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A very circle-jerkish question, but when posters here say that they're V5 or V10 from X (region), are they looking at the regional Vault rankings for X or are they referring to the nationwide Vault 100 rankings?

Pretty pointless I know, but I was wondering if these regional vault rankings are of any importance when stroking each other's egos.

They're referring to national rankings. V&E is one of the best firms in TX, for example, but no one would call it a V5.

V5, V10, etc. is a shorthand way of saying nationally prestigious firm, though nationally generally refers to New York.

If you're not in NYC, the national Vault rankings are pretty useless, since many of the V10 are irrelevant in most major markets.

While their methodology isn't perfect, Chambers & Partners is a little more useful for firm research outside NYC, since it rates firms by practice group and market. https://chambers.com/guide/usa?publicationTypeId=5. A single office could be a powerhouse in M&A but have a pathetic litigation practice or vice versa.

The national vault rankings are useless for anything beyond a rough proxy for NYC-centric (M&A/Banking and Finance) corporate work prestige. I wouldn't say "V10 is irrelevant in major markets" since I'm pretty sure Kirkland is relevant in Houston, for example, but I'd agree that being V10 or V5 or whatever is irrelevant for anything that's not NYC corp work.

It's meaningless for all types of litigation.

Not that it matters, but V10 is irrelevant for non-NYC major markets. Cravath and Wachtell have only NYC offices. SullCrom, Davis Polk, and Simpson Thatcher have no significant offices outside NYC. That's half the V10.

PeanutsNJam wrote:The national vault rankings are useless for anything beyond a rough proxy for NYC-centric (M&A/Banking and Finance) corporate work prestige.

Emphasis on ROUGH proxy. My V50 is by Chambers standards a top 15 M&A/CM practice in NYC and is very prominent on both M&A/CM league tables but chills in the V30-V50 range. You really need to be drawing from multiple sources to get a real idea where your firm stands in your market and what practice areas it does best.