When Legal Times ran a story about Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession in September, the group was still compiling its rankings of New York City law offices. At the National Press Club today, co-president Andrew Bruck and co-founder Andrew Canter, both 3-Ls at Stanford University Law School, released their findings.
Their goal: to encourage law students to consider factors such as diversity, attorney retention, and billable hours when looking for that first job. Bruck says they want “to send a powerful message” that there are significant differences between firms that often seem the same. And they hope they can leverage the market power of heavily recruited law students to get firms to improve in these areas. After all, Canter points out, top-tier students “can choose between firms with no salary trade-off.”
Relying on firm-supplied data from the National Association for Legal Career Professionals, the group ranked the Manhattan law offices on several criteria using a method students know all too well: the 4.0 letter-grade system. Members also highlighted firms considered "most prestigious" by Vault to emphasize that often when it comes to factors like diversity, "prestigious" firms don't fare so well.
On the “Diversity Report Card,” firms received individual grades based on numbers of female, black, Hispanic, Asian, and lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender associates and partners, which were then averaged to determine an overall diversity mark. Cleary Gottlieb earned the highest grade: an A-. One firm, New York’s Herrick Feinstein, flunked out. Among those law firms deemed “most prestigious” by Vault, six Manhattan offices--Cleary Gottlieb, plus Davis Polk, Debevoise & Plimpton, Latham & Watkins, Paul Weiss, and Weil Gotshal--received at least a B-. The worst grade among that group was a C-, earned by Covington & Burling, Sidley Austin, Wachtell, and White & Case.
Though today’s press conference centered on its findings in New York, the group has also partially completed research on Washington law offices. The diversity report card for D.C. puts Nixon Peabody at the top of the class with the sole B+. Two firms earned Bs: Howrey and WilmerHale, and Holland & Knight earned a B-. Three earned a D+: Miller & Chevalier, Jones Day, and Skadden. Mayer Brown, Baker Botts, Kelley Drye, and Gibson Dunn hit the bottom with Fs. And there were many firms with a gentleman’s C or B-.
While the group had a lot of information about diversity to work with, firms were not as forthcoming about billable hours requirements and pro bono hours served. Indeed, 56 of the 74 Manhattan law offices surveyed did not provide data on the average number of hours billed by associates. Of those that did, Akin Gump topped the charts at an average of 2,040 hours billed. Troutman Sanders was at the bottom with an average of 1,756. The report card on billable hours at D.C. law offices is not completed yet.
The group says the report card format is meant to serve as “a quick reference guide” for law students. Bruck adds that the intent is not necessarily to embarrass firms who do poorly, but rather to prod firms at the bottom “to emulate those at the top.” He says the group is also trying to reach out to Fortune 500 companies in the hope that they will “put additional pressure on law firms to reform.”
Find out more about Building a Better Legal Profession here.
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