Lawyer totals are based on the average number of full-time equivalent (FTE) attorneys for the period between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2015. This year, we expanded our list from 350 firms to 500. Firms smaller than No. 350 are divided into two tiers. We sent surveys to more than 700 law firms to determine the 500 largest. For those firms that did not participate in the survey, ALM research estimated lawyer counts based on data from ALM affiliate RivalEdge as of Dec. 31, 2015, reduced by 5 percent to estimate average FTE lawyers for the full calendar year. A firm must have more lawyers based in the U.S. than in any other single country to be included on the list. In case of a tie of total lawyers, we rank firms by total number of partners, then by total number of equity partners.

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