Where to find the top attorneys in the USA (Infographic!)

7 December 2020

So you’re hunting lawyers.

Trying to recruit? Sell your services? Or maybe someone owes you money…

First you’ll need to know where to look: Which are the biggest firms? In which cities are the top lawyers based?

Historically, to answer this question you’d need to trawl through the bar association for each state, or click around on LinkedIn hoping to gather a comprehensive list.

Today, you’re in luck. Pirical Legal Professionals aggregates data sources for a rapid, comprehensive, international overview of legal talent.

Just to illustrate what data we’re collecting: let us be your guide to the state of the US legal market in 2020.

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Which US cities have the most top lawyers?

Of the biggest law firms in the US market, their lawyers are focused in just 2 cities: New York and Washington, DC. Between them, these two cities host 40% of all AM Law 200 lawyers.

New York City 26% (22.0k)
Washington, DC 14% (12.4k)
Chicago 7% (6.1k)
Los Angeles 7% (5.9k)
San Francisco 5% (3.9k)
Boston 4% (3.6k)
Other 37%

The top city, New York, at 26% is - as a proportion of the national total - not as much of a dominant force as other countries’ top legal hubs. Sydney and London, for example, each boast around 40% of all the lawyers in Australia and the UK respectively.

Which US cities are best for Corporate, Finance or Dispute Resolution law?

Each of the major USA legal cities has its own strengths.

While New York is indisputably the home of Corporate, Banking & Finance attorneys, Washington has a disproportionate representation of Disputes, Investigations, and (perhaps unsurprisingly) the greatest number of Public Law specialists.

Which are the largest US law firms?

While Kirkland & Ellis takes the top spot by number of US-based partners, note the relatively modest number of partners at Latham & Watkins, which has more lawyers worldwide and in September boasted the number 2 spot for global revenues (Kirkland was number 1). In this case the difference is primarily due to higher numbers of salaried partners at Kirkland and restricted use of the same title at Lathams.

What is the partner to fee earner ratio for AM Law 200 firms?

To give you a sense of how partner numbers impact the size of a firm, firms in the AM Law 200 typically have somewhere between 2.3 and 3.6 fee earners per partner, not including legal support or business services staff.

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