How TIME and Statista Determined America’s Top Law Firms of 2024

This year, TIME launched its inaugural list of America's Top Law Firms, in partnership with Statista, a leading international provider of market and consumer data and rankings. The result of this survey: the 150 most recommended law firms in the country. Here's how the winners were selected.

Methodology

The "America’s Top Law Firms 2024" list is based on recommendations made by lawyers (peer-to-peer survey) and clients (e.g. in-house lawyers working in corporate legal departments).

More than 50,000 attorneys across the U.S. were invited to take part in the survey. The sample was collected via research conducted by Statista on company websites, in publications and on job networks such as LinkedIn. Invitations were sent by e-mail with a personalized link that could only be used once. In addition, lawyers and clients could participate in the survey via an open link. In these cases, the participants had to provide a personal company e-mail address before their answers were included in the evaluation. The link was announced and made available online by TIME.

The survey was conducted online between May 8 and June 30, 2023. Statista recorded the recommendations made for the law firms. Self-recommendations (recommendation of one’s own law firm) were prohibited, and these recommendations were not included in the evaluation. Moreover, Statista used recommendations from its own internationally conducted surveys as well as additional company data (e.g. revenue, number of employees) provided by the companies themselves (voluntary information in a separate follow-up survey, information provided by the companies on their websites) or from public sources (e.g. press releases, public directories, etc.). In the case that no company data were available, an estimate was made.

The participants were also asked to answer optional editorial questions specifically focused on developments in the U.S. legal world.

To be included in the final list, law firms must have a minimum total number of recommendations. The recommendations originate on the one hand from the survey of this project, on the other hand from other Statista lawyer surveys and were weighted and included to a certain percentage. In addition, law firms must have a minimum worldwide turnover of at least $200 million and at least 100 employees in the U.S. If the total number of employees is less than 100, it is sufficient if at least 50% of the employees are in the U.S.

See the full list here.