Individual innovators
The RSG Consulting research team selected and interviewed a shortlist of 10 individuals who stood out in the research as going beyond the boundaries of being a lawyer, either to add value to the industry or to the wider community. This shortlist was then submitted to a panel of judges consisting of Geoffrey Vos, chairman of the Bar; Nick Carter-Pegg, a partner at accountancy firm and report sponsor BDO Stoy Hayward; Geoffrey Timms, group head of legal at Legal and General; Simon Targett, Special Reports editor and associate editor at the Financial Times; James Pickford, editor of the Business Life section; and Michael Peel, legal correspondent.
The judges
The table of innovative judges was compiled from an extensive survey of private practice commercial litigators and members of the Bar from a cross-section of mainly commercial sets.
More than 100 litigators were polled, and 47 judges were nominated in total. Out of these, the highest-scoring judges for innovation are listed. In some cases, a number of commendations or negative comments were received which were clearly not for innovation, both of which we subtracted from the number of total positive nominations received.
Private practice categories
The categories were compiled on submissions from law firms across Europe. Submissions were validated via interviews with lawyers, clients and other expert commentators. The submissions were scored comparatively for their originality, rationale and impact against five key performance indicators (see diagram). Innovations had to have been introduced in the last three years. Repeat entries were disallowed unless firms could show that their innovations had progressed significantly.
US law firms in Europe
This section was compiled from interviews with senior market commentators, US law firms and research into the activity of US firms in Europe. US law firms tend to manage themselves differently from UK law firms, so the innovation framework used for much of the FT Report was inapplicable to them. We therefore looked for US firms that have displayed innovation in their strategies for European expansion. The published table reflects different models for expansion.
In-house lawyers
This section was compiled through a combination of market research methods and submissions requested from companies in the FTSE Eurofirst 300. A total of 102 interviews were conducted with top private practice lawyers working in corporate, finance and litigation departments throughout Europe. A shortlist of 34 in-house teams was compiled from the interviews and submissions. General counsel at these teams were then interviewed to ascertain whether they fulfilled the criteria shown in the RSG Consulting in-house innovation pyramid. The semi-final shortlist was then sent to private practice lawyers to gather further comment and validation.
Public sector lawyers
This was pioneering research which required a variety of methods. It consisted of an initial survey with leading practitioners in private practice, augmented by extensive desk research and interviews with public sector lawyers. The final shortlist was fully examined to make sure we had chosen some of the best examples of innovation in the public sector.
The Bar
This section was compiled through an extensive survey of leading private practice commercial litigators, submissions and desk research. Interviews were also carried out with leading experts on the Bar who could give comparative overviews. We also interviewed the chambers themselves. A total of 122 interviews were completed. The final table represents two assessments of chambers: the first is their reputation for innovation, which is directly derived from the poll of litigators; the second is a qualitative assessment by the research team of innovation actually displayed. In addition, the research team collected information about groundbreaking innovative cases.
The FT Research partner: RSG Consulting
The FT Innovative Lawyers report is a joint venture between the Financial Times and RSG Consulting, an investigative research, writing and consulting company. A team of five researchers, including RSG’s top two consultants, spent five months researching this report. RSG’s consultants are expert legal analysts with more than 25 years’ experience in the sector. Nearly 1,000 interviews were completed for the project, and the research included three market research surveys, as well as extensive desk research. In addition, RSG received 410 submissions from law firms, chambers, and legal teams working in European companies and the UK public sector.
