Elite Law Firms Are Leaving Their Rivals Behind

A new study from Chambers and Partners reveals that the most elite, fastest-growing law firms, such as Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins, are seeing a compounding of their success — and the window is narrowing for other firms to catch up. On this episode of On the Merits, Chambers CEO Tim Noble and Chief Data Innovation Officer Lisa Hart Shepherd discuss this first ever report crunching the millions of data points Chambers has collected over the past decade about the top 100 law firms. “So, we found that there was a huge disparity in performance,” Shepherd said. “You’ve got firms that are growing well over a hundred percent over the period, and we’ve got a few that are declining and everything in between.” Shepherd said the top performers excelled in premium practices and offered a distinctive client experience. READ MORE: Chambers Advantage Index Firms that were growing quickly but don’t have the scale or reputation of the top firms — firms such as Polsinelli and McGuireWoods — need to find an advantage to compete, Noble said. “Targeting talent” is a possible path for these firms to reach the top tier, he said, but these firms are going to need to make “transformational moves” to catch up.