The 100 Largest Law Firms In New York (2022)

// There are many different and exciting ways to rank law firms. How prestigious are they? How much money are they making? How much take-home cash do partners earn? How big are they?

Yes, size matters, especially after a year where lateral movement slowed thanks to M&A activity tanking amid the tech industry’s implosion. The talent wars of 2021 were almost an afterthought as outright and stealth layoffs soon become top of mind worries for lawyers and legal professionals alike.

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The New York Law Journal recently unleashed its annual NYLJ 100, a ranking of the largest law firms in New York covering the previous calendar year. As luck would have it, many Biglaw firms increased their New York City head counts in 2022, and the top 100 firms in the city netted about a 4.5% increase in attorneys over their 2021 numbers. If you’ve ever wondered about head counts, this is the ranking for you.

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In total, about 24,790 attorneys were working in the New York offices of the state’s 100 largest law firms last year…. In fact, three-quarters of the law firms saw a head count increase of some sort — highlighting that New York law firms were still growing even though M&A tumbled last year and their corporate practices slowed down.

The top 15 biggest firms (numbers show attorneys in New York) are not surprising. Let’s take a moment to gawk at Manhattan’s Biglaw behemoths:

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Congratulations to Kirkland for employing more lawyers in New York than any other firm. This firm wins the award for putting the “big” in Biglaw in the Big Apple.

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Head to the NYLJ if you’re curious about the firms ranked 16-100.

NYLJ 100: New York’s Largest Firms by Attorney Headcount [New York Law Journal]
Kirkland Is Now the Largest ‘New York’ Law Firm by Attorney Count as Big Apple Offices Saw Head Count Gains [New York Law Journal]

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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Biglaw, NYLJ 100, Rankings