The Midsize & Boutique Law Firms That In-House Counsel Recommend Most (2025)

Say you’re working in-house at a prominent, profitable company, and you’ve got a major legal problem on your hands. It’s a bet-the-company litigation matter, and you’re not quite sure which law firm to choose to handle the issue. You turn to a colleague for advice, and luckily enough, they’re ready to make a recommendation to you on the spot thanks to one firm’s superior client service.

Unprompted recommendations from legal decision makers in the corporate world are like liquid gold for law firms. Just one unprompted recommendation can lead to an attorney/client relationship that can last for decades, prompting more and more such recommendations, leading to more and more satisfied clients (not to mention more and more money for the recommended law firms).

As noted by BTI’s Mad Clientist blog, it’s not just Biglaw firms that get recommended for this work — midsize firms are seeing more and more of this action as well:

Insights, answers, and industry knowledge aren’t limited to large firms. Corporate counsel are more open to using mid- and smaller-sized firms (500 attorneys or less) than at any time in recent memory.

These firms are acutely aware of how garden variety client service just doesn’t cut it. A savvy group of these firms is doubling down on all aspects of the client experience – and reaping big dividends.

Without any further ado, these are the six midsize and boutique firms that earned the most recommendations overall from corporate counsel:

• Carpenter Lipps
• Constangy
• Fish & Richardson
• Foley Hoag
• Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp
• ZwillGen

These 29 firms received honors for being highly recommended by their in-house clients (in alphabetical order):

• Arnall Golden Gregory
• Bartlit Beck
• Burns White
• Carlton Fields
• Davis+Gilbert
• Day Pitney
• Desmarais
• DeWitt
• Finnegan
• FordHarrison
• GrayRobinson
• Gunster
• Hill Ward Henderson
• Jones Walker
• Kelley Drye
• Leech Tishman
• Manatt
• Mitchell Williams
• Phelps Dunbar
• Porter Wright
• Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila
• Robins Kaplan
• Smith Anderson
• Stoel Rives
• Stradley Ronon
• Susman Godfrey
• UB Greensfelder
• Warner Norcross + Judd
• Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell

More than 70 other midsize and boutique firms are thought of as strong standouts when it comes to client recommendations. Click here to see them.

If attorneys at your firm make more of an effort to better understand your clients’ businesses, then you may find your place of work on this list next time around. Congratulations to all of the midsize and boutique firms that provide such great client service that they’re recommended time and again. They’ve proven themselves to be outstanding when it comes to making corporate clients happy, and that’s worth celebrating.

Clients Reveal the Most Recommended Midsize and Smaller Firms by Name [Mad Clientist / BTI Consulting Group]

Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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