Vault.com Releases Its 2021 Rankings Of The Top 100 Law Firms--Cravath Remains At No. 1, While A New Firm Clinches The No. 2 Spot

Vault also releases its 2021 practice area and regional rankings, adding Florida and Midsize Texas categories.

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Vault Career Intelligence

Sep 10, 2020, 10:09 ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Vault.com has released the 2021 Vault Law 100—Vault's ranking of the top 100 most prestigious law firms. For the fifth straight year, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP is ranked No. 1.

"Cravath is the undeniable leader in the legal field, as the top firm in our ranking for five years running and the only firm to achieve a prestige score above '9' this year," said Mary Kate Sheridan, Vault's Senior Law Editor.

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Vault Ranks Top Law Firms in Cities across the US.
Vault Ranks Top Law Firms in Cities across the US.

Making Vault rankings history, Skadden has overtaken Wachtell as the No. 2 firm. Skadden earned a score of 8.577—a mere 0.010 points above the No. 3-ranked Wachtell, which earned a score of 8.567.

The Vault Law 100 ranking is based on scores from more than 20,000 law firm associates surveyed earlier this year, who were asked to rate law firms on a scale of 1 to 10 based on prestige. The Top 10 Most Prestigious Law Firms for 2021 are:

  1. Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
  2. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates 
  3. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
  4. Sullivan & Cromwell LLP 
  5. Latham & Watkins LLP 
  6. Kirkland & Ellis LLP
  7. Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP 
  8. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
  9. Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
  10. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

Among the trends noted this year, more than one-third of firms that moved up two or more spots in the Vault Law 100 were based in California or Washington state, while approximately half of the firms that dropped two or more spots were those based in New York.

Vault Releases Regional & Practice Area Rankings
In addition to the Vault Law 100, Vault has also launched 16 regional rankings, including two new rankings for 2021: Best Midsize Law Firms in Texas and Best Law Firms in Florida (which replaces the previous Miami ranking).

Vault has also released 26 other Practice Area rankings, which can be viewed here.

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Vault is the most comprehensive and trusted resource for law students and laterals to research law firms. Through Vault's law school platform, thousands of students from nearly 100 partnering law schools across the country have unlimited access to this critical information.

SOURCE Vault Career Intelligence