Our annual A-List ranking has always aimed to 
highlight the most well-rounded firms—the best of the best, if you will. On this list, profits don't reign supreme, nor does size. Since its inception, the A-List has recognized firms based on a combination of factors, both financial and cultural: revenue per lawyer, pro bono commitment, associate satisfaction and racial diversity, with RPL and pro bono given double weight.

But the scoring didn't take into account gender diversity at law firms—an area where many firms still struggle. We felt it was important to honor the firms that have made the most progress in advancing women in the partnership ranks. Although women now make up almost half of all associates at large firms—46 percent, according to our sibling publication The National Law Journal—their numbers still drop off drastically at more senior levels. The NLJ reports that only 21.8 percent of all Big Law partners are female. We debated whether to use those general partnership statistics for the basis of a new A-List metric—but decided that the number of women in equity partnership ranks was the true acid test.

Related Items:
• The 2017 A-List
• Chart: The A-List Top 20
• Chart: Firms Ranked by the Percentage of Female Equity Partners in the Am Law 200
• Chart: The A-List Runners Up

So this year we've added a fifth component to the A-List formula: a female equity partner score. Like the other A-List metrics, it measures firms' relative performance: We rank Am Law 200 firms by their percentage of female equity partners, and base their score in that category on that ranking.

What sort of impact does this have on the A-List? Immigration boutique Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy ranked first in women equity partners, followed by a tie between Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Munger, Tolles & Olson. While Fragomen is not on the A-List, Munger was already near the top of the A-List, at No. 2 last year. It moved into first place this year. Paul Weiss jumped from A-List wannabe—26th last year—to third this year. (It also saw improvement in other categories.) Fragomen moved from 62nd last year to 35th this year, even with a zero in associate satisfaction, stemming from the firm's nonparticipation in our Associates Survey. Conversely, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy fell from third on the A-List to 11th, largely on the back of having the lowest score among the top 20 in the female equity partner category.