Freeths, Freshfields and Vodafone were among the big winners at this year’s Legal Business Awards, which were revealed to a packed house at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.
Twenty-seven prizes were handed out on the night, with the event hosted by BBC journalist, broadcaster and Mastermind host Clive Myrie and introduced by global head of research and reporting Georgina Stanley.
Freeths took the award for law firm of the year, narrowly pipping Freshfields, which was highly commended in the headline category. The national firm took the honour on the back of another consecutive year of double-digit growth, during which it also became one of the first law firms to achieve B Corp certification.
It also enjoyed an unprecedented year in the spotlight for its role in the Post Office inquiry, which was captured in the hugely successful Mr Bates vs The Post Office TV drama.
Freshfields went home with two of the top practice area awards, including corporate team of the year for successfully steering UBS through its historic acquisition of Credit Suisse, and competition team of the year for its work for Facebook parent company Meta on the Competition and Markets Authority’s investigation into its collection and use of advertising data.
The top two individual awards, Lawyer of the Year and Management Partner of the Year, went to DLA Piper’s Adam Ibrahim – described by one client as ‘the Magnus Carlsen of the banking litigation world – always three steps ahead of his opponent’ – and former Allen & Overy senior partner Wim Dejonghe, for sealing the long-awaited, transformational transatlantic merger with Shearman & Sterling.
The award for US law firm of the year went to Paul Weiss, which has has made a huge splash in the London legal market over the last year, building a top tier English law practice at lightning speed through a series of eye-catching hires from leading UK and US firms.
The awards, which were decided on by a judging panel of senior business figures – including Lloyds Banking Group chief legal officer Kate Cheetham, Rio Tinto COO Chris Fowler, Financial Times GC Dan Guildford and News UK GC Angus McBride – also recognised the very best of the Bar and in-house.
Vodafone was named In-house Team of the Year after an eventful year which included the proposed merger of Vodafone and Three’s UK businesses, the defence of the Phones4u litigation and a major in-house transformation project, while the company also shared the Legal Technology Team of the Year with TLT for their work on an interactive digital dawn raid simulator.
Everton Football Club chief legal counsel Katie Charles was named GC of the Year, while on the Bar side, Edward Henry KC of Mountford Chambers took the Barrister of Year award, with 3VB named Chambers of the Year.
The charity partner for the event was Hand in Hand International, which supports the 400 million women and girls around the world living below the poverty line by providing skills, education, training and resources to start their own businesses and generate jobs.