Credit: ALM

The American Lawyer's annual A-List ranking doesn't measure size or profits. Rather, it highlights the best of the best law firms for their commitment to a variety of financial and cultural markers: revenue per lawyer, pro bono work, associate satisfaction, racial diversity and gender diversity among the partnership. The last metric was added to our calculation in 2017 to recognise firms for supporting women and making them partners.

But it's not enough for firms to keep associates happy or to dedicate a few extra hours to their pro bono commitments. To make the A-List, all of these issues have to share top priority.

[falcon-embed src="embed_1"]

How does your firm's performance compare to peers & competitors? Get the A-List Data exclusively on Legal Compass.

"[All these measurements are] a part of the firm culture, and we're not treating these as siloed barometers of firm success," Benjamin Klubes, managing partner of Washington, D.C.-based Buckley, says of the five metrics. "They're interrelated in many ways."

Buckley jumped nine spots to move onto this year's A-List at No. 17, improving in three of the five categories, most notably associate satisfaction, which increased by 20.5 points.

Bradley Butwin, chairman of O'Melveny & Myers, which cracked the top 10 for the second year in a row and moved up two places to No. 7, agrees. His firm doesn't really think in terms of one-off initiatives. Instead, it uses resources such as affinity groups, engagement surveys and a two-way communication policy to continually give colleagues a voice and give everyone at the firm something to work toward.

"They're part of our everyday vocabulary, and they're ingrained in our DNA and our firm strategy," Butwin says of the A-List metrics. "[These issues] are not relegated to the side. We expect everyone to participate, and we make that expectation very explicit."

O'Melveny was propelled forward on this year's list by its female equity partners score, which increased 16 points, as well as a second year in a row with a near-perfect associate satisfaction score of 99.5.

Butwin sees the A-List metrics as interrelated. Many of the pro bono opportunities O'Melveny takes on deal with issues that affect marginalised groups, which, in turn, inspire associates because they get to take on assignments they care about. In this way, Butwin says the firm is often addressing three or more A-List metrics at the same time.

"A-List elements are often intertwined," he says. "They're not mutually exclusive."

Robert Novick, a co-managing partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, which held steady at No. 2 on the A-List for the second year in a row, says the A-List categories often function in concert. Specifically, he highlights the firm's increasing effort to do pro bono work—97% of U.S.-based attorneys, including 82% of attorneys at the partner level, completed at least 20 pro bono hours last year. The experience improves associates' satisfaction because they are working on causes they care about, and it also allows them to gain experience with more challenging and engaging assignments.

"The metrics are not considered in isolation, but as a cohesive set of elements," he says. "If you do those right, they're fostering the kind of environment you want to have."