Legal expertise is ultimately what clients pay for. Efficient billing systems and careful attention to the way in which customer relationships are managed may make legal dealings easier for business clients. But if, at the end of the day, the advice is lousy, the rest does not really matter.

Small wonder, then, that this was the category which attracted by far the largest number of submissions – more than 60 in total, with some of the big "magic circle" firms submitting multiple entries. It was also the hardest to assess, according to the research team.