Firm Index · Methodology
How the Sartori Firm Index works
A transparent 0–100 benchmark of 560+ major law firms — scored on public footprint and momentum, not prestige.
Footprint and momentum — not prestige.
The Sartori Firm Index distils what is publicly knowable about a law firm's market position into a single 0–100 score. It rewards size, spread and live hiring. It says nothing about the quality of any firm's lawyers or the outcome of any matter.
Think of it as a map, not a league table of merit: it tells you how large a firm's public presence is and where its momentum points — useful when you are deciding where to compete for talent, or which markets a firm is leaning into.
What goes into a score
Each firm is scored on up to three signals. Scale and reach are universal (every firm has them); hiring is optional. Weights below are the share each takes when all are present.
- ≈47%
- ScaleAttorney footprint we map from each firm's public site, on a log scale so the giants don't flatten everyone else.
- ≈33%
- ReachBreadth across metro markets, countries and practice areas — geographic and practice spread.
- ≈20%
- Hiring momentumLive roles a firm advertises on its own public careers site, relative to size and in absolute volume. Optional — dropped when none is detected.
Weighted mean, drop-and-renormalize
Weighted blend
Present signals are combined as a weighted mean, with scale carrying the most weight, then reach, then hiring.
Absent signals dropped
If we detect no public hiring for a firm, that signal is dropped and the remaining weights are re-scaled to total 100% — so missing data never silently drags a score to zero.
Coverage badge
Every profile states how many signals it used (e.g. “3 of 3”), so a thinly-evidenced score is never mistaken for a complete one.
Built from public data
Everything in the Index is compiled from public sources, and published responsibly.
Public sources only
Footprint and reach from public law-firm websites; hiring from firms' own public careers pages. We do not republish third-party ranking or financial datasets.
Headcount as ranges
We publish the attorney footprint we map as a banded range (e.g. “1,000–1,500 attorneys”), never an exact count and never a claim about a firm's total size.
No individual names
The Index is a firm-level benchmark. No individual lawyer is named on any firm page.
Rebuilt regularly
Scores refresh as public data changes; the hiring signal tracks each firm's live careers postings within roughly a day.
Methodology — common questions
Does a high Sartori Firm Index mean a firm is better?
No. The Index measures public footprint and momentum — how large, how broadly spread and how actively hiring a firm is — using public data. It is explicitly not a measure of quality, prestige, culture or outcomes for any individual matter. A small, elite firm will rank below a sprawling global one, by design.
Where do the numbers come from?
Footprint and reach are compiled from public law-firm websites; hiring activity is read from each firm's own public careers pages. We publish headcount only as ranges — the attorney footprint we map, not a claim about a firm's total size.
A firm has no hiring score — why?
Hiring is an optional signal. When we have not detected public hiring for a firm, that signal is simply dropped and the remaining signals are re-weighted to still total 100%. Each profile shows a coverage badge (e.g. “3 of 3 signals”) so you can see exactly how complete the picture is.
Do you publish firm revenue or profit figures?
Not currently. A financial signal, drawn only from primary public filings (e.g. UK Companies House) and firms' own published statements and shown as banded estimates, is planned for a future release. We do not republish third-party financial datasets.
I think a figure is wrong. Can you fix it?
Yes — please tell us. The Index is rebuilt regularly from public sources; corrections are folded into the next build.
Hiring or moving?
Turn the map into a shortlist.
The Index shows you where the market is. A specialist consultant tells you what to do about it.