Vault vs. Chambers: Which to Trust?

Law students obsess over rankings, and two names dominate: Vault and Chambers. They measure different things. Understanding the difference helps you use both without being misled by either.

What Vault Measures

Vault's prestige rankings are based on associate surveys about peer perception. Associates at BigLaw firms rank other firms on a scale of 1-10 based on how prestigious they consider them. It's literally a popularity contest among lawyers.

Vault also publishes quality-of-life rankings based on associate satisfaction surveys covering culture, hours, compensation satisfaction, training, and diversity.

Best for: Getting a general sense of how a firm is perceived in the market. Useful as a starting point, not an endpoint.

What Chambers Measures

Chambers ranks individual practice groups based on client feedback, deal analysis, and editorial research. A firm might be ranked Band 1 in M&A but not ranked at all in environmental law. The rankings are granular and practice-specific.

Chambers Associate is the separate publication that surveys associates about their experience at the firm, this is closer to what Vault does but with more detailed narrative content.

Best for: Evaluating specific practice groups. If you want to do restructuring work, Chambers tells you which firms are actually the best at it.

Where They Disagree

A firm can rank highly on Vault's overall prestige list but have mediocre Chambers rankings in certain practice areas. Conversely, a firm with a lower Vault number might have top-tier Chambers rankings in the exact practice area you care about.

Example: A firm ranked #25 on Vault might be Chambers Band 1 in capital markets. A firm ranked #5 on Vault might be Band 3 in the same area. If capital markets is your focus, the "lower-ranked" firm is the better choice.

How to Use Both

1. Use Vault for broad market positioning. It tells you the firm's general reputation tier.
2. Use Chambers for practice-specific research. It tells you where the firm actually excels.
3. Use both alongside the firm directory to get a complete picture, practice strengths, office locations, and other factors that neither ranking captures.
4. Don't use either as your sole decision-maker. Rankings are one data point among many.

The Limitations

Both ranking systems have biases. Vault skews toward East Coast firms and traditional prestige markers. Chambers can lag behind market changes since its research cycles are long. Neither tells you much about what it's actually feels like to work somewhere day-to-day.

For that, you need to talk to people and read between the lines. Check our post on evaluating firm culture for a more practical approach.