Vault recently released its closely watched rankings of the nation’s 100 most prestigious law firms. It was there that we learned Cravath has held onto its title as the most prestigious firm in America for a decade, and that the top firms saw some interesting changes (including one major firm entering the Top 10 for the first time ever).
But what if your firm wasn’t top-ranked in the Vault 100? Perhaps your firm isn’t the most prestigious, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have clout. Some law firms reign supreme when it comes to certain practice areas, and others are known to dominate entire regions of the country.
Which law firms are considered to be at the top of their game by practice area and region? Let’s find out!
For the purposes of the practice area ranking, Vault asked associates to vote for up to three firms they think of as the strongest in their own practice area, and the overall ranking indicates the firms that received the highest percentage of votes. Associates were not allowed to vote for their own firm. Pay attention, prospective laterals, because this ranking could be quite useful for you.
We’ve picked out a dozen of the practice areas that were ranked by Vault (you can see the full list by clicking here):
Appellate Litigation: Williams & Connolly
Bankruptcy/Restructuring: Kirkland & Ellis (replacing Cleary Gottlieb)
Energy, Oil and Gas: Vinson & Elkins
General Commercial Litigation: Quinn Emanuel
General Corporate Practice: Wachtell Lipton (replacing Kirkland & Ellis)
Intellectual Property: Fish & Richardson
International: White & Case
Labor and Employment: Littler Mendelson
Private Equity: Kirkland & Ellis
Real Estate: Gibson Dunn
Securities/Capital Markets: Davis Polk
Tax: Skadden
Next up, we’ve got a ranking that matters to those who think “location, location, location” is the most important thing in life. Vault’s regional rankings are based on votes tabulated from associates who were asked to rate firms on a 1 to 10 scale based on their prestige within the region.
Here’s the list of prestige by region from Vault (you can see the full list here):
Atlanta: King & Spalding
Boston: Ropes & Gray
Chicago: Kirkland & Ellis
Florida: Holland & Knight
Mid-Atlantic: Skadden
Midwest: Kirkland & Ellis
Mountain States: Gibson Dunn
New York: Wachtell Lipton (replacing Cravath)
Northern California: Cooley (replacing Morrison & Foerster)
Pacific Northwest: Perkins Coie
South Atlantic: Alston & Bird (replacing King & Spalding)
Southern California: Latham & Watkins
Texas: Vinson & Elkins
Washington, DC: Covington & Burling
Congratulations to the firms that moved up in this year’s practice area and regional rankings, and congratulations to all the firms that made the cut in the first place. It must be nice to see which firms associates consider as their peers in prestige, and it must be even nicer for partners to know whose pricing models they need to undercut the next time around.
VAULT LAW RELEASES 2026 RANKINGS FOR ITS TOP 100 LAW FIRMS, BEST LAW FIRMS BY REGION, AND BEST LAW FIRMS BY PRACTICE AREA [PR Newswire]
Best Law Firms by Practice Area (2026) [Vault]
Best Law Firms by Region (2026) [Vault]
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 Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
