LW research highlights top client performers

Lovells, Wragge & Co and Travers Smith are among 14 firms to be named as best performers in Legal Week research.

The trio head their respective categories of international, national and City firms within the legal adviser rankings compiled by Legal Week’s Client Satisfaction Report.

Lovells took the top spot overall as well as among international firms, where it was followed by US firm Jones Day, SJ Berwin, Reed Smith and magic circle firm Slaughter and May.

Wragges, Hammonds, Cobbetts and Shoosmiths were named the best national firms, while Travers Smith, Stephenson Harwood, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, Macfarlanes and Berwin Leighton Paisner were highlighted as leading City advisers.

The law firms gained the quality mark based on responses from 873 senior in-house lawyers and finance directors at 683 different companies operating in the UK, including 60% of the FTSE 100. The survey also included views of the leading European companies from the FTSEurofirst 300 index.

John Malpas, publisher of Legal Week, said: “Clients are understandably becoming more demanding. They are also becoming more sophisticated in the way they measure the performance of their advisers.

“This makes it critically important for law firms both to measure client feedback and to act on it. This Legal Week initiative sets out to recognise the efforts of those firms that are leading the way.”

Key findings in the survey include that 43% of all companies and 71% of FTSE 100 companies said they have removed firms from their panels – while 53% of respondents said they plan to decrease the number of law firms they will use next year.

For more information on the Client Satisfaction Report, contact Paul Birk on 0207 316 9864 or email paul.birk@incisivemedia.com.

Click here to download a PDF summary of the Best Legal Advisers 2009