This award-winning monthly magazine counts among its readers the nation's most powerful attorneys: managing partners and partners at the largest law firms in the United States, as well as General Counsel at the Fortune 500.
The American Lawyer's trailblazing features on attorneys and their work, as well as its signature surveys, are eagerly awaited and avidly read every month by the legal community around the nation and around the world.
The American Lawyer is the nation's leading monthly magazine for lawyers. Our mission is to cover the business-- profits, losses, mergers, strategies, and spectacular failures--of the most successful law firms in the nation as well as their practices--the biggest deals and cases, the inside story of who won, who lost and why. Like other great magazines, The American Lawyer is provocative and entertaining. But more than that, our data and features have served for 25 years as the standard by which the country's most important lawyers measure themselves. Our goal is to provide the highest quality journalism about the nation's most important profession. We want our audience's attention--and respect. Our reports help set the profession's agenda. Each month, we break news about the best lawyers and the biggest firms. Who's getting the business and why? Who's committed an ethical foul, suffered a wounding departure, failed a long time client? Who merged too soon, expanded too slowly? What are the best--and worst--practices for advancing women and racial minorities, training and retaining the most promising young lawyers, building or buying a firm? We give clear-eyed reporting and analysis to an audience that won't settle for anything less.
The American Lawyer covers the most significant legal business stories and the most important legal news stories. Often the two overlap. Corporate governance, bankruptcy, and the Supreme Court, are all topics that we address through our special perspective.
Everyone covers the law now; often it's our alumni doing the work at mainstream publications. But no one covers the law and lawyers as we do, which is why, month after month, we're a must-read.
The magazine's editorial calendar features a series of signature issues. The Am Law 100 in July and The Am Law 200 in August list the top-grossing and most profitable corporate firms in the United States. The Global 100 in November lists the top-grossing firms in the world. The Corporate Scorecard charts the law firms with the most active corporate and corporate finance practices.
As part of that report, we name the Dealmakers of the Year, a highly sought-after distinction among the top practitioners. To learn who is winning the war for talent, we poll 5,000 law firm associates each year who grade their firms as places to work; and publish the results each Fall in The Associates Survey issue. To encourage and reward the firms that do the most volunteer work, we devote one issue each year to Pro Bono, the singular professional obligation that could get lost in a profit-obsessed world. In 2004, we offer the second annual Law Firm A-List, the most definitive ranking of the top firms in a variety of criteria. The View From the Top, our annual poll of law firm chairpersons, gauges the coming year from the perspective of the profession's leaders.
The American Lawyer is also noted in the publishing industry for its elegance. Its handsome and arresting presentation has won our designers many awards from their peers. We hire top-quality photographers and illustrators to bring to live a subject that is too often hidden in abstractions. We cut through the posturing in both our words and our images, and continue to produce a magazine of exceptional quality and style.
Editorial Coverage
Features: In-depth cover and feature stories on lawyers and the work they do.
Management: Prominent consultants and analysts report on firm management trends.
Bar Talk: Current news on firms and clients, successes and failures.
Arguments: Timely takes on legal policies of current and historical import.
Headnotes: Thought-provoking, up-front essays on legal topics.
Tech 101: Brief, to-the-point reviews of the latest technologies.
Books: Reviewed, showcased, digested, critiqued.
Big Suits: Recent winners and losers--who got the business.
Big Deals: Which firms are handling the hottest transactions.
Supreme Advocacy: Veteran Supreme Court reporter Tony Mauro analyzes the people and issues behind the day's headlines.
IP Land: The big ideas and trends shaping intellectual property law.
The Lawyer's Life: Lifestyle section covering travel, cars, food, personalities, and gadgets.
Dicta: Piercing insights into the world of lawyers by Dahlia
Lithwick and Steven Lubet (alternating months).
Awards Include
National Magazine Award: General Excellence, Essays & Criticism and Single Topic Issue
Folio Magazine's Ozzie Award: Best Cover, Best Use of Photography and Best Feature Design
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