| Shoosmiths | Standout | Risk and reward sharing with clients | 7 | 7 | 8 | 22 | Working with client Hewlett Packard, the firm has adopted a special fee structure under which it is rewarded if it comes under budget and penalised if it is over. HP has halved its external legal spending |
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| Crowell & Moring | Standout | Comprehensive alternative fee arrangements | 6 | 8 | 8 | 22 | More than half the firm’s revenue comes from alternative fee arrangements. Clients felt the end-of-year value-grading exercise demonstrated the firm’s commitment to departing from hourly billing |
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| Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii | Standout | Risk-sharing with banking clients | 8 | 7 | 6 | 21 | Deferring its own fee payments, the firm has become party to the banks’ loan portfolio risk. It has also encouraged banking clients to support struggling borrowers |
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| Linklaters | Standout | Global pricing | 7 | 7 | 6 | 20 | The only firm to have a team dedicated to advising and implementing a global pricing strategy, which allows it to offer a diverse menu of options to clients |
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| CMS Cameron McKenna | Standout | Changing the hourly billing culture | 8 | 8 | 4 | 20 | A long-term internal education scheme to alter the ethos of the firm and break down ingrained opposition to alternative fee structures |
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| Berwin Leighton Paisner | Standout | Loyalty card scheme | 7 | 6 | 7 | 20 | Clients can accrue notional points in the firm’s value account scheme. Points can be spent on secondments or free access to information systems |
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| Clifford Chance | Highly commended | Quantifying value-added services | 7 | 6 | 6 | 19 | Reports assign a monetary value to the free work that large firms do such as secondments, helplines and updates as well as measuring the value of any business referrals. Considered an important benchmarking tool by its clients |
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| Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii | Highly commended | Fixing fees in time of currency fluctuations | 6 | 7 | 5 | 18 | As part of the firm’s strategy to share risks, it shielded key clients from volatility in the exchange rate between the Romanian lei and the euro |
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| Portolano Colella Cavallo | Commended | Real-time billing and alternative fee arrangements | 5 | 7 | 5 | 17 | Leading the way in billing in the Italian legal market. The firm updates clients every 24 hours and uses a value-added approach where possible |
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| Eversheds | Commended | Enabling HSBC to pursue large numbers of debtors | 5 | 6 | 6 | 17 | Using a contingency fee structure, the firm works with HSBC’s distressed debt team in Calcutta, India, to assess claims for viability and then pursues those claims for little or no cost until point of recovery |
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| Allen & Overy | Commended | Reduced pricing for hospital finance | 6 | 6 | 5 | 17 | The firm “smoothed out” fees across low-cost private finance initiatives, using smart resourcing and a long-term view |
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| Ashurst | Commended | Measuring the firm’s free value-added services | 6 | 6 | 4 | 16 | Working with the hourly rate, Ashurst has developed systems to account for the work they do free of charge for clients. Still in its early stages |
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