It was the case that in the event you left Biglaw for a small, boutique, or midsize agency, you needed to anticipate a pay minimize. It won’t have been an enormous pay minimize, perhaps $10K or $20K beneath the usual Biglaw scale — however given the alternatives provided by smaller companies, together with extra accountability, larger consumer contact, and (perhaps) higher work-life stability, many attorneys seen the trade-off as price it.
However as individuals who have adopted our wage and bonus protection have absolutely seen, going to a smaller agency now not requires taking a smaller paycheck. The truth is, various small, boutique, and midsize companies pay the identical as — or much more than — their Biglaw rivals. Not surprisingly, a rising variety of proficient legislation college students and younger attorneys are selecting to begin their careers at smaller companies, bypassing the few years in Biglaw that historically represented the dues that needed to be paid earlier than transferring on to work at an elite boutique.
However how are you going to discover the small, boutique, and midsize companies the place you’d truly wish to work — and the place you’d be paid handsomely? Fortunately, there’s a Vault rating for that. The High 150 Beneath 150 rating “acknowledge[s] excellent small and midsize legislation companies that ship huge outcomes.” Right here’s the methodology Vault used:
To find out the High 150 Beneath 150, Vault first developed a listing of the best-known and most sought-after U.S. companies with 150 attorneys or fewer. Our editorial and analysis groups pored via Vault survey knowledge, information tales, commerce journals, and different authorized publications; spoke with attorneys within the discipline; and reviewed different printed rankings. Vault editors additionally assessed every agency for status, high quality of life, {and professional} development alternatives after which narrowed down the outcomes to provide you with a listing of 150 legislation companies identified for offering top-notch service and delivering huge outcomes.
Vault’s High 150 Beneath 150 checklist will not be numerically ranked, however alphabetized, so we’ve picked out a number of recognizable companies that made the minimize:
Axinn
AZA
Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors
Clement & Murphy
Desmarais
Edelson
Elsberg Baker & Maruri
Greenberg Glusker
Hecker Fink
Holwell Shuster & Goldberg
Hueston Hennigan
McKool Smith
Reid Collins & Tsai
Selendy Homosexual
Tensegrity Legislation Group
Wilkinson Stekloff
Yetter Coleman
Though they’re not Biglaw companies, these names ought to all be acquainted — some for his or her Supreme Court docket and appellate practices, some for being extremely profitable spinoffs, some for his or her agency tradition specializing in lawyer happiness, and others for providing salaries and bonuses that compete with or blow their Biglaw brethren out of the water. For the complete checklist, click on right here.
Congratulations to Vault’s High 150 Beneath 150. On the subject of legislation companies, greater isn’t all the time higher.
High 150 Beneath 150 (2026) [Vault]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Legislation, the place she’s labored since 2011. She’d love to listen to from you, so please be happy to e mail her with any ideas, questions, feedback, or critiques. You’ll be able to observe her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or join along with her on LinkedIn.
