This issue holds our annual Global 100 survey results, but which Global 100 firms top The Legal 500 for number of top-tier recommendations?
To view the editorial commentary of the rankings go to: legal500.com
There may be clear blue water between Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins and their nearest rivals at the top of the Global 100 revenue rankings but analysis of The Legal 500 rankings globally reveals a very different set of top performers.
Baker McKenzie is the Global 100 firm with the most tier one rankings across all of The Legal 500 guides around the world, with our researchers ranking 202 of its practices globally as top tier.
The international firm heads a top three that also includes Allen & Overy (10th in the Global 100) and Clifford Chance (CC) (7th), with CMS and DLA Piper rounding out the top five performers by tier one rankings.
The difference is explained by both the breadth of practice focus at those scoring most rankings and international development.
Bakers, A&O and CC all secured the majority of their top rankings across EMEA, which gifted Kirkland just one top-tier ranking in the most recent research and made up just under a third of Latham’s.
Bakers’ large geographic spread means it also scored particularly well in Asia-Pacific (APAC), which was only narrowly behind its EMEA tally with 85 tier one rankings region-wide.
In contrast, both A&O and CC inevitably fared better in the UK, with roughly equal numbers of top-tier rankings in the UK and APAC and none or very few in the US, where Kirkland and Latham both picked up more than half of their top-tier rankings.
While neither Kirkland nor Latham are likely to expand in international scale to the level of the Magic Circle or Bakers, their ongoing recruitment drives in the UK and Europe mean future rankings may tell a different story.
Top-ranking Global 100 firms by total number of top-tier recommendations worldwide
Regional breakdown of top-tier recommendations worldwide
| UK | EMEA | US | Latin America | Asia-Pacific |