Legal Week is to publish the first comprehensive picture of lawyer morale since leading UK law firms last autumn embarked on a wave of deep job cuts.

The major research project will see Legal Week for the first time publish headline rankings for individual law firms from the annual Employee Satisfaction Survey, which will draw on more than 4,000 responses.

The report, which will be published in June, promises to paint the most comprehensive picture of the current mood of lawyers in the UK after a 12-month period dominated by restructurings and job losses.

The report, produced by Legal Week's independent research arm Legal Week Intelligence, attracted a record number of responses this year with more than 4,000 solicitors participating.

The report covers the top 50 UK law firms and the top 10 largest London offices of US firms. The research, which was conducted independently of the law firms themselves, was carried out during March and April this year, canvassing the views of qualified solicitors below partner level.

Firms are benchmarked on a range of criteria, including partner prospects, training, salary and benefits and work/life balance. Some of the largest law firms will have received more than 100 responses, ensuring this is the largest benchmarking report of its kind yet undertaken in the UK legal market.

The results will be particularly watched for the impact on staff morale at the firms that have resorted to heavy programmes of job-cutting in response to the recession.

Legal Week publisher John Malpas said: "Over the last six months the UK's leading law firms have implemented an unprecedented round of job cuts. This report will home in on the people who have been left behind to pick up the pieces. These findings will allow us to provide the first authoritative assessment of the ability of the leading law firms to weather such drastic action. It promises to make fascinating reading."