Entries are now open for the British Legal Awards 2014, which feature new categories to recognise the growing importance of regulatory work for the UK's leading law firms and encourage more niche firms to enter.

The awards, which will take place at Old Billingsgate Market on 27 November, are hosted by Legal Week with the support of the City of London Law Society, which chooses the Lifetime Achievement Award and whose chair, Alasdair Douglas, presides over the independent judging panel.

For this year's awards, the roster of practice area categories has been extended to include the new category of Competition and Regulatory Team of the Year – a concession to the fact that regulatory teams have experienced a boom in work off the back of the clampdown by regulatory authorities across the world on fraud and miss-selling.

Meanwhile, the Regional Law Firm of the Year category has been dropped in favour of UK Law Firm of the Year, which is open to regional and niche firms as well as those national firms whose primary focus is UK work.

There are a total of 27 categories, including the flagship Law Firm of the Year, which was scooped last year by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, General Counsel of the Year, which went to ITV's Andrew Garard, as well as the hotly contested Law Firm Innovation Award, which was awarded to Clifford Chance in 2013.

There are eight practice awards covering M&A, banking, litigation, regulation, property, commercial, TMT and private client and a series of awards designed to reflect the wider contribution law firms and legal departments make to the community, including Diversity Initiative of the Year, which in 2013 went to Field Fisher Waterhouse, and CSR Initiative of the Year, whose 2013 winner was Freshfields.

The judging panel will meet in the autumn to choose the winners, and consists of general counsel and other senior legal figures. Last year's judges included BAE Systems general counsel Philip Bramwell, Vodafone group general counsel Rosemary Martin and Sir Anthony Salz, executive vice chairman of Rothschild. Entrants to each category are scrutinised by a team of judges and the entire 20-strong panel votes for the Law Firm of the Year Award.

The deadline for entries is 5 September. To enter go to britishlegalawards.com.

Click here for a detailed run down of last year's winners and here for a guide on how to put together a winning entry.

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