Dentons stood atop the most recent headcount ranking of the nation’s largest law firms with nearly 6,000 attorneys, a figure that underscores the scale of the biggest players in the legal industry.

The ranking also posed a question about the firm immediately behind it: Which law firm placed second?

The available source material offers a historical clue. The second-place firm traces its origins to 1780, although its current name dates only to 2005. It does not include the answer, saying instead that the firm’s identity appears on the next page.

The distinction between a firm’s origins and its present name is central to the clue. Its history reaches back more than two centuries, while the name under which it operates today is much newer. Those two dates are the identifying details supplied for the runner-up.

Dentons’ first-place standing, meanwhile, provides the scale against which the question is framed. With almost 6,000 attorneys, its lead position represents a substantial concentration of legal professionals within a single firm.

The source does not give the second-place firm’s attorney count, the size of the gap between the two firms, or further details about the ranking. Its focus is the identity of the runner-up and the historical dates offered to help identify it.