the Sector Leadership Index
Measuring law firm leadership by industry sector
For years, law firms have been evaluated—and marketed—primarily by practice strength, geography, and reputation. But clients don’t buy legal services exclusively through those lenses. More and more, they buy legal services through industry expertise.
To address that gap, I created the Sector Leadership Index™ (SLI)—a quantitative, comparative framework that evaluates law firms based on their demonstrated leadership in each industry sector.
The SLI is designed to do two things simultaneously:
Acknowledge the firms that have made sustained, visible, and meaningful investments in specific industry sectors, and
Elevate industry-sector expertise as a critical decision factor for clients selecting law firms.
What the SLI Measures
Each firm’s SLI score is a weighted synthesis of seven distinct factors, each capturing a different dimension of sector leadership:
Brand Score, which measures how well each firm’s brand is recognized within a specific sector’s ecosystem.
Rankings Score, which assesses external validation and recognition of a specific firm’s expertise, based on client feedback.
Headcount Score, which is a composite measure reflecting both the total number of Life Sciences lawyers in a firm and the percentage of the firm’s overall lawyer headcount devoted to that sector.
Subsector Score. This score evaluates the breadth and depth of sub-sectors served within a broader industry group and recognizes firms with meaningful sub-sector participation.
Digital Score that measures online presence and visibility tied specifically to the specific sector by depth, volume, and focus.
Investment Score capturing the firm’s financial and organizational commitment to a specific sector, including dedicated initiatives and infrastructure.
Content Score, which assesses the volume and breadth of sector-specific thought leadership authored or co-authored by the firm’s lawyers.
Why This Matters
Clients increasingly expect their law firms to understand their industry context, not just the law. Regulatory nuance, commercialization timelines, scientific risk, capital structures, and market pressures all shape legal advice within particular industry sectors.
The SLI provides:
Clients with a clearer, more objective way to evaluate sector capability
Law firms with a diagnostic tool to understand how their sector platform is perceived—and where it can improve
What’s Available
The Sector Leadership Index is available in two formats:
A comprehensive, summary list that benchmarks all 265 firms by sub-sector, and
Firm-specific reports, offering a detailed breakdown of each firm’s scores, strengths, gaps, and competitive positioning; including the most challenging competing law firms faced by that firm.
Industry expertise is no longer a slogan. It’s measurable. The Sector Leadership Index™ is one step toward making it visible.
James J. Stapleton is the Managing Principal of Client Sciences and the creator of the Sector Leadership Index and the Client Performance Index. He challenges the way the legal market evaluates expertise, arguing that clients use industry sector expertise as a primary lens into their law firm selection.
After more than three decades building AmLaw 100 law firms and global professional services firms PwC and Arthur Andersen—and advising on over 7,500 law firm/client transitions—Mr. Stapleton now helps law firms communicate their industry credibility and aids clients in cutting through marketing claims to identify firms with genuine sector immersion.
Mr. Stapleton can be reached at 408-440-7660 or james.stapleton@clientsciences.com.
