Freshfields, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer and Slaughter and May are among the most-nominated firms for the Legal Business Awards 2026, the shortlists for which were revealed today (7 May).
The awards, which will be handed out on 29 September at London’s Grosvenor House, recognise the best of the best across the legal profession, with honours for the lawyers, law firms, barristers and in-house lawyers operating at the top end of the legal market.
Freshfields is up for a total of 10 awards, including Disputes Team of the Year and M&A Team of the Year, while HSF Kramer is also in the running for 10 honours.
HSF Kramer global CEO Justin D’Agostino is on the shortlist for Management Partner of the Year, where he will compete against Sidley London managing partner Tom Thesing and Taylor Wessing UK managing partner Shane Gleghorn.
Slaughter and May has won spots on seven shortlists, recognising the firm’s strengths across capital markets, competition, finance and more, and it will go head to head with Kirkland & Ellis in a number of those categories, with the US giant also securing places on seven shortlists.
New awards for 2026 include AI Initiative of the Year, which will identify the law firm demonstrating the most impressive deployment of AI, with the contenders including Cleary, Clifford Chance and Osborne Clarke.
Other new categories will recognise the most influential business services teams, the leading intellectual property and public sector practices, as well as a new client service award, which will go to the firm which received the highest scores from clients during the annual Legal 500 research.
This year, the firmwide awards will identify the International Firm of the Year, the UK Firm of the Year, and the Global London Firm of the Year, which will go to the US firm making the biggest strides in the capital, while a line-up of big-name KCs from chambers including Essex Court, 4 New Square and One Essex Court are in the running for Barrister of Year.
The best of the best from the in-house legal community will also be recognised, including GC of the Year and In-house Team of the Year – those shortlists will be revealed in a separate announcement next week (14 May).
Latham & Watkins, BT, Burges Salmon and Freshfields were among the winners at last year’s awards, which were hosted by comedian Katherine Ryan. Latham took the award for International Firm of the Year, while Burges Salmon picked up the award for top UK firm.
