News flash: It’s tough to make the Am Law 200.

While firm leaders and industry experts are paying more attention than ever to profitability as a purer measure of financial success, the story begins, at least, with revenue. Firms need to be in the right practices and sectors—and billing and collecting at good rates—to achieve the nine-figure gross revenue results required to make the Am Law 200. Those steeped in lower-earning or commoditized work will continue to have a tough hill to climb to get to that point. (And to be fair, that can be OK, as not all practices, not all business models, lend themselves to scale).