Where Our Data Comes From

Practice areas offered are sourced from each firm's website. These represent every area the firm actively practices in, regardless of rankings. When you filter by a practice area on our directory, you see every firm that offers that practice, with an average of 18.6 practice areas per firm across all 100 firms.

Chambers Band rankings come from Chambers USA 2025 (Chambers and Partners), the most widely respected practice area ranking in the legal industry. Their rankings are based on client interviews, peer reviews, and editorial analysis.

We display Chambers Band rankings where available:

• Band 1: the firm is among the very best in that practice area
• Band 2: the firm is highly regarded
• Bands 3-4: the firm has recognized capability

Jurisdiction-specific rankings: Chambers publishes both Nationwide rankings and state-level rankings for most practice areas. We track both. When you select a single city filter, we show the best available ranking for each practice area, comparing the firm's Nationwide band against its state-specific band and displaying whichever is stronger. When no city is selected or multiple cities are selected, we display Nationwide rankings only. Each firm's detail page shows all rankings with their jurisdiction clearly labeled.

When you filter by practice area, firms with Chambers rankings sort to the top (Band 1 first), followed by firms that practice in the area but are not Chambers-ranked. Rankings are updated annually when the new Chambers USA guide is published.

First-Year Compensation

Source: Above the Law 2025 Bonus Tracker / Firm announcements

The compensation figure we display is total first-year compensation, which includes base salary plus the year-end bonus.

For 2025:

• Cravath scale (~80 firms): $225,000 base + $20,000 year-end bonus + $6,000 special bonus = $246,000–$251,000 total. The $225,000 base is the 2025 market standard (source: NALP, Biglaw Investor). The year-end bonus was announced by Cravath on November 18, 2025 at $20,000 for full-year first-years ($15,000 prorated for mid-year starts). The $6,000 special bonus originated with Milbank and was matched by Cravath and most major firms (source: Above the Law, ABA Journal).
• Above Cravath (2 firms): Wachtell ($460,000+ total, based on ~$230,000 base + bonus equal to approximately 100% of base) and Susman Godfrey ($345,000+ total, with a median first-year bonus of $120,000, roughly 5–6x the market bonus; source: Bloomberg Law, Susman Godfrey press release).
• Below Cravath (18 firms): Regional and mid-market firms with base salaries from $190,000–$215,000. Per NALP's 2025 Associate Salary Survey, only about 32% of all law firms pay the full $225,000 Cravath base. Among firms with 700+ lawyers, the median starting salary is $215,000.

We track which firms follow the Cravath scale, pay above it, or pay below it using the Above the Law Bonus Tracker, which monitors real-time bonus announcements each November–December.

Summer Program Data

Source: Chambers Associate 2025 / NALP Directory

Summer associate program details come from two primary sources:

• Chambers Associate publishes annual reviews of law firm summer programs, including class sizes, offer rates, and associate satisfaction ratings.
• The NALP Directory of Legal Employers provides standardized data on summer programs, billable hour requirements, and recruiting practices.

Data points include summer class size, offer rate (percentage of summers who received full-time offers), billable hours requirements, and partnership track length.

Assignment system (rotation vs. free market): We only display this field when it has been verified through Chambers Associate reviews or the firm's own website. Many firms describe their system differently depending on the source, so we err on the side of not displaying rather than showing inaccurate data. If a firm's assignment system is not shown, it means we could not verify it from a public source.

Data we do not publish: If we cannot verify a data point from at least one credible public source, we leave it blank rather than estimate. This means some firms will have incomplete profiles. We consider this preferable to displaying inaccurate information.

Office Locations

Source: Firm websites

Office locations are sourced directly from each firm's website. We track both domestic and international offices and identify each firm's headquarters.

Office data is verified periodically against firm websites, as firms open and close offices throughout the year.

Attorney Headcount

Source: Law.com Compass / Firm websites / AmLaw 200

Attorney counts are approximate and reflect the most recent publicly available data. We round to the nearest 50 to acknowledge that headcounts fluctuate with hiring, departures, and lateral moves.

Firm Descriptions

Firm descriptions are written by the BigLaw Bear editorial team based on publicly available information from firm websites, Chambers Associate reviews, legal trade publications, and press releases. We aim to highlight what actually differentiates each firm rather than repeating marketing language.

How Often We Update

We verify all data at least once per quarter. Financial data is updated when the annual AmLaw results are published. Practice area rankings are updated when the new Chambers guide drops. Summer program data is updated annually based on Chambers Associate and NALP publications.

The "Last verified" date on each firm's page shows when that firm's data was most recently checked against source materials.

Access the Full Data Source Reference

We maintain a complete reference listing every data point for all 100 firms, the fiscal year it represents, and the source it came from. Access is available to authenticated student and firm accounts.

Sign up to access the dataset

The reference includes three sheets:

• All Firm Data: PPP, revenue, attorney count, summer class size, and source citations for each firm
• Practice Area Rankings: every Chambers Band ranking and the year it was published
• Sources Index: every source we use, what it covers, and how to access it

Questions or Corrections

If you believe any data point on BigLaw Bear is inaccurate, please contact us at hello@biglawbear.com. We take data accuracy seriously and will investigate and correct any verified errors promptly.