Clifford Chance (CC) has been voted one of the top five firms for US associate satisfaction, according to Legal Week sister title The American Lawyer's annual Midlevel Associate Survey.

The firm has soared from 97th place last year to fourth in this year's survey, which canvassed the opinion of 4,500 associates at Am Law 200 and Global 100 firms.

Associates were asked to rate firms on a five-point scale from one (very dissatisfied) to five (very satisfied) across 12 measures including: interest and satisfaction levels of work; benefits and compensation; and relations between associates and partners.

Other UK or transatlantic firms to feature in the survey include Linklaters, which sits 77th, down from 69th in 2015, Hogan Lovells and DLA Piper. Hogan Lovells ranks in 69^th place, down from 60^th last year, while DLA Piper has fallen to  62^nd place from 37th last year. Meanwhile, Dentons came in at 93rd, down from 86th, with a score of 3.8 from 36 responses.

Third-, fourth- and fifth-year associates at CC gave the firm an average score of 4.6 out of a total of five possible points. Overall, 41 associates responded, giving the firm its highest scores for management openness, training and partner communication.

US firm Paul Hastings tops the chart for the second year running, with a score of 4.76 points.

Other firms in the top 10 include Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Foley Hoag; Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson; Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; and Proskauer Rose.

High scores for the top 10 firms were driven by interesting work, good relations among associates and with partners and support for pro bono work.

The firms earned their lowest scores for communication about what is needed to make partner and associates' expectations of staying at least two more years.

Evan Cohen, CC's regional managing partner for the Americas, said the firm has focused on boosting associate satisfaction through initiatives such as expanding its training programme to emphasise personal skills as well as technical ones, and introducing a $1,000 (£760) technology allowance to help associates work more easily from home.

In total, 94 firms received the 10 responses needed to be ranked. The survey found that overall, associates were more satisfied than last year.

Click here to see the full ranking from The American Lawyer