Welcome to the 2017 NLJ 500, our annual report ranking the nation’s largest 500 U.S.-centric firms, with breakdowns of total lawyers, partners, yearly comparisons and largest offices, among other data. (NLJ’s head count survey was launched in 1977 covering 200 firms; we increased our catchment from 350 to 500 firms for the first time last year.)

The top takeaway: Lawyer head counts among NLJ 500 firms grew slightly more than 2 percent, outperforming last year’s overall growth of 0.6 percent.