Top Law Schools

I see this phrase come up on occasion and I am wondering what people mean by it. I was doing some research on some public interest plaintiff firms and was also wondering if that type of firm falls under the boutique litigation umbrella.

It's a marketing term. It refers to firms that are smaller (i.e., not biglaw firms and not large regional firms), and generally which will focus on some particular practice. It's supposed to imply quality.

Think "we are a boutique patent litigation firm" versus "we are an international, full-service firm".

Doesn't really mean anything.

The term itself is kind of broad and meaningless since all it means is a smaller firm that is well regarded or specialized in some area. Usually people on TLS mean smaller (at least relative to biglaw) top tier firms such as Boies Schiller, Keker Van Nest, Farella Braun Martel, etc. I think there is an argument that at least some of these kinds of firms straddle the line between biglaw and boutique which is why some people throw around terms like "bigtique."