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Who are the top five most successful business lawyers in the UK?

It is a matter of overwhelming difficulty to identify the top five most successful business lawyers in the UK. This article considers why, and then takes a stab at naming them anyway.

A matter of definition

The term “lawyer” can refer either to a solicitor or a barrister because the English legal profession is split. They practice in tandem with each other, and so are not really comparable. This article considers solicitors’ firms only because it is only solicitors who take instructions from members of the public, or companies. It is also very difficult to identify the markers of success - would this mean the lawyers who showed the most acumen in business, who had won the most cases, or simply who other lawyers recommend the most? Of course, this could also refer to the lawyers who had made the most money.

The broad field of business and law

The spectrum of commercial law is also very broad - many big firms with a commercial specialisation rank business law as being corporate finance, or the law of mergers and acquisitions. However, other commercial legal areas include contract and commercial, commercial dispute resolution, and even slightly broader areas such as IT law or marine law. Again, they are not comparable because these fields are quite diverse.

Would you want to instruct the top firm?

A further question to ask is whether an ordinary citizen or even a small business, faced with a commercial query dispute of some kind, would even want to instruct a firm at the top of the pile. The top niche city or, as they are called, Magic Circle, firms, focus very much on assisting large corporates with large deals. Both their fees and their expertise may not be suited to smaller enterprises.

Who are the top five?

Legal recommendation service Chambers and Partners, rates individual or sets or lawyers by specialisation. They have identified the top five commercial firms in the UK, rating them according to their perceived commercial acumen (there is a different categorisation for firms rated according to client care abilities). According to Chambers, the top five are: - Baker and McKenzie, a global firm with offices in London - Clifford Chance, one of the original Magic Circle firms in London, now with offices in Canary Wharf - CMS Cameron McKenna, a high end firm that operates in London and across most of Europe - DLA Piper UK, an American firm that now has offices in London as well - Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, another original prestigious London firm that now operates worldwide.

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