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The 2025 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard law firms are balancing business strength with social responsibility, global reach with local impact, and the ability to lead complex matters while meeting clients' evolving needs. Law360 caught up with firm leaders from this year’s Leaderboard to discuss what success looks like, and how they are positioning their firms for the future.
Check out the Law360 Pulse Leaderboard to see which firms are leaders in all-around excellence this year.
The top 100 firms on Law360's 2025 Practice Footprint ranking have left a clear mark across federal district courts. Our interactive map shows where each firm has appeared in district court cases over the past three years — revealing the breadth of each firm's national reach.
What makes a law firm stand out in a crowded field of top-tier competitors? What does it take to be a well-rounded firm? Presenting the 2025 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard — showcasing the firms that demonstrate excellence on measures of prestige, responsible business practices, and the reach of their legal work.
These 100 firms stand out for their impressive litigation footprints and transactions work. See who's leading the pack across four categories: variety of cases, range of jurisdictions, closing large merger and acquisition deals, and handling registered offerings.
A divided panel of state bar regulators voted to publicly reprimand former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins for leaking confidential material about an investigation to a reporter and then trying to deflect suspicion in a deceptive message to subordinates, a lawyer for Rollins confirmed Tuesday.
President Donald Trump appealed his New York criminal conviction for falsifying business records, arguing the charges were defective, the jury was improperly instructed, the judge was biased and that he was immune from prosecution.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Christine Donohue, one of three Democrats on the bench hoping to be retained, has authored some of the court's more liberal-leaning interpretations of election law, abortion rights and environmental issues.
The U.S. Senate voted on Monday to confirm Rebecca Taibleson, a federal prosecutor in Wisconsin, to the Seventh Circuit, and Justice Bill Lewis of the Alabama Supreme Court to the Middle District of Alabama.
U.S. Circuit Judge William Duane Benton of the Eighth Circuit notified the judiciary on Friday that he plans to step back from active service, opening up another seat on the court for President Donald Trump to fill, according to the federal judiciary's online list of future judiciary vacancies.
A D.C. federal judge will review a trove of documents containing communications between officials from the first Trump administration and attorneys for his 2020 campaign to decide whether they can be kept from discovery in a lawsuit over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Amid the ongoing furlough of U.S. Department of Justice employees, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania has announced the interim appointment of Brian D. Miller, former inspector general for pandemic recovery, as U.S. attorney, effective on Monday.
A Connecticut Supreme Court justice said Monday that if the state's human rights watchdog cannot address claims of racial discrimination in attorney licensing, then there is "no oversight" when bias infects the process.
Georgia ethics prosecutors told a state judicial watchdog on Monday to press ahead with removal of a probate judge from the bench over allegations of yearslong case delays, urging a hearing panel not to "bend over backwards" to keep him in office under something akin to judicial probation.
An Alabama woman has claimed that a Georgia state judge violated her constitutional rights by improperly jailing her when she was a witness in the judge's courtroom, a move that came as a state commission is seeking the judge's removal from the bench over that and other alleged misconduct.
Two lawsuits from fired U.S. Department of Justice attorneys may set the U.S. Supreme Court up to decide between presidential authority and civil service job protections, giving the justices an "unprecedented" chance to reassess the nearly 50-year-old safeguards for lower-ranking government workers.
Pennsylvania voters hoping for a quiet off-year election following last year's contentious presidential race have found themselves being targeted by millions of dollars worth of ads this fall over whether to give three Democratic members of the state's Supreme Court fresh 10-year terms on the bench.
Federal judiciary advisers set the stage Friday for new and far-reaching rules involving two sets of highly contentious topics: long-simmering demands for greater transparency in third-party litigation funding and calls for closer scrutiny of class action issues, including payouts to class counsel, certification standards and financial perks for plaintiffs.
The federal government Friday urged a Maryland federal judge to give SCOTUSblog co-founder Tom Goldstein a December deadline to disclose whether he intends to assert at trial that he failed to file tax returns due to legal advice, saying it expects him to "blame everyone other than himself."
An Illinois man pled guilty Friday to threatening to assault, kidnap and murder the Florida federal judge who oversaw the criminal classified documents case against President Donald Trump.
A Pennsylvania county on Friday escaped a lawsuit from a former assistant district attorney who said he was fired for complaining that the district attorney was treating women and employees with disabilities more harshly than men, with a federal judge ruling the county wasn't his employer.
The onetime director of Colorado's Commission on Judicial Discipline has filed an explosive pro se federal lawsuit against the state Supreme Court, statewide disciplinary authorities and dozens of officials including the governor, alleging a widespread conspiracy to conceal conduct surrounding a $2.7 million contract later found suspect.
A Florida appellate judge has been hit with ethics charges alleging she exchanged a series of text messages with a state attorney in an attempt to influence postconviction litigation in a death penalty case.
California's high court has rejected a proposal that would have imposed a one-time automatic expungement of attorney discipline records in what the state bar hoped would be a "means of redressing historical racial disparities in discipline."
A nominee for a local court in Washington, D.C., highlighted during his confirmation hearing Thursday how he would seek to alleviate the overburdened court system in the district.
Laranda Walker at Susman Godfrey, who was raising two small children and working her way to partner when she suddenly lost her husband, shares what fighting to keep her career on track taught her about accepting help, balancing work and family, and discovering new reserves of inner strength.
Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can I Turn Deferral To My Advantage?
Diana Leiden at Winston & Strawn discusses how first-year associates whose law firm start dates have been deferred can use the downtime to hone their skills, help their communities, and focus on returning to BigLaw with valuable contacts and out-of-the-box insights.
Female attorneys and others who pause their careers for a few years will find that gaps in work history are increasingly acceptable among legal employers, meaning with some networking, retraining and a few other strategies, lawyers can successfully reenter the workforce, says Jill Backer at Ave Maria School of Law.
ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools pose significant risks to the integrity of legal work, but the key for law firms is not to ban these tools, but to implement them responsibly and with appropriate safeguards, say Natalie Pierce and Stephanie Goutos at Gunderson Dettmer.
Opinion
We Must Continue DEI Efforts Despite High Court Headwinds
Though the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down affirmative action in higher education, law firms and their clients must keep up the legal industry’s recent momentum advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the profession in order to help achieve a just and prosperous society for all, says Angela Winfield at the Law School Admission Council.
Law firms that fail to consider their attorneys' online habits away from work are not using their best efforts to protect client information and are simplifying the job of plaintiffs attorneys in the case of a breach, say Mark Hurley and Carmine Cicalese at Digital Privacy and Protection.
Though effective writing is foundational to law, no state requires attorneys to take continuing legal education in this skill — something that must change if today's attorneys are to have the communication abilities they need to fulfill their professional and ethical duties to their clients, colleagues and courts, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona.
In the most stressful times for attorneys, when several transactions for different partners and clients peak at the same time and the phone won’t stop buzzing, incremental lifestyle changes can truly make a difference, says Lindsey Hughes at Haynes Boone.
Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can I Support Gen Z Attorneys?
Meredith Beuchaw at Lowenstein Sandler discusses how senior attorneys can assist the newest generation of attorneys by championing their pursuit of a healthy work-life balance and providing the hands-on mentorship opportunities they missed out on during the pandemic.
Ten steps can help firms significantly enhance the experience of attorneys who started their careers in the coronavirus pandemic era, including facilitating opportunities for cross-firm connection, which can ultimately help build momentum for business development, says Lana Manganiello at Equinox Strategy Partners.
There are a few communication tips that law students in summer associate programs should consider to put themselves in the best possible position to receive an offer, and firms can also take steps to support those to whom they are unable to make an offer, says Amy Mattock at Georgetown University Law Center.
Many attorneys are going to use artificial intelligence tools whether law firms like it or not, so firms should educate them on AI's benefits, limits and practical uses, such as drafting legal documents, to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving legal market, say Thomas Schultz and Eden Bernstein at Kellogg Hansen.
Dealing with the pressures associated with law school can prove difficult for many future lawyers, but there are steps students can take to manage stress — and schools can help too, say Ryan Zajic and Dr. Janani Krishnaswami at UWorld.
Amid ongoing disagreements on whether states should mandate implicit bias training as part of attorneys' continuing legal education requirements, Stephanie Wilson at Reed Smith looks at how unconscious attitudes or stereotypes adversely affect legal practice, and whether mandatory training programs can help.
To become more effective advocates, lawyers need to rethink the ridiculous, convoluted language they use in correspondence and write letters in a clear, concise and direct manner, says legal writing instructor Stuart Teicher.