A year or more in the making, US News and World Report will shortly issue its much vaunted ranking of US law firms. The thought did occur to me whether this is what the nation, the profession and consumers of legal services really need. It seems that law firm rankings and ratings are spreading like a veritable epidemic. Some of the law firm ranking and rating organizations have actualy suceeded in making much needed information opaque rather than transparent.

Sadly, as well, is the fact that some of these ratings and rankings have changed the ecology of the legal profession and the behavior of law firms and law firm managers in a fashion that too often does a dissrvice to the law firm and to the profession.

I would propose a seperate entity that rates and ranks the entities that rate and rank law firms.

Just some musings on a brisk fall evening.