Ranking: Strategy and Changing Behaviours

Top firms and companies for strategy and changing behaviours

The tables below rank law firms and in-house legal teams for the FT Innovative Lawyers Apac awards.

Strategy and changing behaviours:

Rank	Law firm	Description	Originality	Leadership	Impact	Total
STANDOUT	King & Wood Mallesons	Responding to the Chinese government's plans for the Greater Bay Area integration scheme, President Xi Jinping’s plan to build a rival to Silicon Valley and Tokyo, the firm established a virtual International Centre, connecting offices in the Greater Bay Area cities of Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hainan to provide cross-city advice. There are considerable legal challenges in harmonising the "one country, two systems" framework and, for law firms in the region, this provides an opportunity to help establish international standards and enhance the rule of law.	8	9	6	23
HIGHLY COMMENDED	Herbert Smith Freehills	Working with Bendelta, a business management consultancy, the firm co-ordinated new initiatives around wellness, work allocation and innovation timelines to increase lawyer engagement.	8	7	7	22
HIGHLY COMMENDED	Bae, Kim & Lee	The firm created inter-Korean relations and economic co-operation team of 40 professionals, including practice area specialists and former government ministers, who specialise in building links between the two Koreas.	6	8	7	21
COMMENDED	Gilbert + Tobin	To encourage innovation, each lawyer is allocated 50 billable hours a year to work on new projects. Of 1m available hours, 820,000 were allocated with a focus on document automation and legal project management.	7	7	6	20
COMMENDED	Herbert Smith Freehills	Relaunched their legal operations team in Asia to add individuals skilled in pricing, data analysis and technology to the firm. The team helps the firm and clients improve processes and add value, and has become an revenue generator for the firm in its own right.	6	7	6	19
COMMENDED	Hogan Lovells	Implemented a programme called Around the World in 90 Days to drive cross-border business by incentivising internal client referrals. Participating partners earn one point per introduction and five if this converts into a new instruction. The partner with the most points has the opportunity send an associate from their team on a two-week secondment to an international office.	6	7	6	19
COMMENDED	Anand and Anand	Working to improve brand protection in India, the firm encourages clients to leverage the value of their brands and intangible assets. The firm is expanding the concept of intellectual property beyond traditional trademark and patent law to other areas, such as "sensory" IP for perfumes with distinctive olfactory features.	7	7	5	19

Strategy and changing behaviours (In-house):

Rank	Company	Description	Originality	Leadership	Impact	Total
STANDOUT	DBS Bank	Created a framework for the responsible use of data, clarifying ethical and legal consequences for the bank and its customers. The framework provides a way for business units to carry out self-assessment of the use of data and recommends improvements. Business units now have greater autonomy to use data responsibly and bring products to market faster. The framework, called Pure, has allowed the bank to improve communications with customers and regulators around how it uses personal data.	8	8	7	23
HIGHLY COMMENDED	Telstra	To cut company headcount by 25 per cent during a restructuring, the team introduced several initiatives to become leaner. A new matter management system, agile working practices and revamped governance procedures have enabled more work to be carried out by fewer lawyers.	6	8	7	21
COMMENDED	Xero	To make contractual documents more accessible to customers and colleagues, the team trained on plain-language documentation to make their contracts jargon-free.	6	7	6	19
COMMENDED	Bank of China (Hong Kong)	Established a new risk management structure to enable the in-house team to work more closely with other risk teams in the bank. Legal, compliance, operational and fraud teams work together to complete due diligence, removing barriers in the product development cycle.	6	6	6	18

Ranking: Strategy and Changing Behaviours

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