Methodology: Asia-Pacific Innovative Lawyers 2014

The FT and its research partner RSG Consulting have devised a unique methodology to rank lawyers on innovation for the FT Innovative Lawyers Reports in Europe, the US and the Asia-Pacific region. Law firms and in-house legal teams are invited to submit their innovations. These are then fully researched through client, lawyer and expert interviews. No entry appears in the FT report without a robust client or independent reference. Market experts are consulted on selected submissions.

For the FT Asia-Pacific Innovative Lawyers Report 2014, more than 300 submissions and nominations were received and more than 450 interviews were conducted with senior lawyers and executives to arrive at the final rankings.

Submissions were received from 61 law firms and an additional 33 in-house teams were researched to create the Asia-Pacific rankings this year. The research was conducted by a team of RSG researchers between January and May 2014. Additional information on mergers and acquisition deals and advisers was drawn from Mergermarket’s league tables and deals database.

Law firm categories were divided into sections for Asia-Pacific and international law firms, for law firms with headquarters within or outside the region respectively.

Each law firm entry is scored out of 10 points each on originality, rationale and impact for the score – thus the score in the tables in this report is out of a maximum of 30. They are benchmarked against each other to arrive at the final rankings. Lawyers are ranked for delivering exceptional value to business.

The In-house Lawyers rankings are drawn from nominations as well as submissions, but all entries require third-party validation and commendation. The scores in the table are, in this category, out of a maximum of 40.

FT Law 25

The FT Law 25 rankings are a pure aggregate of each law firm’s scores for ranked submissions across the private practice categories of the report. Separate rankings cover Asia-Pacific law firms and international law firms headquartered outside the region.

Innovative Individual Lawyers

The 10 Innovative Individuals are selected from nominations and submissions to all categories of the report. The top 10 individuals are selected on the basis of particularly strong client reviews, interviews, additional written responses and a history of professional achievement. The winner was chosen by a panel of FT and RSG judges.

Research partner RSG Consulting

The RSG Consulting research team has more than 20 years’ experience analysing the legal profession. It has a track record of devising ranking methodologies for professional services firms. Chief executive Reena SenGupta helped to launch the FT’s Law & Business page in 2001 and has been a regular writer on the legal profession for the FT for the past 13 years.