Law firm hiring grows in 2016

Steady market growth is the headline, but that's not the story for everyone in our 2016 hiring survey...

WOULD a smidge of optimism be reckless in the BigLaw hiring market? Probably. But we should allow ourselves a few seconds of joy before OCIs start in earnest. If our report this time last year pointed to steady growth, then this year’s is looking steadier yet. The 93 firms that reported data together grew their collective intake by 7% on 2015. Summer classes are up by the same figure, which contributed to a 73% increase since the gloom of 2010.

The elite just got elite-er

2016’s top ten recruiters grew by the highest margin – by 12%. This was down to five big hirers – Latham, Kirkland, Davis Polk, Ropes and Paul, Weiss – swallowing up 682 first years between them and together growing their intake by a whopping 30% on average. But for all except for Davis Polk, this uptick is more pronounced by these firms’ recovery from a year or two of lower hiring numbers. In the top ten as elsewhere, there are firms like Jones Day and Gibson Dunn hiring slightly fewer, though we’d put this down to the same cyclical movements.

This compounds a trend we picked up on last year: that the strong are getting stronger: while the top 30 enjoyed a 9% increase, the bottom 20 firms shrank their hiring by 21%.

Summer for some...

The numbers in summer associate hiring paint this picture more vividly: trailblazers like Sidley Austin, with its flashy 77% increase to 188, have helped the largest 20 firms grow in summer hires by 10% this year. Meanwhile, growth below the top 20 loiters at a cautious 3.5%. And these firms are right to be cautious if you track their summer classes since 2009: the top 20 giants revel in their 88% growth since the recession’s doom year, while the middle 50% have scaled down their summers by 27% and the bottom third – the smallest summer classes – have got smaller by 64%.

For deeper analysis on market trends, have a read of our round-up of the year.

Class size changes at a glance – from the 93 firms supplying data:

Market segment	2015 intake	2016 intake	% change in 12 months
TOP 10	1,168	1,312	12%
TOP 20	1,895	2,081	10%
TOP 30	2,452	2,671	9%
TOP 40	2,874	3,108	8%
TOP 50	3,186	3,454	8%
BOTTOM 20	235	186	-21%

Summers numbers – from the 79 firms that have given us data since we started in 2009:

Market segment	2009	2015	2016	Change since 2015	Change since 2009
TOP 20	1429	2443	2690	10.1%	88.2%
TOP 50	2237	1567	1623	3.6%	-27.4%
Bottom Third	1514	531	549	3.4%	-63.7%

The 2016 class size survey in full>>

Rank	Firm	2015 intake	2016 intake	% change
1	Skadden	186	200	8%
2	Latham & Watkins	104	156	50%
3	Kirkland & Ellis	114	140	23%
4	Davis Polk	112	133	19%
5	Ropes & Gray	108	133	23%
6	Paul, Weiss	84	120	43%
7	Jones Day	129	118	-9%
8	Sullivan & Cromwell	108	112	4%
9	Simpson Thacher	114	104	-9%
10	Gibson Dunn	109	96	-12%
	TOP 10	1168	1312	12%
11	Sidley Austin	101	96	-5%
12	Cleary Gottlieb	92	90	-2%
13	Cravath	92	90	-2%
14	Weil	64	83	30%
15	Debevoise	76	75	-1%
16	Mayer Brown	60	68	13%
17	K&L Gates	85	67	-21%
18	O'Melveny & Myers	47	67	43%
19	White & Case	55	67	22%
20	Willkie Farr	55	66	20%
	TOP 20	1895	2081	10%
21	Dechert	54	65	20%
22	Baker Botts	52	64	23%
23	Hogan Lovells	57	62	9%
24	Vinson	48	62	29%
25	Morgan Lewis	86	61	-29%
26	Paul Hastings	61	61	0%
27	Shearman & Sterling	48	59	23%
28	Proskauer	62	53	-15%
29	Fried Frank	43	52	21%
30	Milbank	46	51	11%
	TOP 30	2452	2671	9%
31	Winston & Strawn	43	51	19%
32	WilmerHale	80	49	-39%
33	Foley & Lardner	36	48	33%
34	Reed Smith	47	46	-2%
35	Cooley	44	45	2%
36	Morrison & Foerster	43	43	0%
37	Cadwalader	34	40	18%
38	Venable	28	39	39%
39	Akin Gump	33	38	15%
40	Alston & Bird	34	38	12%
	TOP 40	2874	3108	8%
41	Holland & Knight	27	38	41%
42	Perkins Coie	30	38	27%
43	Cahill	38	37	-3%
44	Greenberg Traurig	37	36	-3%
45	Pillsbury	25	35	40%
46	Jenner & Block	28	34	21%
47	Orrick	31	33	6%
48	Baker & McKenzie	32	32	0%
49	Sheppard Mullin	29	32	10%
50	DLA Piper	35	31	-11%
	TOP 50	3186	3454	8%
51	Hunton & Williams	26	31	19%
52	Haynes and Boone	29	30	3%
53	Clifford Chance	29	29	0%
54	King & Spalding	24	27	13%
55	Arnold & Porter	35	26	-26%
56	Fish & Richardson	22	25	14%
57	Finnegan	21	24	14%
58	Bracewell	20	23	15%
59	Katten Muchin	23	23	0%
60	Allen & Overy	17	21	24%
	TOP 60	3432	3713	8%
61	Nixon Peabody	23	21	-9%
62	Freshfields	17	20	18%
63	Fox Rothschild	12	19	58%
64	McGuireWoods	15	19	27%
65	Duane Morris	10	18	80%
66	Kaye Scholer	17	18	6%
67	Linklaters	23	17	-26%
68	Mintz Levin	16	17	6%
69	Patterson Belknapp	6	17	183%
70	Irell & Manella	14	15	7%
	TOP 70	3585	3894	9%
71	Jackson Walker	9	15	67%
72	Brown Rudnick	14	14	0%
73	Cozen O'Connor	14	14	0%
74	Pepper Hamilton	12	14	17%
75	Seward	15	14	-7%
76	Stroock	14	14	0%
77	Snell & Wilmer	19	13	-32%
78	Kramer Levin	12	12	0%
79	Choate	10	11	10%
80	Crowell	14	11	-21%
	TOP 80	3718	4026	8%
81	Dykema	16	10	-38%
82	Epstein	8	10	25%
83	Munger Tolles	17	10	-41%
84	Squire Patton Boggs	16	10	-38%
85	Chadbourne	10	9	-10%
86	Fitzpatrick	10	9	-10%
87	Curtis	7	8	14%
88	Wiley Rein	12	8	-33%
89	Kasowitz	18	6	-67%
90	Waller	10	5	-50%
91	Axinn	4	4	0%
92	Harris Wiltshire	4	4	0%
93	Nutter	7	4	-43%
		3857	4123	7%