A First Look at the 2025 LLFI Top 200 Data
Every year, the legal industry waits to see which law firms rise, which stumble, and which quietly redefine success.
In just one week, SurePoint Technologies will release the 2025 Leopard Law Firm Index (LLFI) Top 200 law firms. This year’s rankings tell a particularly compelling story about growth, resilience, and a volatile market where the largest firms continue to pull further ahead.
Before the full list goes public, we are offering a first look at the key trends that shaped the 2025 LLFI Top 200 and why these rankings matter more than ever.
What Is the LLFI?
Established in 2020, the LLFI is powered by its Legal Insights platform (formerly Leopard Solutions). This real-time rating system offers one of the most comprehensive and objective assessments of law firm performance in the legal industry today. Unlike traditional rankings that depend heavily on self-reported and year-end financials, the LLFI leverages data points that offer a more precise evaluation of a firm’s strengths and weaknesses.
What sets the LLFI apart:
- Scores range from 0–500, with 500 representing the strongest overall performance
- Firms are evaluated across profitability, viability, growth, and stability.
- Metrics include attorney growth and retention, financial stability, promotions, and ethnic diversity
- Rankings are updated twice weekly to reflect real-time changes throughout the year
- Final year-end rankings represent a firm’s average score across all of 2025
The result? A dynamic index that captures momentum, volatility, and long-term consistency, often revealing shifts that traditional rankings miss.
A Year of Movement and Market Pressure
If 2025 proved anything, it is that growth and retention do not always move together.
The 2025 Top 200 rankings reveal a legal market defined by heightened mobility and increasing pressure at the top. The largest firms continue to scale, widening the gap between the super-elite and the rest of the market.
Elevated lateral hiring signaled aggressive growth strategies while exposing ongoing challenges in talent retention.
That tension showed up clearly in the rankings:
- 52% of firms in the LLFI Top 200 dropped in rank from 2024 (104 firms)
- 44% of firms moved up (88 firms)
Fewer New Faces
One key takeaway from the 2025 rankings is that breaking into the Top 200 remains challenging, even as movement across the list continues.
- In 2024, 32 new firms entered the Top 200
- In 2025, that number dropped to 28 firms
While the year-over-year change is modest, the data still points to a competitive and increasingly disciplined market.
Despite the tighter field, non-Am Law 200 firms continued to maintain a strong presence. In 2025, 44 non-Am Law 200 firms were represented in the 2025 LLFI Top 200, down slightly from 46 in 2024. Their continued inclusion reinforces a consistent finding of the LLFI: success is driven by performance and stability, not firm size and financials alone.
Shakeups in the Top 10
The top of the rankings saw some notable movement, underscoring how even the strongest firms are not immune to market pressure. Half of the Top 10 firms changed from 2024, including two firms that combined in 2025: Troutman Pepper Locke LLP and McDermott Will & Schulte.
Their movement highlights the level of mobility captured by the LLFI and how dramatically rankings can shift in a single year.
The Biggest Movers of 2025
Beyond the Top 10, several firms posted dramatic gains across the Top 200, reinforcing how momentum can build quickly when growth, retention, and stability align.
Notable upward movers include:
- Ballard Spahr LLP (+225 spots)
- Fragomen (+191 spots)
- Fenwick & West LLP (+181 spots)
- Seyfarth Shaw LLP (+165 spots)
- Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (+159 spots)
These firms didn’t just grow; they did so with discipline, retention, and consistency over time.
Why the LLFI Matters:
The LLFI isn’t just a ranking. It is a real-time lens into how firms are actually performing.
In a year defined by lateral movement, competitive pressure, and shifting expectations, the 2025 LLFI Top 200 shows:
- Growth without retention is risky
- Stability is increasingly difficult and increasingly valuable
- The largest firms continue to grow, widening the gap at the top
In just one week, SurePoint will announce the full 2025 LLFI Top 200, revealing where firms landed, how far they moved, and what the data says about the future of the legal industry.
Stay tuned.