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- FT Law 50 2009
- Changing the rules 2009
- Dispute Resolution - non credit crisis 2009
- Financial Crisis and the downturn 2009
- Financial Crisis and the downturn 2009 (2)
- Financial Crisis and the downturn 2009 (3)
- Financial Services 2009
- Financial Services 2009 (2)
- Financial Services 2009 (3)
- Government 2009
- Government 2009 (2)
- Law firm management 2009
- Resourcing 2009
- FT Law 50 2008
- Finance 2008
- Finance 2008 (2)
- Management 2008
- Marketing & PR 2008
- Real Estate 2008
- Responsible Business 2008
- Client Service 2008
- Corporate 2008
- Corporate 2008 (2)
- Human Resources 2008
- Public-Private Partnership 2008
All rankings
- FT Law 50 2009
- Billing and fees - litigation financing 2009
- Billing and Fees 2009
- Changing the rules 2009
- Client Service 2009
- Continental European Firms 2009
- Dispute Resolution - credit crisis 2009
- Dispute Resolution - non credit crisis 2009
- Energy 2009
- Financial Crisis and the downturn 2009
- Financial Services - Islamic finance 2009
- Financial Services - Longevity risk and mortgages 2009
- Financial Services 2009
- Fraud 2009
- Government 2009
- In-House Lawyers 2009
- Law firm management 2009
- Resourcing 2009
- US Financial Crisis and the downturn 2009
- FT Law 50 2008
- Finance 2008
- Fraud 2008
- Management 2008
- Marketing & PR 2008
- Publishing 2008
- Real Estate 2008
- Responsible Business 2008
- Technology & Know-How 2008
- Top 10 US Law Firms In Europe For Innovation In Expansion 2008
- Billing and Fees 2008
- Client Service 2008
- Commercial 2008
- Continental European Firms 2008
- Corporate 2008
- Corporate- Europe 2008
- Dispute Resolution 2008
- Diversity 2008
- Human Resources 2008
- In-House Lawyers 2008
- Public-Private Partnership 2008
Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerFT Law 50 2009
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| 2009 Rank | 1 |
| 2008 Rank | 5 |
| 2009 total score for ALL entries submitted | 319 |
| 2009 score band for ALL entries submitted (/10) | 9 |
| Number of standout entries in FT REPORT | 4 |
| Number of highly commended entries in FT REPORT | 6 |
| Number of commended entries in FT REPORT | 2 |
| 2009: total weighted score for ranked entries in FT REPORT | 30 |
| 2009 Score band for ranked entries in FT REPORT (/10) | 10 |
| 2008: total weighted score for ranked entries in FT REPORT | 32 |
| 2008 score band for ranked entries in FT REPORT (/5) | 4 |
| 2009 Profits per Equity Partner (PEP) (£k) | 1,443 |
| 2009 Score band for PEP (/5) | 5 |
| Assessment of management commitment and innovation value to firm (/20) | 18 |
| Total Innovation Score in the FTLAW50 (/50) | 46 |
Changing the rules 2009
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award level | Standout |
| Innovation | Tesco’s successful challenge to the UK Competition Commission |
| Originality | 8 |
| Rationale | 6 |
| Impact | 8 |
| Total | 22 |
| Description | As an integral part of the Tesco team, Freshfields’ legal strategy to make a Competition Commission remedy the subject of the judicial review was novel and should ensure that future remedies have a better consideration of benefits and costs |
Dispute Resolution - non credit crisis 2009
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award level | Highly commended |
| Innovation | Forcing greater transparency in EU decisions |
| Originality | 5 |
| Rationale | 6 |
| Impact | 7 |
| Total | 18 |
| Description | Freshfields successfully rallied member states and NGOs behind MEP Turco in his quest for transparency in a key decision regarding the reception of asylum-seekers in member states |
Financial Crisis and the downturn 2009
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award level | Standout |
| Innovation | Bank of England special liquidity scheme |
| Originality | 7 |
| Rationale | 7 |
| Impact | 8 |
| Total | 22 |
| Description | The firm designed the legal structure that allowed banks to swap illiquid securities for £185bn (€200.4bn) in Treasury bills. The structure was later copied by other nations |
Financial Crisis and the downturn 2009 (2)
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award level | Highly commended |
| Innovation | Advising sponsoring banks on recapitalisations |
| Originality | 6 |
| Rationale | 6 |
| Impact | 7 |
| Total | 19 |
| Description | Advised on RBS’s £12bn rights issue, the largest ever in Europe and the first time a “cashbox” structure was used for preference shares. The firm also used a “compensatory open offer” approach on the Lloyds share offer, another first |
Financial Crisis and the downturn 2009 (3)
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award level | Commended |
| Innovation | The Topland joint venture with Eroski |
| Originality | 5 |
| Rationale | 5 |
| Impact | 6 |
| Total | 16 |
| Description | Advising a UK investor entering its first transaction in Spain with the second-largest supermarket retailer. Facing increased risks of insolvency, the firm devised solutions to manage unusual risks to enable the deal to go ahead |
Financial Services 2009
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award level | Highly commended |
| Innovation | Deutsche Börse hybrid bond |
| Originality | 6 |
| Rationale | 7 |
| Impact | 7 |
| Total | 20 |
| Description | The firm established a new variant on the hybrid bond featuring the “replacement capital covenant”, an elegant solution to the shifting ratings rules. Now adopted as the industry standard by Standard & Poor’s |
Financial Services 2009 (2)
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award level | Highly commended |
| Innovation | Transferring Lehman businesses to Nomura |
| Originality | 5 |
| Rationale | 7 |
| Impact | 8 |
| Total | 20 |
| Description | Freshfields was responsible for the delicate and complex process of transferring Lehman Brothers’ European, Middle East and Asian employees and systems under immense time pressure |
Financial Services 2009 (3)
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award level | Commended |
| Innovation | BAA’s refinancing of its UK airports |
| Originality | 6 |
| Rationale | 6 |
| Impact | 6 |
| Total | 18 |
| Description | The firm achieved an extremely large and complicated refinancing by creating a bond exchange mechanism and escrow arrangements for existing holders |
Government 2009
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award level | Standout |
| Innovation | Strategic adviser to the German government in the credit crisis |
| Originality | 8 |
| Rationale | 9 |
| Impact | 8 |
| Total | 25 |
| Description | The firm drafted the initial legislative solution to the crisis in one weekend. Later, it developed a unique expropriation act to deal with non-cooperative shareholders of Hypo Real Estate Bank and a new twist on the good bank / bad bank concept |
Government 2009 (2)
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award level | Standout |
| Innovation | Reshaping the rules around European Union state aid |
| Originality | 6 |
| Rationale | 7 |
| Impact | 7 |
| Total | 20 |
| Description | Helping to accelerate the European Commission’s previously sluggish processes of approval for state aid, Freshfields combined legal expertise with commercial and political negotiating skills |
Law firm management 2009
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award level | Highly commended |
| Innovation | Wiki intranet |
| Originality | 7 |
| Rationale | 6 |
| Impact | 6 |
| Total | 19 |
| Description | A web 2.0 solution has been implemented to allow collaborative knowledge sharing. User group wikis and blogs are perfect tools to encourage contributions and provide a more dynamic service to clients |
Resourcing 2009
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award level | Highly commended |
| Innovation | Redeploying resources to meet demand |
| Originality | 5 |
| Rationale | 7 |
| Impact | 6 |
| Total | 18 |
| Description | “Sleeper” lawyers with relevant experience were retrained to work in the increasingly busy restructuring practice, with a downturn “wiki” used to share know-how |
FT Law 50 2008
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| 2008 Rank | 5 |
| 2007 Rank | 12 (+7) |
| 2008: Total score for ALL entries submitted | 294 |
| 2008: score band for ALL entries submitted (/10) | 6 |
| Number of standout entries in FT REPORT | 5 |
| Number of highly commended entries in FT REPORT | 5 |
| Number of commended entries in FT REPORT | 2 |
| 2008: total weighted score for ranked entries in FT REPORT | 32 |
| 2008: score band for ranked entries in FT REPORT (/10) | 8 |
| 2007: total weighted score for ranked entries in FT REPORT | 9 |
| 2007: score band for ranked entries in FT REPORT (/5) | 2 |
| 2007: Profits per Equity Partner (PEP) | 1,484 |
| 2007: score band for PEP (/5) | 4 |
| Assessment of management commitment and innovation value to firm (/20) | 16 |
| Total Innovation Score in the FTLAW50 (/50) | 36 |
Finance 2008
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award Level | Highly commended |
| Innovation | Getting a rating for microfinance transactions. |
| Originality | 7 |
| Rationale | 5 |
| Impact | 6 |
| Total | 18 |
| Description | Advice to Deutsche Bank on microfinance securitisation. The innovation is the external rating that makes the loans attractive to a larger group of lenders who might then become involved in charitable purchase loans. |
Finance 2008 (2)
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award Level | Highly commended |
| Innovation | Eurotunnel restructuring. |
| Originality | 7 |
| Rationale | 5 |
| Impact | 6 |
| Total | 18 |
| Description | Lead adviser to Eurotunnel on the company's unprecedented restructuring which was done under the new French safeguard law. |
Management 2008
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award Level | Standout |
| Innovation | Merger of knowledge management and business development teams. |
| Originality | 7 |
| Rationale | 8 |
| Impact | 5 |
| Total | 20 |
| Description | A fusion of two normally standalone departments to structurally alter the way in which the firm's products are delivered so they meet client needs more effectively. |
Marketing & PR 2008
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award Level | Standout |
| Innovation | Getting it right: Product recall in the EU' - the only data-rich report in response to a surge in product recalls. |
| Originality | 6 |
| Rationale | 7 |
| Impact | 6 |
| Total | 19 |
| Description | An independently researched report that was combined with the firm's expertise in the field to contribute to debate with the regulator, win the firm work and start conversations with potential clients. |
Real Estate 2008
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award Level | Highly commended |
| Innovation | HSBC's £1.1bn sale and leaseback of its 8 Canada Square headquarters in Canary Wharf. The highest value single-asset acquisition ever in UK. |
| Originality | 6 |
| Rationale | 6 |
| Impact | 6 |
| Total | 18 |
| Description | Freshfields structured and developed an entirely new form of leasing for HSBC’s sale of its Canary Wharf building which enabled the bank to release capital and retain control of its branding. It turned around the deal in less than two months. |
Responsible Business 2008
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award Level | Standout |
| Innovation | First audited international CSR report. |
| Originality | 8 |
| Rationale | 7 |
| Impact | 5 |
| Total | 20 |
| Description | The first firm to take basic steps to auditing themselves as a responsible business internationally. This involved a major internal audit and has had a ripple effect in the legal sector, encouraging other firms to start similar work. |
Client Service 2008
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award Level | Commended |
| Innovation | A Product Regulation Unit which offers clients a one stop shop for regulation advice |
| Originality | 6 |
| Rationale | 6 |
| Impact | 6 |
| Total | 18 |
| Description | The Unit has a full-time team that brings together advice on differing regulation of products across the European Union from the whole firm and its network. It has been running since 2003 but remains unusual while being appreciated by clients. |
Corporate 2008
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award Level | Standout |
| Innovation | The €1.2bn initial public offering of the Hamburg port operator. |
| Originality | 6 |
| Rationale | 7 |
| Impact | 7 |
| Total | 20 |
| Description | Faced with the end of the free trade zone that dated back to Prussian times, the firm devised a tracking stock structure for the port's IPO that maintained employee pension rights and the integrity of a historic area of Hamburg by splitting the old warehouses from the operational port. |
Corporate 2008 (2)
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award Level | Commended |
| Innovation | Porsche's increased shareholding in Volkswagen. |
| Originality | 6 |
| Rationale | 4 |
| Impact | 6 |
| Total | 16 |
| Description | In a high-profile case viewed widely as a 'David and Goliath' situation, Freshfields assisted Porsche in its bid to increase its stake in the much larger Volkswagen whilst maintaining its own management control using an innovative corporate governance structure. |
Human Resources 2008
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Award Level | Standout |
| Innovation | Senior Associate Development: simulating real life through the use of clients and external coaches. |
| Originality | 7 |
| Rationale | 7 |
| Impact | 6 |
| Total | 20 |
| Description | An unusually effective, high pressure business simulation for 28 associates. Besides clients and coaches, 50 of the firm's partners also participated in 2 day sessions which gives associates an intense push up their career curves. |
Public-Private Partnership 2008
| Rankings at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Project | The Western High Speed Diameter: Russia's largest PPP deal at $7.39bn will construct a motorway to link St Petersburg's trade ports with the national road network. |
| Award Level | Highly commended |
| Originality | 4 |
| Creativity | 7 |
| Impact | 4 |
| Total | 15 |
| The lawyers' innovation | The firm has been involved in several notable PPP projects in Russia. Advising the project's public sector developer, the firm managed to marry the expectations of government and the market. It will act as a test for other projects as to the efficacy of private sector involvement in Russian concessions. |
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