When evaluating a group that keeps score for a living, how did we choose a champion? Very carefully.

We began by asking litigators which of the Am Law 200 firms (besides their own) was doing the best work, getting the hardest cases, making the most innovative arguments. Who had impressed them across a table or in a co-counsel role? To make a baseball analogy, we weren’t selecting a member of the Hall of Fame, we were looking for the season’s most valuable player.