Orrick, Skadden

So yes, in NY the rankings are quite similar to Vault (in part because NY litigation practices tend to service corporate clients and litigate over M&A disputes). In other markets, they differ considerably. None of this should be news to anyone.

[Anonymous User]

Does Chambers rank the boutiques in those rankings?

[Omerta]

I like http://benchmarklitigation.com/ a lot.

[Anonymous User]

I like http://benchmarklitigation.com/ a lot.

That looks good.

So maybe the Vault rankings, based on that and Chambers, might be something like:

1) Cravath
2) Sullivan & Cromwell
3) Skadden
4) Wachtell
5) Paul Weiss
6) Simpson Thacher
7) Davis Polk
Williams & Connolly
9) Gibson Dunn
10) Kirkland

etc.?

[Anonymous User]

Not sure exactly how I'd rank them, but if I had to do a Vault list of litigation (a "L100") firms it would look something like:

L5: Kirkland, Paul Weiss, Gibson Dunn, Cravath, Williams & Connolly (not necessarily in this order)
L10: Wachtell, Quinn, S&C, DPW, Skadden (not necessarily in this order)
L20: STB, WilmerHale, Sidley, OMM, Boies, Bartlit Beck, Munger, Latham, Jones Day, Jenner (not necessarily in this order)

generally think benchmarklitigation is slightly too NY-centric, but what do i know

[fish52]

Vault does have a litigation ranking, although it is for general commercial lit.

http://www.vault.com/wps/portal/usa/ran ... gYear=2013

[bdubs]

General commercial is not the only area of litigation that you should be thinking about. Lots of litigation is area specific, chambers rankings for specialties are the best way to figure things out. Lots of the big NYC shops are really focused on securities litigation and don't seem to do as much general commercial stuff (or deemphasize it).

[Anonymous User]

FWIW, the firms that wannabe litigators at my HYS school gunned for were Williams and Connolly, Boies, Munger, Susman, and Keker. Who knows if this maps onto anything of value in the real world, but these were the only litigation firms that very few people turend down (and usually it was only for other firms on this list).

[Anonymous User]

FWIW, the firms that wannabe litigators at my HYS school gunned for were Williams and Connolly, Boies, Munger, Susman, and Keker. Who knows if this maps onto anything of value in the real world, but these were the only litigation firms that very few people turend down (and usually it was only for other firms on this list).

This is a pretty credited list, although I might omit Boies from it.

[anon168]

It's no secret that Vault prestige gears towards M&A. I'm curious how the vault rankings would look like for litigation. For example, Paul Weiss would probably be more highly ranked whereas Latham might be a bit lower, but would the rankings look about the same or vastly different?

1. DOJ
2. Everyone else.

Any other list is basically a stupid way for people to anonymously pimp their own SA firms.

[Anonymous User]

FWIW, the firms that wannabe litigators at my HYS school gunned for were Williams and Connolly, Boies, Munger, Susman, and Keker. Who knows if this maps onto anything of value in the real world, but these were the only litigation firms that very few people turend down (and usually it was only for other firms on this list).

This is a pretty credited list, although I might omit Boies from it.

Same at my T10 school. And yes, Boies was perceived as very hard to get, but slightly less so than those other firms.