Across the globe, people tend to fixate on the “elite.” There are elite athletes and teams. Every country or region seems to have a political elite. There’s a lot of talk about corporate elites. But in the world of Big Law, firms are focused on who is, or will be, a member of the legal global elite.
Of course, the global elite in law is merely a concept—one that is ill-defined and may not actually exist. But the legal world commonly gets caught up in FOMO, or fear of missing out. So even firms that don’t immediately come to mind as potential members of this club aspire to be in it, or believe they already are.
And it’s no wonder. By definition, elites are small groups that exercise disproportionate power and influence. In the competitive world of Big Law, who doesn’t want to have that degree of prestige, leverage and clout?
But as we look at The 2024 Global 200 rankings published last week—and I recommend you listen to the Law.com International webinar in which my colleagues and I discuss the meaning behind the numbers—you have to ask, how big will the Global Elite be? Does inclusion in the exclusive club depend on how they rank by revenue? Profits per equity partner? Head count? Some combination of all three? What do you do about vereins, whose structure differs from integrated firms? What about firms that don’t have a global presence but still get an outsized portion of top-end, complex work, like Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in the U.S. and Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier in France?
If you look at the most recent rankings by gross revenue, only two firms, Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins, have broken away from the pack. While few expect to catch up to Kirkland and Latham, many international firms now believe $3 billion in revenue is the new gold standard.
But why not $4 billion? Or $2 billion? And what happens when Kirkland breaks the $8 billion mark, as many predict it will?
Of course, revenue isn’t the only sign of a great law firm. The ranking by profits per equity partner tells a different story...
