Firm Rankings and Structure
AmLaw 100
The American Lawyer's annual ranking of the 100 largest U.S. law firms by gross revenue. It is the standard benchmark for Big Law status and reports financial metrics including profits per partner and revenue per lawyer.
AmLaw 200
The extension of the AmLaw 100 through the 200th largest U.S. firm by revenue, capturing strong regional and specialty firms that sit below the top 100 threshold.
Vault 100
Vault.com's annual prestige ranking of U.S. law firms, built from peer surveys of associates who rate competing firms. It measures perceived prestige, where the AmLaw rankings measure revenue.
Milbank/Cravath Scale
The lockstep associate salary scale that nearly every elite firm matches. For decades it was called the Cravath scale, after Cravath, Swaine and Moore's historical role in setting market pay. The name is now contested: Milbank has opened the last four raise cycles (2018, 2021, 2023, and June 2026), which is why much of the industry argues it should be called the Milbank scale. The June 2026 raise set first-year base pay at $235,000, rising to $455,000 for the most senior class years. Firms match these moves almost immediately because the market for talent is intensely competitive, and a firm that lags the scale risks losing its best associates to rivals.
Profits Per Partner (PPP)
The average profit allocated to each equity partner in a given year, also written PPEP. It is a core measure of firm profitability and a major driver of lateral partner movement.
Revenue Per Lawyer (RPL)
A firm's gross revenue divided by its total attorney headcount. It is used to compare operating efficiency across firms of different sizes.
Equity Partner
A partner who holds an ownership stake in the firm and shares in its profits and losses, usually after making a capital contribution.
Non-Equity Partner
A partner who carries the partner title with fixed or largely fixed compensation and without a full ownership share of firm profits. Also called an income partner. Common in two-tier partnership structures.
Two-Tier Partnership
A partnership structure that contains both equity and non-equity partner ranks. It is now widely used across the AmLaw 100.
Of Counsel
An attorney affiliated with a firm in a senior, ongoing role outside the standard associate and partner tracks. Often a former partner, a subject-matter specialist, or a senior lateral in transition.
Counsel
A senior attorney title positioned between senior associate and partner. It signals expertise and seniority while sitting outside the equity partnership.
Staff Attorney
A salaried attorney in a role off the partnership track, often handling document review, due diligence, or specialized recurring work at lower billing rates.
Boutique Firm
A small, specialized firm focused on a narrow practice area such as litigation, antitrust, or restructuring. Many are founded by former Big Law partners and pay competitive compensation.
Recruiting and Hiring
OCI (On-Campus Interviewing)
The structured process through which firms recruit summer associates from law schools. It begins with on-campus screener interviews and advances to callbacks and offers.
Screener
A short interview, usually around 20 minutes, held during OCI to evaluate a candidate before extending a callback.
Callback
A half-day office interview that follows a successful OCI screener, typically with three to five attorneys, leading to a summer associate offer decision.
Summer Associate
A law student employed by a firm during the summer, usually after the second year, in a paid program that commonly leads to a full-time post-graduate offer. Compensation is the prorated salary of a current first-year associate, paid across the roughly 10-week program.
Bid List
The ranked list of firms a student submits during OCI to request interviews. Firms use it alongside their own selections to build interview schedules.
1L OCI
Early on-campus recruiting aimed at first-year law students. It has become increasingly significant as firms accelerate their hiring timelines.
2L OCI
The traditional and historically dominant entry point to Big Law summer programs, recruiting second-year students.
NALP
The National Association for Law Placement, which sets guidelines and timing standards for legal recruiting and compiles employment data for the profession.
Clerkship
A one to two year position working for a judge after law school. Federal clerkships, especially appellate and Supreme Court roles, carry significant prestige and often a firm clerkship bonus.
Lateral
An attorney who moves from one firm to another at a comparable seniority level. The word also serves as a verb for making such a move.
Lateral Hiring
Recruiting experienced attorneys away from other firms, as distinct from entry-level hiring through OCI. It is the primary mechanism for talent flow in Big Law.
Legal Recruiter
A professional, also called a search consultant, who connects attorney candidates with hiring firms and advises on the lateral process. The hiring firm pays the recruiter a placement fee.
Conflicts Check
The review a firm runs before hiring a lateral or accepting a matter, to identify client conflicts of interest that could block the engagement.
Compensation and Bonuses
Signing Bonus
A one-time payment offered to induce a lateral candidate to accept an offer. It is common when a candidate forfeits compensation at a current firm or starts on an accelerated timeline.
Clawback
A contractual provision requiring repayment of a signing or retention bonus if the attorney leaves within a defined period. Terms vary widely and warrant careful review before signing.
Make-Whole
A payment that compensates a lateral for bonus or deferred compensation forfeited by leaving a current firm. It is designed to keep the candidate financially neutral on the move.
Guaranteed Bonus
A bonus a firm commits to pay a lateral for the first bonus cycle after joining, sometimes conditioned on a prorated billable hours requirement.
Market Bonus
The year-end associate bonus that tracks the prevailing Big Law scale. It is typically set when a leading firm announces and peer firms match.
Special Bonus
An additional bonus, often announced mid-year or in strong markets, paid on top of the standard year-end market bonus. Milbank opened the most recent cycle with summer bonuses in August 2025, and the wider market followed at year end when Cravath matched in November 2025.
Billable Hour
A unit of time, usually measured in tenths of an hour, that a firm bills to a client for an attorney's work.
Billable Hour Requirement
The annual target of billable hours an associate is expected to meet, commonly between 1,900 and 2,100 hours, frequently tied to bonus eligibility.
Origination Credit
Internal credit a partner receives for bringing in client business. It is a central factor in partner compensation and in valuing a lateral partner.
Lockstep
A compensation model that sets pay by seniority or tenure. It is used widely for associates and by some firms for their partnership.
Book of Business
The portfolio of client relationships and revenue a partner controls. It is the primary driver of a partner's marketability as a lateral.
Rainmaker
A partner who generates substantial client business and origination. Rainmakers are highly sought in lateral partner recruiting.
Practice and Career Path
Practice Group
A firm's organizational unit focused on a specific area of law, such as M&A, restructuring, capital markets, litigation, or tax.
Secondment
A temporary assignment in which an attorney works on-site at a client or another office. It builds in-house or specialized experience while the attorney remains employed by the firm.
Exit Options
The roles attorneys commonly move into after Big Law, including in-house counsel, government, boutique firms, business positions, and clerkships.
Going In-House
Leaving a law firm to join a company's internal legal department, often for improved hours and closer involvement with business decisions.
Partnership Track
The multi-year path from associate to partner, marked by rising responsibility, business development expectations, and class-year milestones.
Up-or-Out
The Big Law convention that associates either advance toward partnership or move on within a defined window. It produces steady associate attrition.
Attrition
The rate at which associates leave a firm. High attrition is structural to the up-or-out model and helps drive ongoing lateral demand.
Class Year
The graduation year that sets an associate's seniority, compensation step, and bonus tier. It often carries across lateral moves, though some firms hire laterals at a lower class year, a practice known as down-leveling.
Stealth Layoff
A quiet separation in which an attorney is let go but remains listed on the firm's website for a set period while they search for their next role. Compensation during the window varies by firm and situation, ranging from continued salary and benefits to nothing at all.
Access and Pipeline
First-Generation Professional
A person who is the first in their family to earn a professional degree, such as a JD, MD, MBA, or PhD.
First-Generation Attorney
An attorney who is the first in their family to enter the legal profession. First-generation attorneys are at the center of Mosaic's advising work and the Mosaic Scholars program.
Mosaic Scholars ›Affinity Group
A student or attorney organization built around a shared identity or background, such as BLSA, APALSA, LaLSA, or an LGBTQ+ bar association, that supports community and professional development.
Pipeline Program
An initiative designed to widen access to the legal profession for underrepresented students through mentoring, funding, or early exposure to firm practice.
Diversity Fellowship
A firm-sponsored 1L program, often paired with a summer associate position and a stipend, aimed at recruiting underrepresented students early in their law school careers. Most firms have renamed or restructured these programs since 2025 amid federal scrutiny, so the label is now largely historical, which is extremely depressing.
Mosaic Scholars
Mosaic Search Partners' free advising program built to center first-generation law students. Scholars receive data, negotiation guidance, and mentorship from 0L through graduation, and join a cohort community that spans the top law schools in the country.
Mosaic Scholars ›Have a term you want decoded for your situation?
The Mosaic team advises candidates through every stage of the lateral process. Reach out directly.
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