US law firms are different. It is hard to view them in the same way as their UK and continental European counterparts – at least for a ranking that is assessing law firms for their innovations as businesses.

It is a generalisation, admittedly, but whereas the UK’s “magic circle” firms have become more like corporates, managing their staff more closely and encouraging innovation from the top downwards, US firms are run more as traditional professional partnerships, with new ideas coming largely from individual partners and much less management from above.