Client favourites: ranking the most highly recommended LB100 firms

Client favourites: ranking the most highly recommended LB100 firms

New research drawing on the views of almost 80,000 law firm clients has revealed the LB100 firms that are most highly recommended by those using them, with Travers Smith, Lewis Silkin and Sacker & Partners among the top performers.

The findings are based on answers to a single question posed to Legal 500 referees as part of the research process for the annual L500 rankings – “on a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend this firm?”

Of the hundreds of thousands of responses to this question, the firms ranked in the LB100 generated more than 77,000 responses, enabling the Legal 500 to re-rank them by a new Net Promoter Score (NPS) benchmark, a market research metric used to quantify client satisfaction.

NPS is calculated by taking the percentage of ‘promoters’ (respondents that score firms nine or 10) and subtracting the percentage of ‘detractors’ (those scoring firms six or less).

Looking at these NPS scores, the highest scoring firm in the LB100 is specialist pensions boutique Sacker & Partners with 82.9%, just ahead of Leigh Day (81.8%) and Scots firm Shepherd and Wedderburn (81.3%). 

The top five is rounded out by Wiggin (80.5%) and Lewis Silkin (80.2%), just ahead of the highest scoring top 50 firm – Travers Smith, on 80%. At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest scoring firm received an NPS score of just 46.9%

Sackers senior partner David Saunders told Legal Business: ‘We are proud to top these rankings and immensely grateful to our clients for putting their trust in us. This demonstrates the continuing appeal of our specialist model and the strength of our deep bench of talented lawyers who combine technical expertise with a real understanding of wider market developments.’

Lewis Silkin joint managing partner Jo Farmer struck a similar note. ‘We think of our clients as part of our team – and think of ourselves as being part of theirs. We’re delighted to see that this approach is working well.’

Broader horizons: the top scoring international firms

Breaking down the LB100 into sub-groups of their closest peers offers insight into how similar firms stack up against each other.

Slaughter and May has emerged the highest scoring firm among the magic circle, with 79%, reflecting its position as the highest scoring UK firm for NPS in the Global 100, ahead of Linklaters and Clifford Chance.

Looking across all of the international firms within the LB100, the top-scoring firm is Bird & Bird on 79.1%, just ahead of HFW (78.2%) and Simmons & Simmons on 76.9%.

Bird & Bird London head Phil Sherrell told Legal Business that the results offer independent verification of the firm’s own client satisfaction research.

‘The feedback chimes with the results of our own recent client listening programme, in which our clients emphasised the quality and consistency of our advice and service, as well as the business relationships that we form with them, as particular strengths.’

‘We’re really delighted that our clients have had such positive experiences working with Bird & Bird and are particularly proud to be ranked as the best performing international law firm. In the end though, it all comes back to people; our lawyers are curious, collegiate and commercial in the advice they give, and we think that’s why our clients love working with them.’

Under one roof – London firms stand out

Breaking down the scores by firm type, London-only firms have the highest average score, with 75%.

This puts the group ahead of international firms (with an average of 72.3%) and national and regional firms, which average 71.3%. According to Saunders, this result reflects the more joined-up service on offer at firms operating from just one office.

‘One of the key advantages of all being together under one roof is our strong and inclusive culture which allows us to share knowledge effectively and really tailor our service to meet our clients’ needs.’

The benefits of a closely-knit, single-office team are also cited by Travers managing partner Edmund Reed. ‘Our people enjoy working together across specialisms, with clients whose business they know very well,’ he says. ‘That gives our clients one extra important ingredient – our teams tend to know one another personally, and so we genuinely care about getting to the best solution for them.’

 

Money’s worth: how do clients rate Ashurst’s value proposition?

Money’s worth: how do clients rate Ashurst’s value proposition?

Ashurst


Value: Billing and efficiency

76.09


Billing transparency 75.01


Billing: value for work done 75.09


Communication & case/matter management 80.95


All scores are global and /100.

Of all of the factors involved in client satisfaction, value for money is among the most important, not least for GCs under pressure to keep a lid on their legal spend.

And while the best law firms do not come cheap, a reputation for providing value can be a clincher when it comes to winning work.

In our previous data blogs, we’ve looked at how top firms stack up against each other for the quality of their lawyers – based on the views of their clients – but that is just one of a range of metrics we can benchmark firms on.

The responses from hundreds of thousands of Legal 500 referees that we receive every year offer detailed insight into how firms compare on billing and efficiency, and by taking Ashurst as an example, the data reveals how clients view the firm’s value proposition.

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Putting a number on it – how do clients rate Slaughter and May?

Putting a number on it – how do clients rate Slaughter and May?

Late last year, Legal Business and Legal 500 unveiled a data project that has been in the works for some time – looking at how highly firms are recommended by clients.

That data, collected from Legal 500 referees, offers an entirely new perspective on the world’s largest law firms, enabling us to reorder the Global 100 by a new customer satisfaction metric – Net Promoter Score (NPS)*.

Of the eighteen UK-heritage firms in the Global 100, the firm with the highest NPS is Slaughter and May (and we will be revealing NPS for the LB100 very soon) but NPS is not the only metric we have data for – we also ask referees to score law firms on metrics such as billing, communication and value for money

So while Slaughters comes highly recommended by clients – how does it compare to its peers on criteria such as partner and associate quality and availability?

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The most highly recommended: new L500 Net Promoter Scores reveal the firms clients vouch for

The most highly recommended: new L500 Net Promoter Scores reveal the firms clients vouch for

When it comes to rating and ranking the best law firms, there’s no shortage of metrics to choose from.

Whether it’s revenue, partner profits, headcount or law firm rankings (and there are well-worn arguments about the relative merits of all of these), the information is out there for market-watchers to make their assessments.

But what is less immediately available – and arguably more valuable – is quantitative data on how clients rate the service they get from law firms.

Over recent years, Legal 500 has collected data from hundreds of thousands of clients on this subject by asking them how strongly they would recommend the firms they use to others, with responses ranging from 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely).

We’ve used this data to calculate a Net Promoter Score (NPS) – a market research metric devised by Bain & Co – for every firm, which means we can re-order the firms in Legal Business’s Global 100 by a completely new metric.

While some law firms already collect their own NPS data for internal purposes, we are uniquely able to see how firms stack up against each other – and breaking down the data into more specific groups reveals some interesting insights on which firms are the most highly recommended.

For UK heritage firms, Slaughter and May has the highest score with 79.9%, followed closely by Freshfields (78.9%). Fellow magic circle firm Linklaters is fourth with 77.1%, and those three outscore Clifford Chance (75.4%) and Allen & Overy on 74.9% (our data predates the merger with Shearman & Sterling, which scores 75.6%).

The top five UK heritage firms also include Hogan Lovells in third with 77.6%, and CMS in fifth place with 76.3%.

However, all of those are outscored by the elite Wall Street firms, led by Paul Weiss on 89.6%, followed by Cravath, Sullivan & Cromwell, Davis Polk and Simpson Thacher.

How the scores are calculated

Respondents that score firms nine or 10 are categorised as ‘promoters’, with those scoring 7 or 8 defined as ‘passives’ and those scoring their firms with six or less categorised as ‘detractors’. The NPS score is then calculated by deducting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

For example, if 100 clients are surveyed and 80 provide a score of 9-10 (promoters), with a further 10 passively scoring the firm 7-8 and the final 10 detractors scoring it 0-6, then the firm ends up with an NPS score of 70%.

This reordering of the global hierarchy shines a light on some firms that, while less well-known, appear to be making the right impression with clients.

Philadelphia-headquartered firm Cozen O’Connor scores highest with 96%, just ahead of Canada’s McCarthy Tetrault (95.3%) and Washington DC’s Venable (91.7%). Paul Weiss is fourth overall, just ahead of Chicago’s Seyfarth Shaw (89.6%).

For more information about our NPS scores and to find out more about how your firm ranks, please contact ben.wheway@legal500.com
.

“Net Promoter®, NPS®, NPS Prism®, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter ScoreSM and Net Promoter SystemSM are service marks of Bain & Company, Inc., NICE Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.”
https://www.netpromotersystem.com/resources/trademarks-and-licensing/

The Client’s View on DLA Piper – how do your lawyers score?

The Client’s View on DLA Piper – how do your lawyers score?

What do clients really think about the service they get from your firm? Every year, the Legal 500 asks hundreds of thousands of clients how they rate firms on a range of metrics, including lawyers and team quality, value, billing, and industry knowledge.

The scores we collect allow us to benchmark firms against each other – this article looks at how DLA compares to its peers for lawyers and team quality.

How DLA compares to the Global 100 for lawyer and team quality

The graph below shows all scores for the Global 100 firms – the green dots representing firms which score above average for lawyers and team quality, and the red dots below. DLA’s score of 79.52 sits below the Global 100 average of 81.97.


DLA Piper


Lawyers and
Team Quality

79.52


Quality of partners 82.29


Quality of associates 74.80


Partner availability and engagement 81.87


All scores are global and /100.

The client scoring data also shows how DLA Piper rates in comparison to its competitor firms for quality of partners, quality of associates, and partner availability and engagement, among many other key metrics.

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Rating the lawyers – what the data tells us about Clifford Chance

Rating the lawyers – what the data tells us about Clifford Chance

How do your clients rate the service they receive from your firm? Every year, we ask hundreds of thousands of clients to score firms on metrics such as lawyer quality, billing, communication and expertise, as part of the Legal 500 research. As well as providing insight on each firm, this means we can also benchmark firms against each other.

Lawyers and team quality – how does CC score?

Clifford Chance scores 80.94 for lawyers and team quality – as illustrated below, that score is 1.03% below the average for Global 100 firms; better than DLA’s score, but below Linklaters. Conversely, Herbert Smith Freehills scores 0.33% above the average.

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Hogan Lovells: The Client’s View

Hogan Lovells: The Client’s View

Hogan Lovells


Lawyers and
Team Quality

81.20


Quality of partners 84.08


Quality of associates 76.19


Partner availability and engagement 83.46


All scores are global and /100.

What do clients really think about the service they receive from law firms? At Legal 500, we hear from hundreds of thousands of clients every year, rating firms on key metrics such as lawyer quality and availability, billing, and levels of communication and expertise.

The answers we receive allow us to evaluate firms using a set of client service data scores, covering Lawyers and Team Quality, Value: Billing and Efficiency, and Sector and Industry Knowledge – all of which combine to produce an overall Client Service Score.

This article focuses on Lawyers and Team Quality, for which Hogan Lovells scores 81.20. (The rest of this article is available to logged-in users onlyIf you are unable to log in above right, please click ‘Forgot your password?’ below to gain access to the full article). Continue reading “Hogan Lovells: The Client’s View”

Ashurst: The Client’s View

Ashurst: The Client’s View

Ashurst


Lawyers and
Team Quality

79.59


Quality of partners 83.47


Quality of associates 75.76


Partner availability and engagement 83.18


All scores are global and /100.

What do clients really think about the service they receive from law firms? At Legal 500, we hear from hundreds of thousands of clients every year, rating firms on key metrics such as lawyer quality and availability, billing, and levels of communication and expertise.

The answers we receive allow us to evaluate firms using a set of client service data scores, covering Lawyers and Team Quality, Value: Billing and Efficiency, and Sector and Industry Knowledge – all of which combine to produce an overall Client Service Score.

This article focuses on Lawyers and Team Quality, for which Ashurst scores 79.59. (The rest of this article is available to logged-in users onlyIf you are unable to log in above right, please click ‘Forgot your password?’ below to gain access to the full article). Continue reading “Ashurst: The Client’s View”

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner: The Client’s View

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner: The Client’s View

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner


Lawyers and
Team Quality

81.93


Quality of partners 84.52


Quality of associates 74.14


Partner availability and engagement 83.99


All scores are global and /100.

What do clients really think about the service they receive from law firms? At Legal 500, we hear from hundreds of thousands of clients every year, rating firms on key metrics such as lawyer quality and availability, billing, and levels of communication and expertise.

The answers we receive allow us to evaluate firms using a set of client service data scores, covering Lawyers and Team Quality, Value: Billing and Efficiency, and Sector and Industry Knowledge – all of which combine to produce an overall Client Service Score.

This article focuses on Lawyers and Team Quality, for which Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner scores 81.93. (The rest of this article is available to logged-in users onlyIf you are unable to log in above right, please click ‘Forgot your password?’ below to gain access to the full article). Continue reading “Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner: The Client’s View”

The Client’s View: how do HSF’s lawyers compare to its rivals?

The Client’s View: how do HSF’s lawyers compare to its rivals?

Every year, we ask hundreds of thousands of clients to score law firms on metrics such as billing, communication and expertise. This data, which is gathered alongside the Legal 500‘s research, offers huge insight into how clients rate the service they receive, and also, perhaps more importantly, enables us to benchmark firms against each other.

Lawyers and team quality – how does HSF score?

Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) scores 82.30 for Lawyers and Team Quality, which, as illustrated by the chart below is 0.33% above the average, or ‘benchmark’, for all Global 100 firms. HSF’s score is also better than Ashurst, Clifford Chance (CC) and Linklaters, all of which score below the Global 100 average.

(The rest of this article is available to logged-in users onlyIf you are unable to log in above right, please click ‘Forgot your password?’ below to gain access to the full article). Continue reading “The Client’s View: how do HSF’s lawyers compare to its rivals?”