A year ago, as the editors and writers at VaultReports.com were collecting inside information for their first guidebook on the nation’s top law firms, they had trouble getting hiring partners and recruiting directors to return their telephone calls.

But last week, as they unveiled the second annual edition of The VaultReports.com Guide to America’s Top 50 Law Firms at a book party in Chelsea, they were surrounded by recruiting chiefs from no less than Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Sullivan & Cromwell; Latham & Watkins; Dewey Ballantine; O’Melveny & Myers; Shearman & Sterling and Weil, Gotshal & Manges.