As is the case every year, New Jersey firms making the recently released NLJ 500, which measures year-to-year attorney head counts for U.S.-based law firms, saw a wide array of changes.

New Jersey homegrown firms—as well as firms such as Day Pitney and Peckar & Abramson, with their largest offices in New Jersey—number 19 on the list, which is released every year by the National Law Journal. The head count numbers are based on the prior calendar year.

Of the 19 New Jersey firms, 12 had year-over-year increases in attorney head count. Of the remaining seven, six saw decreases, and one had the exact same attorney head count for 2019 and 2018.

The combined number of lawyers at the NLJ 500 firms increased 2.5% in 2019, which is a similar rate to the prior year. It's worth noting that some firms that increased their head count didn't necessarily gain ground in the rankings if their growth rate was behind other firms.

For New Jersey, nine of the 19 firms on the NLJ 500 climbed the list.

The NLJ ranks the 350 largest firms, and groups the other 150 into two "tiers." ALM Legal Intelligence, however, collects specific head count data for all 500 firms (and more), and each firm's specific ranking, regardless of whether it was inside or outside the top 350, is included here.

Here's how the 19 New Jersey firms stacked up.

• McCarter & English's attorney head count decreased 3.8%, to 359, and the firm moved back nine spots in the rankings, to No. 123.

• Lowenstein Sandler increased its attorney head count by 7%, to 307, and climbed five spots, to No. 140.

• Day Pitney saw a 5.7% increase in attorney head count, to 268, and moved up three spots, to No. 164.

• McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter saw a 7.6% drop in attorney head count, to 232, and slid 13 spots, to No. 184.

• Archer & Greiner's head count decreased by 1.7%, to 177, and the firm moved back 10 spots, to No. 230.

• Gibbons grew its head count 1.3%, to 173. But it moved back in the rankings four spots, to No. 237.

• Connell Foley's net gain of one attorney in 2019 works out to a 0.7% increase, to 137 total attorneys. The firm meanwhile slipped four spots, to No. 277.

• Cole Schotz saw its head count increase 2.1%, to 144, and moved up four spots, to No. 281.

• Bressler, Amery & Ross was listed with a large population increase from 2018 to 2019, but this year is listed with a significant decrease. Attorney head count decreased 20.6%, to 142. It moved back 65 spots in the rankings, to No 288.

• Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi's head count increased 4.4%, to 141, and it moved up 14 spots, to No. 290.

• Sills Cummis & Gross had a net increase of one attorney (a 0.7% increase, to 137), and climbed one spot, to No. 300.

• Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti saw a 5.3% decrease, to 128 lawyers, and slid 19 spots in the rankings, to No. 325.

• Norris McLaughlin's attorney head count (122) was flat year-to-year. The firm moved down four spots, to No. 335.

• Peckar & Abramson had a 5.3% head count increase, to 120, and climbed eight spots, to No. 342.

• Wilentz Goldman & Spitzer saw a 15.1% head count increase, to 107, and moved up 44 spots, to No. 370.

• Stark & Stark had a 1% increase, to 99 attorneys, but moved back six spots, to No. 394.

• Porzio Bromberg & Newman grew its head count 13.1%, to 95, and climbed 43 spots, to No. 421.

• Capehart Scatchard saw a 7.4% head count decrease, to 87, and moved back 40 spots, to No. 446.

• Greenbaum Rowe Smith & Davis had a 3.6% increase, to 86 lawyers, and climbed eight spots, to No. 459.

• Schenck Price Smith & King's head count increased 5.2%, to 81, and it moved up nine spots, to No. 484.

Last year there were 20 New Jersey firms listed. This year, Hoagland Longo Moran Dunst & Doukas didn't make the list. The New Brunswick-based firm had an attorney head count of 70 in 2019, according to ALM Legal Intelligence. The No. 500 firm on this year's NLJ 500, Cohen & Gresser of New York, is listed with 78 attorneys.