Successfully ‘Shrinking’ Biglaw: How This Top Firm Rose In The Rankings

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.

There’s a lot of complexity to Big Law firms. But I try to simplify that, and say, “We’re competing everyday in two markets: we’re competing in the market for talent, and we’re competing for the market for clients.”

I think, for me, trying to simplify and reduce what we’re really trying to do is a way to cut through the noise about eye-popping compensation or specific lateral partners. Not that those are not important. But it would be easy to lose sight of the bigger competition.

— Michael Gerstenzang, managing partner of Cleary Gottlieb, in comments given to the American Lawyer on how he’s attempting to “shrink” the concept of his Biglaw firm into more bite-sized pieces. For its part, Cleary recently increased its associate satisfaction score in the 2024 Am Law A-List ranking, becoming a Top 10 firm.

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 X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.