The 2022 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard Rankings

What qualities do attorneys, clients and industry stakeholders value in a law firm? Where are law firms putting their expertise, efforts and energy? What combination of attributes adds up to a firm that stands above the rest?

As part of our ongoing efforts to provide new perspectives on those questions, we continue to grow and develop our annual Law360 Pulse rankings: Social Impact Leaders, Prestige Leaders and the Law360 Pulse Leaderboard. In these rankings, we have one goal in mind. Use a rich store of data to reveal the myriad qualities of law firms, what makes them attractive, where they focus their energies, and where they might be headed next.

Over the next three weeks, we will deliver the latest results to you, our readers, providing analysis and insights into what it means to be a successful law firm.

Starting on Monday, Nov. 28, you'll find out which firms are throwing their weight behind socially responsible practices, making them Law360 Pulse Social Impact Leaders.

The ranking highlights firms' efforts to make the world a better place. It is based this year on five pillars: pro bono work, racial and ethnic diversity, gender diversity, employee engagement and responsible business practices.

We've compiled robust data on law firms and their socially responsible business practices, adding measures on diversity, sustainability, charitable contributions, pro bono work and other activities firms are engaged in to support the legal community and the world at large.

On Monday, Dec. 5, you'll see which firms racked up the most legal industry cachet to top the list of Law360 Pulse Prestige Leaders.

The Prestige Leaders ranking measures firms' reputations in the legal market by assessing their achievements in four areas: financial performance, attractiveness to talented attorneys, positive mentions in legal news and Law360 awards won.

This year we've refined this ranking to include additional analysis of financial performance, law firm desirability and media representation. The result is a robust list of firms that have a first-in-class reputation in the legal community, and a game-changing advantage with clients and top-tier talent.

On Monday, Dec. 12, you'll see which firms have made it onto the Law360 Pulse Leaderboard. This third and final ranking features firms that stand out for being well-rounded. These firms work to build a strong law firm culture, cultivate socially responsible business practices, burnish their reputations and accomplish a stunning variety of legal work across the country.

The Leaderboard is where the rubber meets the road, as we take firms' scores for Social Impact and Prestige and combine them with an assessment of their practice footprint, relying on data from Intelligize and Lex Machina.

The practice footprint evaluation takes a bird's-eye view of the work firms are doing in a broad range of practice areas and jurisdictions around the country, as well as work they do with mergers and acquisitions and registered offerings, to assess which firms are tackling the top deals and have a particularly deep understanding of litigation across the U.S.

The upshot is a distinguished list of law firms that balance a broad and varied range of legal work with an enviable reputation in the legal community and a demonstrable commitment to socially responsible business practices.

We'll be delivering the rankings to you over the next three Mondays, starting with Social Impact and rounding out the year with Law360 Pulse Leaderboard.

Our rankings are a work in progress, and something we hope to expand and deepen in the coming years with even more data and analytics. We welcome your feedback, which you can send to us at surveys@law360.com.

Thanks for coming along on this journey with us — and stay tuned.

The Law360 Pulse Data Team

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