| Norton Rose Fulbright | Standout | Flex: the strategy | 8 | 6 | 8 | 22 | To avoid redundancies, the firm changed the terms of employment for more than 90 per cent of its workforce. This introduced the possibility of flexible working, with salary reductions capped at a maximum of 20 per cent |
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| Clifford Chance | Standout | The knowledge centre | 6 | 8 | 7 | 21 | Indian law graduates in Delhi undertake paralegal work, document drafting and research, cutting costs for clients. The firm’s total control of the operation ensures quality output |
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| Allen & Overy | Standout | Launching DocGenix | 7 | 7 | 7 | 21 | The firm created a revolutionary online risk management service for derivatives contracts, spinning it off into a separate commercial entity. The intelligent application allows the search and analysis of thousands of contracts at once |
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| Simmons & Simmons | Standout | MBA in legal business | 8 | 6 | 6 | 20 | The firm used its relationship with BPP law school to create a new MBA in legal services for its future and current trainees. Next year the course will be open to the industry |
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| Ashurst | Standout | Secretarial career path | 7 | 7 | 6 | 20 | Structured around key competencies, this career path introduces technical ability assessments and skills development courses. Remuneration is now directly linked to performance, removing the link between seniority of fee earner and secretarial status |
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| Wragge & Co | Highly commended | In-house outplacement team | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 | A systematic outplacement service for staff facing redundancy. The firm diverted the human resources team to look for opportunities for its fee earners |
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| Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer | Highly commended | Redeploying resources to meet demand | 5 | 7 | 6 | 18 | “Sleeper” lawyers with relevant experience were retrained to work in the increasingly busy restructuring practice, with a downturn “wiki” used to share know-how |
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| Eversheds | Commended | Outsourcing for clients | 6 | 6 | 5 | 17 | A proactive offer to offshore low value components of a client’s work to an outsourcing company in Chennai. A more efficient service allowed the firm to pass on a 10 per cent cost saving to the client |
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| Linklaters | Commended | Global resourcing strategy | 5 | 6 | 5 | 16 | Making training, experiences and opportunities more consistent across all offices. Includes practice diplomas and a global work experience programme |
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| Allen & Overy | Commended | Financial crisis intelligence unit | 5 | 5 | 6 | 16 | A special council pooling resources and expertise to provide an academically stimulating yet commercially useful tool for up-to-date cross-jurisdictional financial crisis advice |
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| Abreu Advogados | Commended | Master agreements for derivative contracts | 5 | 6 | 5 | 16 | The firm set up a working group to draft an ISDA-type master agreement to govern derivative transactions involving Portuguese counterparties. Succeeded where prior attempts had failed |
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| McGrigors | Commended | Unpaid leaving scheme | 5 | 5 | 5 | 15 | McGrigors introduced an unpaid leave programme in response to the recession. Partners take a pay cut while staff have the option of spreading the cost of extra leave across several months |
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| Clifford Chance | Commended | Mumbai pitch team | 5 | 5 | 5 | 15 | Through its relationship with Integreon, the firm offshored a significant proportion of its desktop publishing work to Mumbai, India. This reduced costs and improved the quality of the work |
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