Taft: Top Ranked New Entrant
Midwest-focused law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister comes onto the NLJ 500 this year as the highest-ranked new entrant at 110.
Starting in the late 2000s, Taft took different steps toward growth: merging with other firms to expand or open new offices, recruiting lateral hires and replenishing outgoing lawyers at the end of their career with new hires out of law school. "We make sure that we never shrink, so when people are leaving we make sure we're hiring new bodies," says managing partner Robert Hicks.
The firm's key practices include its transactional, litigation, real estate, environmental and intellectual property groups. Hicks says the firm bases compensation on performance, regardless of seniority, while working to maintain collegiality.
Taft takes a decentralized management approach it doesn't consider any particular office its headquarters, though it currently has the most lawyers in Cincinnati and plans to keep growing in new Midwestern markets and expand its current offices. The goal is to become roughly twice as large over the next decade.
"Our model is to be a super high-quality Midwestern firm," Hicks says.
Scott Flaherty
Jenner & Block: Biggest Big Firm Movement
Jenner & Block was among five firms in the top 100 to climb more than 10 places in the NLJ 500 rankings. With head count growing 11.7 percent from last year's report, to 487 lawyers, Jenner ranked No. 90 this year.
Managing partner Terrence J. Truax describes the firm's strategy as "relentlessly client-centric." In the past year, Jenner, well-known as a litigation powerhouse, has focused on growing new practice areas to offer broader services for its clients. So far those include an aviation group based around Marc Warren, a former deputy chief counsel of operations at the Federal Aviation Administration and ex-partner at Crowell & Moring in Washington, D.C.; building an energy practice after hiring former Exelon Corp. legal chief Randall E. Mehrberg; and raiding Mayer Brown and Seyfarth Shaw to start a wealth management practice. "We're a premium firm and we want to build practices that complement that premium brand," Truax said.
Roy Strom
Buchalter: Biggest Head Count Gains
Buchalter's roster soared from 160 attorneys to 206 in 2016, the greatest relative head count gain of any firm in the NLJ 500. The Los Angeles-based firm's major hires included former Sony global litigation chief Leonard Venger and former Parker, Milliken, Clark, O'Hara & Samuelian shareholders Sabina Helton and Steven Nakasone, who launched Buchalter's Japan practice.