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When the results of our seventh annual Who Represents America's Biggest Companies survey came in this summer, one thing was immediately clear: Workplace issues were among companies' biggest concerns. Firms that did a substantial amount of labor and employment litigation work for big companies in 2007 had the most mentions.

The evidence? Morgan, Lewis & Bockius took the No. 1 spot, with half of the matters captured in our survey related to employment and labor. Littler Mendelson, the largest U.S. law firm devoted exclusively to representing management in employment matters, tied for the silver.

There are several factors at play, say attorneys and consultants. Workplace-related suits are now driving many corporate legal budgets. According to the Washington, D.C.-based Federal Judicial Center, labor class actions have quadrupled since 2001. "For some of these companies, it's the single most significant legal exposure they've ever had," says Littler Mendelson managing director and president Marko Mrkonich.

But companies are also consolidating their labor and employment law portfolios and hiring fewer firms, says Newport Beach, Calif., legal consultant Peter Zeughauser. "It's been going on for a number of years," Zeughauser says. "And now it's starting to show up in the statistics."

To get a more accurate picture of which top firms are called on the most, we refined our methodology for this year's survey. Last year, we used court and agency records to see which firms the Fortune 250 used most in 2006 in just four legal areas: commercial law and contracts litigation; corporate transactions; labor and employment litigation; and IP litigation and patent prosecution.

With the current survey, we both narrowed and deepened its scope. While we focused only on the Fortune 100 companies, we looked at their subsidiaries for the first time. We added a new practice area, torts and negligence, and we also expanded our patent prosecution research. Last year we looked at data for patents granted the previous year. This year, we looked at data for both granted patents and patent applications in both 2006 and 2007 because the patent -- granting process takes, on average, more than a year.

Then we tallied the number of mentions each firm received. Firms used for litigation had to be mentioned at least twice to make our most mentions list. Obviously, however, much of the work done for corporate legal departments never sees the inside of a courtroom, so our emphasis on court filings limits how many times some firms appear.

As a result, we have more complete data for the companies we surveyed -- and a more complete picture of the top go-to firms.

Despite all these changes, familiar faces abound. Littler Mendelson tops the employment and labor litigation list, just like it did last year. Once again, New York-based Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is the lead firm for corporate transactions. Greenberg Traurig leads commercial law and contracts. Shook, Hardy & Bacon topped our new torts and negligence practice area. One surprise: For IP work, boutiques like Fish & Richardson no longer dominate. Instead, megafirms Jones Day and Baker Botts top the list.

But all of these changes are fairly minor, and they offer an unarguable truth: No matter how we slice the data, when trouble looms, America's largest companies call on the same small group of big firms they trust most.

Related story: Methodology: How We Do It

Related charts:
Premium Work
Find out which law firms the Fortune 100 used in 2007 in each of the following practice areas: corporate transactions, torts and negligence, commercial law and contracts litigation, employment and labor litigation, and intellectual property.

Pick of the Litter
These are the firms that appeared the most often in the companies' public filings overall, and in four specific areas of law.

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