King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), Ashurst and Linklaters have ranked among the top providers of legal advice in Asia in a new Legal Week report on client satisfaction in the region.

Legal Week's Client Satisfaction Report Asia, which is based on responses from general counsel at 214 companies in Asia, also saw Singapore's WongPartnership and Australia's Clayton Utz emerge as top-ranking firms in the region for client satisfaction, with all five firms receiving above-average scores.

Asia-Pacific giant KWM – formed last March through the merger of China's King & Wood and Australia's Mallesons Stephen Jaques, received the highest average satisfaction score of 8.67 out of 10, ahead of second-placed Clayton Utz. It was rated particularly highly for quality of legal advice and service delivery and responsiveness, receiving scores of 9.5 and 9.3 respectively.

Also among the best-rated firms was the UK's Ashurst, which was ranked joint third alongside WongPartnership.

The firm, which merged its Asia operations with Australia's Blake Dawson last year, scored an average of 8.17, with personal/partner relationships and quality of commercial advice particularly well-regarded. 

Ashurst Hong Kong managing partner Robert Ogilvy Watson (pictured) said: "A key difference for our state-owned clients in parts of Asia as compared with, say, clients in Europe is that there are significant internal approvals and processes required to push through cross-border transactions  and in terms of accessing budget, so clients need law firms to be understanding and accommodating in this respect."

Linklaters was the only magic circle firm in the top five, gaining high scores for service delivery (8.6) and legal advice (8.6). 

The firm, which secured an exclusive alliance with Australia's Allens last year, was also praised for being competitive and transparent on billing, and for its work in litigation and dispute resolution. Linklaters Greater China head Marc Harvey said: "We are absolutely transparent when it comes to billing – we make sure we keep clients up to speed on how much is on the clock, so that they are not surprised by the final bill."

The Asia survey high-lighted a clear preference for fixed-fee billing arrangements among GCs in the region, with 45% of respondents favouring this option, against 31% support for capped hourly rates and 10% for standard chargeable hours. 

The figures mirror similar results in Legal Week's global Client Satisfaction Report published last year, which surveyed 1,650 individuals at 1,204 companies, including 89% of the FTSE 100. 

The research also found in-house lawyers in Asia to be more satisfied than their global counterparts with service delivery and responsiveness, use of IT and costs/billings. 

The full findings will be published in next week's issue of Legal Week.  

For more information, contact Paul Birk on 0207 316 9864 or <a href="[email protected].