Every firm thinks they deserve to move up the rankings – but which are making the strongest case? Ben Wheway crunches the numbers to find the firms who saw the biggest improvement in their rankings
Of all the questions fielded by The Legal 500 editorial team, ‘what do we have to do to move up the rankings?’ is almost certainly the most frequently asked, narrowly ahead of ‘please can we have an extension on the submission deadline?’
While securing a ranking promotion requires a combination of factors – including strong work highlights, as well as positive feedback from both clients and peers alike – each year the stars align for hundreds of submitting firms, providing new material for the latest round of LinkedIn humblebrags.
With this year’s submission deadlines for London and everywhere else in the UK fast approaching, we’ve crunched the numbers on the 2022 rankings (published in September last year) to find out which firms saw the biggest gains.
In total, just over 300 firms achieved at least one promotion across all of their rankings, with 832 promotions across the whole of the UK guide.
While a clutch of familiar national names inevitably come out on top for total ranking rises, we’ve also looked into the firms which – to coin a Legal 500 cliché – ‘punched above their weight’ to secure the highest proportion of promotions compared to their total rankings.
On this metric, Keystone Law comes out top, moving up the tables in almost 40% of its existing rankings (12 out of 32). This growth demonstrates the increasing acceptance of its remote working model, particularly after all of the pandemic-related home working upheaval over the last two years. The virtual firm also broke into ten UK rankings for the first time, following a series of key hires from more traditional practices.
London firm Kingsley Napley comes in second when looking at its promotions as a proportion of its rankings, securing eight promotions across 26 rankings (31%), with Keoghs, Fox Williams and HFW also putting in strong showings. A clutch of large US firms also performed well in the guide, including Gibson Dunn and Goodwin, which has recruited heavily in London of late.
Shoosmiths came out top looking at total promotions, with 21 moves up across the UK guide – placing it just ahead of DLA Piper and Pinsent Masons – with the firm also adding a number of new rankings to its UK-wide haul. Only one firm secured more new rankings this year – US player Sidley, which was a new or returning entrant in 14 London rankings this year, including M&A, private equity and commercial litigation.
Pinsent Masons, Eversheds Sutherland and DLA Piper top the leaderboard by total number of UK rankings and tier one rankings, with Herbert Smith Freehills, Pinsent Masons, Hogan Lovells and DLA Piper sharing the top three places by total number of London rankings.