Underrated lit boutiques? Forum

[Anonymous User]

What city? In SF, there's a big boutique firm culture. The firms are super selective, generally have "better" exit opportunities than big law and better substantive experiences for younger lawyers.

I know of Farella Braun, Keker, Shartsis, I forget the name but Miranda Kane's law firm, Lewis Lewellyn, Durie Tangri, Braunhagey, and Coblentz. They generally all have revolving doors to the USAO and count members of the bench as alumni.

Curious about under the radar boutiques (read: not Molo, Wilkinson, Susman, etc.) in NY and DC.

DC and NY do not have the same boutique culture as in SF/LA.

Many consider Susman and Kellogg the two best boutiques and they're in NY and DC. Then there's Molo, Wilkinson, and others with presences in both cities. DC has many respected political / appellate boutiques.

None of those are underrated though. Everyone knows of those NY/DC boutiques.

[Anonymous User]

What city? In SF, there's a big boutique firm culture. The firms are super selective, generally have "better" exit opportunities than big law and better substantive experiences for younger lawyers.

I know of Farella Braun, Keker, Shartsis, I forget the name but Miranda Kane's law firm, Lewis Lewellyn, Durie Tangri, Braunhagey, and Coblentz. They generally all have revolving doors to the USAO and count members of the bench as alumni.

Curious about under the radar boutiques (read: not Molo, Wilkinson, Susman, etc.) in NY and DC.

DC and NY do not have the same boutique culture as in SF/LA.

Many consider Susman and Kellogg the two best boutiques and they're in NY and DC. Then there's Molo, Wilkinson, and others with presences in both cities. DC has many respected political / appellate boutiques.

None of those are underrated though. Everyone knows of those NY/DC boutiques.

In DC there's also Gupta Wessler and Goldstein Russell (for liberals), and Cooper & Kirk, Consovoy McCarthy, Clement & Murphy, and Lehotsky Keller (for conservatives). Plus Kobre & Kim is good at what it specializes in.

[Anonymous User]

What city? In SF, there's a big boutique firm culture. The firms are super selective, generally have "better" exit opportunities than big law and better substantive experiences for younger lawyers.

I know of Farella Braun, Keker, Shartsis, I forget the name but Miranda Kane's law firm, Lewis Lewellyn, Durie Tangri, Braunhagey, and Coblentz. They generally all have revolving doors to the USAO and count members of the bench as alumni.

Curious about under the radar boutiques (read: not Molo, Wilkinson, Susman, etc.) in NY and DC.

DC and NY do not have the same boutique culture as in SF/LA.

Many consider Susman and Kellogg the two best boutiques and they're in NY and DC. Then there's Molo, Wilkinson, and others with presences in both cities. DC has many respected political / appellate boutiques.

None of those are underrated though. Everyone knows of those NY/DC boutiques.

In DC there's also Gupta Wessler and Goldstein Russell (for liberals), and Cooper & Kirk, Consovoy McCarthy, Clement & Murphy, and Lehotsky Keller (for conservatives). Plus Kobre & Kim is good at what it specializes in.

In ten years, half of those firms will have ceased to exist.

[Anonymous User]

Same question, but for LA!

[Anonymous User]

The OP asked about underrated boutiques. I'm curious about this as well. The posts so far are largely unresponsive.

[Anonymous User]

Actually underrated boutiques are going to be firms in secondary/tertiary markets that hire competitively with top boutiques elsewhere. Like Bondurant Mixson in Atlanta or Dowd Bennett in St. Louis. To be clear I don't know anything about those firms in particular, though I understand that they're very competitive and do good work, but I think that's the type you'd look for.

[Anonymous User]

Bumping for underrated NYC/DC/Chicago boutiques.

[pointplace]

Look at Vault's 2024 Best Litigation Specialty Law Firms

Underrated lit boutiques (NYC), I guess, are solid firms not on the Vault list, including (in no particular order):
- Clark Smith
- Holwell
- Levine Lee
- Morvillo
- Pallas
- Petrillo Klein
- Krieger Kim
- Shapiro
- Sher Tremonte
- Patterson
- Bernstein (Plaintiff)
- Labaton (Pl)
- Lieff (Pl)
- Robbins Geller (Pl)
- Seeger Weiss (Pl)
- Walden Macht (Pl)
- Pomerantz (Pl)

https://legacy.vault.com/best-companies ... -specialty

[Anonymous User]

Look at Vault's 2024 Best Litigation Specialty Law Firms

Underrated lit boutiques (NYC), I guess, are solid firms not on the Vault list, including (in no particular order):
- Clark Smith
- Holwell
- Levine Lee
- Morvillo
- Pallas
- Petrillo Klein
- Krieger Kim
- Shapiro
- Sher Tremonte
- Patterson
- Bernstein (Plaintiff)
- Labaton (Pl)
- Lieff (Pl)
- Robbins Geller (Pl)
- Seeger Weiss (Pl)
- Walden Macht (Pl)
- Pomerantz (Pl)

https://legacy.vault.com/best-companies ... -specialty

What are the DC equivalents?

[The Lsat Airbender]

Look at Vault's 2024 Best Litigation Specialty Law Firms

Underrated lit boutiques (NYC), I guess, are solid firms not on the Vault list, including (in no particular order):
- Clark Smith
- Holwell
- Levine Lee
- Morvillo
- Pallas
- Petrillo Klein
- Krieger Kim
- Shapiro
- Sher Tremonte
- Patterson
- Bernstein (Plaintiff)
- Labaton (Pl)
- Lieff (Pl)
- Robbins Geller (Pl)
- Seeger Weiss (Pl)
- Walden Macht (Pl)
- Pomerantz (Pl)

https://legacy.vault.com/best-companies ... -specialty

What are the DC equivalents?

Click the link and get back to us once you've figured it out

[Anonymous User]

Look at Vault's 2024 Best Litigation Specialty Law Firms

Underrated lit boutiques (NYC), I guess, are solid firms not on the Vault list, including (in no particular order):
- Clark Smith
- Holwell
- Levine Lee
- Morvillo
- Pallas
- Petrillo Klein
- Krieger Kim
- Shapiro
- Sher Tremonte
- Patterson
- Bernstein (Plaintiff)
- Labaton (Pl)
- Lieff (Pl)
- Robbins Geller (Pl)
- Seeger Weiss (Pl)
- Walden Macht (Pl)
- Pomerantz (Pl)

https://legacy.vault.com/best-companies ... -specialty

What are the DC equivalents?

Click the link and get back to us once you've figured it out

Not sure how the Vault list is supposed to help me figure out solid firms not on the Vault list, but thanks for that helpful response.

[Anonymous User]

Look at Vault's 2024 Best Litigation Specialty Law Firms

Underrated lit boutiques (NYC), I guess, are solid firms not on the Vault list, including (in no particular order):
- Clark Smith
- Holwell
- Levine Lee
- Morvillo
- Pallas
- Petrillo Klein
- Krieger Kim
- Shapiro
- Sher Tremonte
- Patterson
- Bernstein (Plaintiff)
- Labaton (Pl)
- Lieff (Pl)
- Robbins Geller (Pl)
- Seeger Weiss (Pl)
- Walden Macht (Pl)
- Pomerantz (Pl)

https://legacy.vault.com/best-companies ... -specialty

Apologies if I am being either pedantic or illiterate, but does Pl mean "plaintiff" or "personal injury"? I ask because most of these firms are plaintiff's firms that focus on securities class actions. (This is a pretty good list of plaintiff's securities class action firms BTW, though I'd probably add Cohen Milstein to the list.) I can't think of a really prominent personal injury/product liability firm (like Hagens Berman, Motley Rice, Wisner Baum, Kline & Specter, etc.) that is based in NYC, but I am sure I am overlooking someone.

[Anonymous User]

Same question, but for LA!

Leaving aside Hueston Hennigan/Susman, I think that Bird Marella, Ellis George, and Larson are pretty good shops. I wouldn't recommend Miller Barondess (which is a Glaser Weil spinoff) or Kendall Brill (which is an Irell spinoff). Big firms in LA are pretty active about acquiring strong boutiques and a lot of the great boutiques (Caldwell Leslie, Scheper Kim, etc.) have been gobbled up in the last several years.

[pointplace]

Look at Vault's 2024 Best Litigation Specialty Law Firms

Underrated lit boutiques (NYC), I guess, are solid firms not on the Vault list, including (in no particular order):
- Clark Smith
- Holwell
- Levine Lee
- Morvillo
- Pallas
- Petrillo Klein
- Krieger Kim
- Shapiro
- Sher Tremonte
- Patterson
- Bernstein (Plaintiff)
- Labaton (Pl)
- Lieff (Pl)
- Robbins Geller (Pl)
- Seeger Weiss (Pl)
- Walden Macht (Pl)
- Pomerantz (Pl)

https://legacy.vault.com/best-companies ... -specialty

Apologies if I am being either pedantic or illiterate, but does Pl mean "plaintiff" or "personal injury"? I ask because most of these firms are plaintiff's firms that focus on securities class actions. (This is a pretty good list of plaintiff's securities class action firms BTW, though I'd probably add Cohen Milstein to the list.) I can't think of a really prominent personal injury/product liability firm (like Hagens Berman, Motley Rice, Wisner Baum, Kline & Specter, etc.) that is based in NYC, but I am sure I am overlooking someone.

Pl means plaintiff (namely securities lit, like you said)

[Anonymous User]

What are some underrated DC DC boutiques?

[Anonymous User]

Bumping for underrated DC/Chicago boutiques.

[PhilHarmonica]

Curious about underrated DC boutiques?

[Anonymous User]

Bumping for underrated DC/Chicago boutiques.

Don’t know much about it but Miller Shakman hires people with very strong resumes in Chicago. Riley Safer seems to be good too. Obviously Bartlit, Eimer Stahl, Goldman Ismail, MoloLamken, but I don’t think those are underrated.

[Anonymous User]

If plaintiff-side is included, Keller Postman is a good underrated DC boutique (also in Chicago).

[Anonymous User]

Curious about underrated DC boutiques?

Curious about this as well.