At first glance, it was going to be difficult to choose a winner from the shortlisted candidates for the FT Innovative Lawyers innovative individual award. It was not because they were of such high quality – they would not have made the shortlist if they hadn’t been. Nor was it because they were all so similar.

The problem was the opposite. What the candidates had done to achieve their places on the shortlist was so different, their practice and approaches so diverse, that it was hard to see how we would rank them.