American Lawyer

American Lawyer
Title	American Lawyer
Category	Legal journalism
Frequency	Monthly
Company	Law.com Media
Country	United States
Based	New York City
Language	English

American Lawyer American Lawyer is a United States legal publication and media outlet covering the United States legal system, law firms, litigation, corporate law, and legal industry trends. Founded in 1979, it publishes rankings, investigative reporting, and business analysis relevant to lawyers, judges, in-house counsel, and legal educators. The magazine is influential among readers in New York City, Washington, D.C., and major legal markets such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston.

Overview

American Lawyer provides data-driven reporting on topics including firm revenue, attorney headcount, mergers, and high-stakes matters involving entities like Consolidated Edison, Pfizer, Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil, and Enron. It produces widely cited lists such as the Am Law 100 and Am Law 200 that rank firms by gross revenue, revenue per lawyer, and profits per equity partner, metrics comparable to rankings by Forbes, Fortune, and The Wall Street Journal. Editorial coverage often intersects with matters involving the Securities and Exchange Commission, United States Department of Justice, and federal courts including the United States Supreme Court and various United States Courts of Appeals. The publication has chronicled landmark litigation and transactional work involving firms like Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Sullivan & Cromwell, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and Latham & Watkins.

Education and Licensing

Articles in American Lawyer frequently reference institutions and credentials such as Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Columbia Law School, Stanford Law School, New York University School of Law, and bar admissions governed by bodies like the American Bar Association and state supreme courts, for example the New York Court of Appeals and the California Supreme Court. Coverage includes law school rankings, clerkship placements with judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, admissions statistics tied to institutions like Princeton University undergraduate feeders, and bar passage data associated with the National Conference of Bar Examiners and the Uniform Bar Examination. The magazine reports on trends in legal education, such as shifts at schools like Georgetown University Law Center, University of Chicago Law School, University of Pennsylvania Law School, and University of Michigan Law School.

Practice Areas and Employment Settings

Reporting spans practice areas including antitrust law matters litigated against corporations like Microsoft, AT&T, and American Express; intellectual property disputes involving Apple Inc., Google, Samsung; securities litigation connected to Lehman Brothers failures; and bankruptcy proceedings like those of General Motors and Chrysler. Employment settings covered include large law firms (BigLaw) such as Jones Day, Baker McKenzie, boutique firms like Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, corporate law departments at IBM, General Electric, and public-interest organizations including American Civil Liberties Union and Public Citizen. The magazine examines transactional work such as mergers and acquisitions involving Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and BlackRock, and pro bono matters handled with partners like Legal Aid Society and litigation before bodies like the International Court of Justice.

Professional Regulation and Ethics

American Lawyer investigates disciplinary actions overseen by state disciplinary boards and institutions such as the American Bar Association's ethics opinions, high-profile disbarments and sanctions, and regulatory enforcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Trade Commission. Coverage frequently references landmark standards and cases from courts including the United States Supreme Court, ethics rules like the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and matters implicating firms that have faced scrutiny—examples include reporting on conduct at DLA Piper, White & Case, and Dechert. The publication also analyzes compliance programs at multinational firms operating in jurisdictions such as the European Union, United Kingdom, and China.

Notable American Lawyers and Firms

Coverage profiles prominent lawyers and firms who shaped practice in the late 20th and 21st centuries: partners and litigators such as David Boies, Ted Olson, Preet Bharara, Sally Yates, Rudy Giuliani in his private-practice capacity, and transactional figures like Bruce Wasserstein. Firms frequently featured include Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Sullivan & Cromwell, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, and Sidley Austin. The magazine has also covered luminaries in academia and public service who moved into practice, including alumni from Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, and clerks from chambers of judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Demographics, Compensation, and Trends

American Lawyer publishes data on demographics, compensation, and workplace trends at firms, including diversity statistics regarding alumni of Howard University School of Law, Hampton University, and other historically Black institutions, and gender representation tied to profiles from National Association for Law Placement surveys. Compensation coverage includes partner profits at firms like Kirkland & Ellis, associate salary scales patterned after market leaders such as Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and bonuses influenced by dealflow at firms advising Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Trends reported include lateral hiring waves involving firms like Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, the impact of regulatory actions by the United States Department of Justice and technological change from companies like Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg L.P. on practice management and legal market structure.

Category:Legal magazines