NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The American Lawyer magazine published its 2007 "A-List" ranking today, naming Debevoise & Plimpton of New York City as the leader of the nation's law firm elite for the fourth consecutive year. Weil, Gotshal & Manges advanced to second place from its eleventh position last year. One firm, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, joined The A-List for the first time, while six other firms regained a position on this year's list. Drawn from four different ALM rankings of the nation's largest firms, the 20-member A-List looks beyond simple business results to identify firms that set the standard for their peers in areas including economic performance, pro bono work and diversity. Complete rankings for The A-List are featured in the July issue of the magazine and are available on the Web at www.americanlawyer.com.

The six firms returning to The A-List this year are: Arnold & Porter (number 17); Cravath, Swaine & Moore (number 18); Howrey (number 19-tie); Munger, Tolles & Olson (number 3); Robins Kaplan (number 19-tie) and Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett (number 13).

Only seven firms have been named to The A-List in each of the five years of its existence: Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; Davis Polk & Wardwell; Debevoise & Plimpton; Latham & Watkins; Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.

The A-List firms will be honored at The American Lawyer's 4th Annual Awards dinner, to be held October 24th at Cipriani in New York City.

The A-List is created through a composite ranking of four objective firm dimensions, based on data collected for various surveys throughout the year:

• Revenue Per Lawyer, as a measure of the success of a firm's practice and an approximation of client quality and satisfaction
• Associate Satisfaction, as a measure of each firm's training and development commitment
• Diversity, as a measure of each firm's track record in hiring and retaining minority lawyers
• Pro Bono, as a measure of each firm's fulfillment of its professional requirement to contribute high-quality, free legal services to indigent clients and community service and non-profit organizations.

A weighted ranking of firms is created from these factors for all Am Law 200 firms. The top 20 firms comprise The A-List.

The American Lawyer is the legal industry's leading monthly magazine. Read by partners at corporate law firms, in-house counsel, government lawyers, and litigators at firms of all sizes, its trailblazing features about attorneys and the work they do has led to 23 National Magazine Award nominations and five coveted awards for general excellence, essays and criticism, and single-topic issues. The magazine is published by ALM.

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