Vault Rankings - are they even at all worth looking at? Forum

[prelawTN]

the rankings are composed by people who don't work for the firms they're rating, so what at all should convince me that they know what they're talking about or that they're rating with what they know not what they feel or assume?

[fats provolone]

ignore rankings. the firm websites will have PR material that tell you all you need to know.

[prelawTN]

ignore rankings. the firm websites will have PR material that tell you all you need to know.

I realize that the firms themselves are probably less helpful, but in terms of work environment, how do people working elsewhere have enough of a working knowledge to rate firms?

[GOATlawman]

The comments are coming from the firm. The prestige ranking is done by employees at other firms, which makes complete sense if surveying prestige is your goal

They are worth more than nothing

[2014]

They are a solid proxy for overall breadth of corporate practice in New York. The more parts of that sentence you change, the worse the rankings are. Looking at the raw score or trying to create tiers is pretty perilous.

[KaNa1986]

The overall prestige list is not helpful. The regional prestige lists (NYC, DC, Boston, etc.) are. Associates tend to know a lot about about firms in their region from talking to other professionals, working with lawyers at other firms, etc. They know Wachtell, S&C, Cravath, Skadden, etc. dominate the biggest and most interesting deals in New York. They know Williams and Connolly, WilmerHale, etc. do the most complex work in DC. Same for other markets.

[parkslope]

The overall prestige list is not helpful. The regional prestige lists (NYC, DC, Boston, etc.) are. Associates tend to know a lot about about firms in their region from talking to other professionals, working with lawyers at other firms, etc. They know Wachtell, S&C, Cravath, Skadden, etc. dominate the biggest and most interesting deals in New York. They know Williams and Connolly, WilmerHale, etc. do the most complex work in DC. Same for other markets.

I agree with this--the regional prestige lists are actually semi-useful. The Vault 100 list is only useful for New York and "name brands" more generally.