Slaughter and May wins out as most respected magic circle firm
Senior lawyers vote conservative London firm as most respected and best managed magic circle member
June 22, 2005 at 08:03 PM
2 minute read
UK partners have overwhelmingly voted Slaughter and May as the most respected and best managed magic circle law firm, according to the latest poll of senior lawyers.
The famously conservative London firm was ranked significantly higher than its magic circle rivals in this week's Legal Week/ EJ Legal Big Question survey, in which almost half (49%) of the panel of more than 100 leading lawyers labelled Slaughters as the most admired magic circle firm.
The result places Slaughters comfortably ahead of Allen & Overy (A&O) and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which both achieved 16% of the vote.
Forty-three percent of lawyers also viewed Slaughters as the best managed of the five firms, ahead of Freshfields, which came second with 27%. Clifford Chance (CC) came last with just 2%, following a turbulent couple of years in which its US practice has seen office closures and numerous partner departures.
Slaughters' practice partner David Frank said: "It goes to show that although we do not follow fashion, people increasingly view our strategy as credible. We are a traditional partnership, which makes it slightly easier to manage compared with other firms that are not."
The results are in stark contrast with this time last year when the same question was put to UK partners and Freshfields and A&O were dubbed the best-managed firms.
Slaughters' popularity did not extend across the board, however. When asked which firm has made the most progress over the past five years, 39% opted for Freshfields, with 28% naming Linklaters and just 7% voting for Slaughters.
When asked which firm partners would invest their life savings in, if it were possible to buy shares in a law firm, 46% said they would invest in Slaughters, while Linklaters and Freshfields each received 18% of the vote and just 2% chose CC.
Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy corporate partner Tim Emmerson said: "It would have to be Slaughters because it is better, safer and you get more quality per person there than anywhere else. Every magic circle partner secretly wants to be a partner at Slaughters."
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