Litigation departments at large law firms and elite trial boutiques have plenty of ways to try to set themselves off from the competition: geography, industry focus, strategic approach, or some combination of those three things. 

Every three weeks or so, as part of our Litigation Leaders series, we query the folks who lead elite litigation teams about their practices. What have we learned through that routine? Well, for one, lots of folks think that trial work is their great distinguishing factor. If almost everybody we’re talking to thinks that trial work is what makes their shop different, either we’re only talking to the trial crowd, or, as we posited earlier this year, maybe at the top of the market going to trial isn’t quite the differentiator that folks think it is.