Law Firm Prestige — Why It’s Important For A Successful Legal Career

 

SUMMARY

Law firm prestige plays an important role in the legal industry, as gaining experience in high-profile firms for long-term career growth is essential. Attorneys who wish to work on complex cases must move to larger law firms, while those seeking hands-on experience can find it in smaller ones. Working in large or small firms also affects the type of work you do, and selecting a firm that offers the right development opportunities is crucial. BCG Attorney Search can help attorneys find the best legal job for their goals and ambitions. Find out more about law firm prestige and its impact on your legal career today.

QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS ARTICLE

 

• What can I learn from working in a small law firm?
  Working in a small law firm can give you valuable hands-on experience and teach you the basics of running a legal business. You may also be able to start your own business.
   
• What are the career opportunities available at large law firms?
  Large law firms usually have better opportunities for career development with mentoring programs, comprehensive training programs, and educational programs. They also have access to the latest legal technology.
   
• How does a law firm's prestige affect the type of work a lawyer can do?
  Law firm prestige affects the types of cases lawyers can work on and their complexity. Those working in larger law firms will likely have access to more complex cases and higher salaries.
   
• What is the importance of law firm prestige in a legal career? 
  Law firm prestige is essential because it can affect your opportunities for career advancement and the complexity of cases you can work on. It can also affect the amount of money you make.
   
• How can BCG Attorney Search help me with my legal career?
  BCG Attorney Search is a professional recruitment agency that can provide you with the best career advice for getting the legal job you want. They can connect you to the best opportunities and give you access to higher salaries and more complex cases.

Law firm prestige can have a tremendous impact on your legal career. The prestige of the law firm where you work affects your income, type of legal work, colleagues, and, ultimately, your career prospects. The most prestigious law firms typically pay the most because they have talented lawyers. However, less prestigious firms typically have lower-paying clients and a higher turnover of lawyers.

BCG Attorney Search ranks every lawyer based on their experience, resume, and current employment. We also divide law firms into five ranking factors. These are typically based on the amount of money they make and the type of legal work they perform.

The best way to further your career in the legal industry is to understand your goals. Typically, each law student graduating from law school bases their decision to accept employment based on the following five factors:

• Law firm prestige
• Law firm culture
• The type of legal work and quality of the work
• Specific practice areas
• Location

Apart from location, the prestige of a large law firm affects how much entry-level attorneys earn, the type of work they get, and the firm culture.

Related reading: The five prestige levels of attorneys

Are you interested in a large law firm where you can make hundreds of billable hours a month? Are you more interested in going into corporate law? Or do you want to start in one of the big firms that offer the best job opportunities? If so, this article is for you.

I will share with you the five ranking factors of all the small and big law firms in the country. This vital information can help set you on a path to a successful career in the legal field.
 

Does Law School Matter to Law Firm Prestige?

Some law students — and even large law firms tend to put too much emphasis on the prestige of the top law schools. This is why some law firms only hire from Harvard. But while getting an excellent legal education is vital, going to a top-tier school doesn’t necessarily guarantee a top job in a big law firm.

Although the largest firms tend to offer top jobs to the best students from the best law schools, law firm prestige is more important to your career.

Let’s say you went to a prestigious university, for example, Yale or Harvard. There you worked for a circuit clerk. After that, you work for four or five years in a low-grade law firm. In that case, you will struggle to get hired laterally to one of the more prestigious law firms — say, a four or five-ranked firm.

But suppose you went to a local law school and got average grades. You then worked hard after graduating and are now an associate in one of the larger firms ranked four or five. In that case, you will be able to get a job in another highly-ranked firm without any problem.

Here are two facts about the impact of your law school’s prestige:

• How well you did in law school matters, but it’s not the most important career factor.
• Your first summer associate job gives you excellent experience but doesn’t necessarily affect your career.

What is most important to your career is the level of the firm — its prestige — where you are working. Here’s how it works when lawyers enter the legal industry:

• You start off in a one-rank firm and then move to a two-rank firm.
• After getting experience, you can move to a three-rank firm.
• The next step up in your career is moving to a four-rank firm.

Unfortunately, no matter how talented you are, many lawyers find it almost impossible to move immediately from one of the smaller law firms to one of the most prestigious firms ranked in the four or five categories.

Why is this? It’s because prestige matters to many large law firms.
 

Law Firm Prestige — A Guide to Five Ranking Factors

How do the five ranking factors affect the prestige of a law firm? Here is a brief explanation of how BCG Attorney Search ranks law firms.

Rank One Law Firms
A rank-one firm is typically a consumer-facing law firm dealing directly with small-time clients. Usually, their clients are those with personal injury claims, facing bankruptcy, or having similar issues to resolve. Basically, their clients have little money to spend on legal representation. Many private practice firms are ranked one.

Rank Two Law Firms
Firms in our rank-two category typically work for consumers and may represent small businesses. Additionally, many of these firms may also represent insurance companies. However, their clients are mostly individuals, startups, and smaller firms that do not have a lot of money to spend.

Rank Three Law Firms
Rank-three firms typically represent successful small to medium-sized businesses. They deal with more sophisticated caseloads and have a client base willing to pay more for legal services. Usually, attorneys at rank-three law firms enjoy a better pay scale than those in rank one-or-two firms.

Rank Four Law Firms
Rank four law firms have clients that are medium to large-size businesses with money to spend. This means that these large law firms want to attract the best types of attorneys with experience in various aspects of the law. Typically, most 100 and 200 big firms are in the rank four categories.

Rank Five Law Firms
The most prestigious firms are in the rank five category and attract the most talented lawyers. These big law firms have less cost-conscious clients and are willing to pay hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars for legal services.
 

How Law Firm Prestige Affects Your Career

It’s a fact that your qualifications and current work greatly affect your job opportunities. If you are working in a rank one firm, then you must work your way up to get the job of a big law associate in a renowned law firm. Across the board, law firms are hiring attorneys based on certain types of criteria.

Think about it this way — the difference between a McDonald’s restaurant and a five-star Michelin one. Or course, you could order a hamburger from each restaurant. However, the level of service you expect in each establishment differs. And, of course, the bill for your meal will be significantly different.

Is there anything wrong with working at McDonald’s? No, it’s a career decision. And for many people, it could be their first job. Also, some climb the corporate ladder and have successful careers in the company. However, becoming a chef in a Michelin-star restaurant commands more attention to detail, skill, and ingenuity.

So, the point is — would someone flipping burgers in a local diner apply for and get a job in a fancy five-star restaurant? Most likely not. However, the fact they are working at McDonald’s doesn’t mean they have no ambition to work in an upper-class gourmet burger restaurant.
 

How Clients Pay Law Firms Depending on Rank Status

Prestigious firms in the legal industry can charge more than smaller firms. This means you earn more when working in a three or four-rank firm. Here is how it works.

The clients of one-rank law firms are 100 percent cost-conscious and may even be looking for free services. And there is no way one of the smaller firms could send a bill of, say, $10,000. However, bills of $15,000 will probably be fine for some rank two and most “three firms.”

Of course, working in a large law firm means billing a ton of hours every week. Therefore, bills in the range of tens of thousands of dollars are common and expected. And some rank-five regular bill clients for millions of dollars a month without fear of not getting paid.
 

How Law Firm Prestige Ranking Affects Client Base

Working in a large law firm or a smaller firm affects the type of clients you work with. For example, a small private law firm may only have small-time clients paying small amounts of money for services. Logically, other firms with greater prestige rankings have a better client base.

One of the benefits of working in the most prestigious firms is that they have a solid firm culture. As a result, you enjoy a high-market salary and benefit from bonuses. In addition, you enjoy working with a steady stream of high-profile clients willing to pay endless legal bills for the firm’s services. And you are rewarded by getting huge bonuses for a ton of billable hours.

Working in a large law firm means dealing with sophisticated clients. The client uses the firm because they know the attorneys are top-notch and can deal with sophisticated caseloads. And they are willing to pay thousands of dollars an hour for the privilege.
 

Law Firm Prestige Affects Management Styles

Another significant difference between many large law firms and smaller ones is management style. Small firms tend to be run by individuals trying to make ends meet. Typically, attorneys in these firms must take on some managerial responsibilities as well.

However, in a big law firm, the management style changes. Most “three firms” have a management team steering business growth, assigning complex cases, and making decisions. This means that fewer decisions are left to attorneys — who may be useless at running a business.

In larger firms, teams of managers help drive business success. In addition, they typically have processes for formal evaluations where they help attorneys develop their career advancement.

Working in large law firms means better job security and career development for many attorneys. This is because there is less unpredictability and irrational decisions compared to smaller law firms.
 

How to Further Your Career in the Legal Industry

One of the most significant benefits of working in a prestige big law firm is that you can further your career in the legal industry faster. But how can you get hired at firms of different rankings?

First, don’t get too hung up on which law school you attended, as it’s not critical for getting a job in the big law firms. What is crucial if you want a big law firm job is how hard you are willing to work for it.

Most local law firms are looking for graduates from local law schools. However, rank three and four firms want the most talented lawyers with plenty of law firm experience in specific practice areas.

This is one reason to use a legal recruitment company like BCG Attorney Search. Experienced recruiters can help you find jobs in larger law firms to help you get the experience you require. This, in turn, opens more job opportunities in higher-ranking firms.

Here is how it works with large law firms ranked three, four, and five. They are mostly concerned with your recent experience. And as you move up the ranks, firms are looking for more specialized and focused experience in a specific practice area.

Using the services of a legal recruiting firm can greatly widen your job opportunities. For example, if you are moving laterally in your career, you can easily move from a “two firm” to a “three firm” and then on to a large law firm ranked four in our list. Moving from smaller to larger law firms is about getting the necessary experience.
 

How Law Firm Prestige Affects Who You Work With

The law firm's prestige greatly affects the type of attorneys you have to work with. This is a logical conclusion based on the type of work big law firms do, their pay scale, and the level of legal expertise they offer. And it’s good to remember that your peers can significantly impact your career.

Unfortunately, working at rank-one law firms means you will spend much of your time working with attorneys with poor academic skills. These lawyers may not have done great at law school and are happy to stick with a small law firm.

It stands to reason that as you gain law firm experience, you begin working with credentialed colleagues, high-profile clients, and the most talented lawyers. It seems to be that attorneys in rank four and five law firms are those that catch onto things very well.

As a general guide, this is what I have found about many attorneys working in various types of law firms in relation to persuasive abilities:

• Rank one: Moderate
• Rank two: Highly persuasive
• Rank three: Moderate
• Rank four: Highly persuasive
• Rank five: High

 

Law Firm Prestige Affects Learning and Advancement Opportunities

Although you may dream of making it big in a large law firm, it’s good to remember that you can gain valuable experience in all law firms — large and small. And to be a successful lawyer, your career depends on gaining in-depth experience in the legal industry.

For example, smaller law firms raking one or two may seem detrimental to your career. However, there is valuable experience you can gain there. You often get hands-on experience that is difficult to get in big law firms. This could be learning the grassroots of a legal business and giving you the know-how to start your own business.

However, large law firms tend to have better opportunities for career development. These can include mentoring programs, comprehensive training programs, and educational programs. They also have access to the latest legal technology that isn’t available in many small firms. You also need the ability to get your own clients and know how to deal with complex matters of elite cases.

Another thing to consider when choosing the type of law firm is its career opportunities. Most large law firms have organizational hierarchies and have processes with defined opportunities for many lawyers. These opportunities give you various options to further your long-term career.
 

The Prestige of the Law Firm Affects the Type of Work

There is a chasm of difference in the type of work you do working in a one or two-rank firm or a large law firm. Of course, lawyers decide the type of work they want and their relevant career path. Therefore, your career choices really depend on the kind of law firm you work in.

For example, if you want to work on complex cases, you need a career path to move up to larger law firms specializing in elite cases and complex matters. Unfortunately, working in a consumer-facing firm means accepting the lowest salaries without access to training programs in an intellectually challenging environment.
 

Why Law Firm Prestige Is Important in Your Legal Career

In conclusion, it is important to note that law firm prestige affects your legal career. Therefore, if you want to make it big in the legal world, you should consider working at a prestigious law firm with defined opportunities for career advancement.

Using a professional recruitment agency like BCG Attorney Search can help you meet your legal career goals. Even if you are a junior attorney in a small firm, our recruitment experts can give you the best career advice to help you get the legal job you want.
 

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