Practice of law: best examples in legal work

Read the other FT Innovative Lawyers Europe ‘Best practice case studies’, which showcase the standout innovations made for and by people working in the legal sector:

Business of law
In-house

Standout

CMS: Winner
Originality: 8; Leadership: 9; Impact: 8; Total: 25
The firm advised UK energy group Octopus Energy in bidding against rivals to buy the continuing business of collapsed retailer Bulb, including its 1.5mn customer base. The lawyers helped implement an “energy transfer scheme”, the first time this has been used in the UK. The process was an alternative to the “supplier of last resort” arrangements normally used by energy regulator Ofgem when transferring customers of smaller, failed energy retailers to incumbent suppliers.

Slaughter and May
O: 7; L: 8; I: 9; Total: 24
The firm acted for pharmaceutical company GSK in the demerger of its consumer healthcare business to form Haleon in July last year. Prior to the spinout, the firm advised on setting up Scottish limited partnerships to allow GSK to use a proportion of its retained interest in Haleon to fund pension deficits in three separate pension schemes.

Highly commended

Ashurst
O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23
The firm advised US finance group Citibank and UK Export Finance, the government export credit agency, on raising £26mn of funds, guaranteed by the UK, to help Ukraine rebuild six bridges and other supply routes near Kyiv after damage by Russian attacks.

Herbert Smith Freehills
O: 7; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 22
The firm advised property investor and developer Capital & Counties Properties (Capco) in its merger with Shaftesbury Capital, implementing a Scottish limited partnership structure so Capco could exchange a portion of its bonds for shares without breaching the Companies Act or exchangeable bond terms.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
O: 6; L: 8; I: 6; Total: 22
The firm represented Hong Kong-based Baring Private Equity Asia on its €6.8bn acquisition by Swedish finance group EQT. The lawyers negotiated with a large number of its client’s customers across 30 jurisdictions on implementing its integration with the new owner.

Zepos & Yannopoulos
O: 7; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 22
The firm’s film desk provides legal and tax advice to production companies operating in Greece, including Disney. It has also advised the country’s National Centre of Audiovisual Media and Communication on the design of tax breaks for filming projects in Greece.

Kirkland & Ellis
O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21
The firm devised two restructuring plans that were novel in European markets. One was for industrial fishing company China Fishery in the UK, where the firm forced repayment on a minority of unwilling creditors attempting to resist terms of a bankruptcy rescue. The firm also advised creditors of Spanish industrial conglomerate Celsa in a battle with shareholders over a €2.8bn debt restructuring, by filing a proposal one minute after an amended Spanish insolvency law came into force last year, in an attempt to secure enhanced terms for its clients.

Commended

Mayer Brown
O: 6; L: 6: I: 7; Total: 19

Texas-based energy company Vaalco Energy was represented by the firm’s London team in its takeover of TransGlobe, an Africa-focused oil and gas company. It says its streamlined work on disclosure across UK, US and Canada jurisdictions can be replicated in similar cross-border deals.

Standout

Covington: Winner
Originality: 8; Leadership: 8; Impact: 10; Total: 26
The firm helped Ukraine sue Russia in the International Court of Justice just two days after Moscow’s invasion of the country, for falsely accusing Ukraine of genocide as a pretext for war. The court granted interim relief, agreeing that Russia was in violation of international law. The ICJ’s authority is not fully recognised by the US, and enforcement of rulings can be vetoed by Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. However, supporters hope the ruling could strengthen Ukraine’s ability to seek reparations after the conflict.

Dentons
O: 8; L: 8; I: 9; Total: 25
Lawyers at the firm helped advise the UK’s then business and energy department on responding to the threat of big jumps in electricity and gas bills — for consumers and businesses — caused largely by disruption to supplies from Russia. Over just a few weeks, the firm advised on the drafting of the Energy Prices bill so it could be passed in October 2022 before winter price hikes. The firm also advised on government plans to protect household incomes by distributing relief through energy bill subsidies and council tax rebates.

Pinsent Masons and Government Legal Department (UK)
O: 9; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 25
The firm worked with the government legal department to advise ministers and officials on drafting the Retained EU Law bill, designed to replace or remove laws derived from EU legislation with minimal disruption. The bill was enacted in June 2023. Lawyers from the firm provided support across government departments to help officials prepare for handling the impact of the complex legislation.

Dechert
O: 8; L: 8: I: 8; Total: 24

The firm helped annul two arbitration rulings on commercial disputes based on bilateral investment treaties, between Poland and Austria and between Poland and the Czech Republic. It successfully argued in the Paris Court of Justice that these treaties were superseded by EU law, helping to set a precedent for EU law to override such bilateral arrangements.

Highly commended

Cuatrecasas
O: 8; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 23
In Spain, university researchers, as state-funded employees, are restricted on how they can share their work with the private sector. But the firm created a guide for Madrid’s Universidad Politécnica advising on how its academics could distribute research for commercial profit, without overstepping regulations designed to protect the economic rights of the university.

White & Case
O: 7; L: 8: I: 8; Total: 23

The firm led successful negotiations with foreign creditors on behalf of the Ukrainian finance ministry, road agency and national power company following Russia’s invasion of the country last year. It helped them obtain a two-year deferral on payments of about $25bn of bonds, warrants and other state-guaranteed debt obligations.

Sayenko Kharenko
O: 8; L: 7: I: 7; Total: 22
Prompted by concerns about preventing corruption in Ukraine’s state-owned banks, the firm helped the government draft law and implement a tighter system of corporate governance and supervisory boards to enhance accountability and transparency.

Commended

Asters
O: 7; L: 6: I: 7; Total: 20
Ukraine’s finance ministry argued successfully in the UK Supreme Court that it had the right to a full trial at the High Court in London over Russia’s claim that it owes $3bn for not repaying a bond issued before the 2014 Ukraine revolution. Foreign lawyers faced difficulties travelling to Ukraine to access information, so the local firm was responsible for gathering evidence and liaising with witnesses.

Sayenko Kharenko
O: 6; L: 6: I: 7; Total: 19
The firm advised JPMorgan when acting for Ukraine in renegotiating repayment of eurobond debts of $19.5bn a further $3bn of borrowing last year, enabling the country to divert $5bn towards social welfare and defence spending.

Standout

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher: Winner
Originality: 9; Leadership: 9; Impact: 8; Total: 26
After the detention of British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in Tehran, in April 2016, her employer Thomson Reuters Foundation retained partner Penny Madden to fight for her release. Madden and her team argued that her detention was linked to historic debts of more than £400mn owed to Iran and worked over six years to convince the UK government to pay this sum. They also helped persuade the UK government to grant Zaghari-Ratcliffe diplomatic protection — a first, in recent times. The debt was settled in March 2022 and Zaghari-Ratcliffe was released soon after, although the link between the two was never officially recognised. Commended individual: Penny Madden

Covington
O: 7; L: 9: I: 9; Total: 25
Covington led a coalition of law firms and campaign groups in representing a regular freelance TV editor who claimed that Polish public broadcaster Telewizja Polska had sacked him because he was gay. The broadcaster argued that Polish law allowed discrimination when choosing contractors. In January 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union recognised a person’s protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation regardless of employment status, setting an EU-wide precedent. The Polish court then awarded the editor about €8,000 in damages. Telewizja Polska has said it will appeal.

Ellex
O: 7; L: 9; I: 8; Total: 24
In 2019, Lithuanian national courts upheld an academic publisher’s decision to restrict the circulation among minors of a book of fairy tales that includes depictions of same-sex couples. But Ellex argued successfully on behalf of the author’s estate that the Lithuanian courts’ rulings were in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights and an infringement of the writer’s freedom of speech, according to a judgment issued in January.

Highly commended

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
O: 7; L: 8; I: 6; Total: 21

The firm is supporting neurodivergent staff by providing them with specialist support while educating other staff across the business about the different needs of these colleagues. The firm has engaged Business Disability Forum, a membership organisation, to advise on the programme.

Commended

Avellum
O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20
Ukraine’s ministry of finance and other state agencies were helped by the firm to secure Russia’s suspension from the Financial Action Task Force, a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, in February this year. According to the firm, the suspension “significantly decreases Russia’s role in the global financial system”.

Covington
O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20
The firm advised the Ukrainian Business and Trade Association in securing the suspension of EU and UK quotas and tariffs for agricultural and industrial goods exported from the country, after Russia invaded in 2022.

Vinge
O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20
The Swedish firm has expanded its due diligence services for clients engaged in acquisitions, sales and mergers to include a fuller analysis of relevant companies’ gender equality among senior management, boards and other leadership roles. It also examines their equality goals.

DLA Piper
O; 5: L; 7: I; 7: Total: 19

The firm’s Global Scholarships programme has provided mentoring and sponsorship to more than 100 law students from across the developing world, and set up an alumni network to help them navigate a career in law.

Ecija
O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19
The lawyers donated 200 hours of pro-bono work towards sustainability projects last year. These included helping to obtain protected status for the polluted Mar Menor lagoon in south-east Spain and representing campaign groups suing the Spanish government for failing to improve recycling rates.

Macfarlanes
O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19
The firm introduced a training scholarship and bursary scheme to tackle social and economic barriers to students entering the legal profession. Support includes fully-funded tuition and a paid placement year at the firm in London for three Brunel law school undergraduates from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Standout

Uría Menéndez: Winner
Originality: 9; Leadership: 9; Impact: 8; Total: 26
The law firm acted for a six-year-old girl who was born while her mother was travelling from Cameroon to Europe via Morocco. At a regional court of appeal in northern Spain, it secured Spain’s first granting of nationality to an “invisible child”, whose nationality has not been recognised by any state. Lawyers argued that her original denial of nationality was in breach of the child’s rights, including equal access to healthcare and education.

Ashurst, Akin Gump, Allen & Overy, Clyde & Co, Norton Rose Fulbright, Orrick, Reed Smith, Simmons & Simmons, and White and Case
O: 8; L: 8; I: 9; Total: 25
These nine law firms worked with the charity Safe Passage to help refugees navigate the UK’s Homes for Ukraine visa scheme, after Russia’s attack on the country. Volunteer lawyers at a clinic in Poland provided free support with applications and helped to advise on new immigration rules surrounding the relocation of unaccompanied minors. They have acquired 32 visas so far.

Highly commended

DLA Piper, Eversheds Sutherland, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith Freehills, Orrick, Osborne Clarke, and Reed Smith
O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23
The firms launched a pro bono project for migrants, called the Rule 39 initiative, in collaboration with campaign group the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights (CILD). It was led by Daria Sartori, a lawyer and human rights expert. Through the project, the firms’ lawyers make use of Rule 39 of the European Court of Human Rights to address the human rights violations faced by asylum seekers and migrants. This rule allows the court to apply interim measures in the most urgent cases where there is an immediate risk of irreparable harm to the applicant. So far, the initiative has helped more than 400 people.

Linklaters
O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23

The firm helped to advise UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, on a pilot scheme providing emergency cash aid to 5,000 displaced Ukrainians using a dollar-equivalent cryptocurrency.

Refugees were able to exchange the funds for cash via a digital wallet on their smartphones. The lawyers worked to ensure the tech was secure and that anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing protocols were followed.

Morais Leitão
O: 7; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 22
The firm supported the Afghanistan National Institute of Music after it was under threat by Taliban fundamentalists, who have imposed strict censorship of performers in the country. The firm helped to evacuate more than 270 musicians from the institute to Portugal and is working to secure their legal status, housing and education.

Dentons, Hogan Lovells, Linklaters, and Orrick
O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21
The Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights worked with the four law firms to support Afghan asylum seekers in Italy with legal advice and representation. More than 120 refugees, including children, benefited, with around 70 being reunited with family members.

Commended

Akin Gump, Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton, Clyde & Co, Debevoise and Plimpton, Eversheds Sutherland, Gibson Dunn, Hogan Lovells, Mayer Brown, Orrick, Reed Smith, Ropes and Gray, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
O: 6; L: 6; I: 7; Total: 19
In March 2022, the firms began working with charities Refugee Legal and Safe Passage to provide legal advice for Afghan refugees in different countries on the UK’s Arap resettlement scheme, following the overthrow of the Kabul regime by the Taliban in August 2021. About 70 volunteers have helped more than 90 Afghan nationals with applications.

BonelliErede
O: 5; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 19
The firm formed a partnership with Italian social enterprises Comete Formazione and ITA2030 to help Ukrainian refugees in Milan to secure jobs.

Its lawyers have conducted 400 mock interviews, found employment for 70 refugees, and provided professional training and literacy classes.

Standout

Travers Smith: Winner
Originality: 9; Leadership: 8; Impact: 9; Total: 26
The firm represented Hewlett Packard Enterprise (and previously Hewlett-Packard) in civil claims against two former directors of Autonomy, the UK software company it acquired for $11bn in 2011. After an extended trial, the UK High Court ruled in January last year that HPE had “substantially succeeded” in winning its civil fraud lawsuit against the defendants, Autonomy’s founder Mike Lynch and chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain, over claims of manipulating Autonomy’s accounts that led the group paying an extra $5bn for the company. Since the ruling, Lynch has been extradited to the US, where he is on bail awaiting trial on criminal charges related to the transaction.

Pérez-Llorca
O: 8; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 24
The firm helped to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement in Spain for workers at Just Eat and Takeaway.com delivery services. The deal, which was finalised in February 2022, followed Madrid’s adoption of a “rider law” in 2021. It recognised riders for fast food delivery apps as employees rather than as self-employed workers.

Highly commended

Aequo
O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23
In January, the Ukrainian firm won a ruling in the country’s supreme court asserting the right of its client Darnista to use the brand name Corvalolum in marketing its version of Corvalol, a popular sedative originally developed in the Soviet Union. The decision overturned a previous judgment in favour of rival Farmak seeking to prevent Darnista’s use of the term.

Geradin Partners
O: 8; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 22
In 2021, acting for complainant News Corp, the firm secured a €220mn fine from the French competition authority against technology giant Google for charging too much commission for adverts on the publisher’s web pages — in breach of EU law. Now, the firm is pursuing similar competition cases against Google and Apple in other European jurisdictions on behalf of publishers and app developers.

Linklaters & TLT
O: 7; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 22
The two firms helped Compare the Market, the price comparison website, overturn a £17.9mn fine imposed by the UK regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, in 2020. Last year, a tribunal accepted arguments that so-called “most favoured nation” clauses, preventing insurers from offering cheaper policies directly or through rival websites, were not demonstrably harmful to consumer interests.

Shearman & Sterling
O: 7; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 22

The firm helped secure partial compensation for some of the 11,600 retail investors hit by the £236mn collapse of minibond company London Capital & Finance in 2019. A government inquiry in 2020 criticised the Financial Conduct Authority for regulatory failures and led to the launch of a Treasury-backed scheme offering bondholders restricted repayment, which closed in October last year.

SRS Legal
O: 7; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 22
The firm represented GDA, which represents actors, musicians and other artists, in a long-running dispute over collection of broadcast and residual rights against TVI and SIC, two of Portugal’s leading private TV companies. Last year, the country’s supreme court found that the broadcasters had underpaid fees owed to the collection management body’s members in a ruling that secures performing artists improved broadcast rights in the future.

Commended

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
O: 6; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 20
The firm defended US defence contractor Pacific Architects and Engineers and UK facilities manager Mitie during an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority into suspected collusion in tendering for work at UK immigration removal centres. In February, the UK regulator concluded there had been no anti-competitive practice and the businesses won a rare formal “no grounds for action” — absolving them of the allegations.

Garrigues
O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19
The firm acted for 35 investors in resolving a decade-long dispute with the European Commission, over the recovery of many millions of euros of allegedly illegal Spanish state aid granted in a shipbuilding and leasing scheme. In February, the European Court of Justice partially annulled that decision, restricting previous recovery orders.

Standout

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft: Winner
Originality: 8; Leadership: 9; Impact: 8; Total: 25
Working with the London-based Loan Market Association, alongside financial institutions and other law firms, the lawyers created model terms and definitions for sustainability-linked loans. These provide a basic drafting framework, outlining the points to consider in an SLL transaction, to assist both lender and borrower with the negotiation process. Since their release in May 2023, more than 800 institutions have used the model terms.

McDermott Will & Emery
O: 9; L: 7: I: 8; Total: 24
The law firm advised the United Nations on the creation of a sharia-compliant fund to help refugees, formed in partnership with the Islamic Development Bank. To work around the challenge of competing requirements of UN policy and sharia law, the vehicle is made up of a Waqf Fund (an Islamic charitable endowment) and a Non-Waqf Fund, each accepting contributions from interested donors and benefactors. Contributions are then invested in accordance with the principles of Islamic finance and sharia law — under which charging interest is forbidden — with the proceeds used to support humanitarian efforts.

Highly commended

Norton Rose Fulbright
O: 8; L: 8: I: 7; Total: 23
The firm gave pro bono advice to UK charity Save the Children about establishing a fundraising policy to receive zakat — an obligation for Muslims to give a charitable donation every year. The fund allows donors to support children in Muslim-majority countries in which the charity operates, and is designed to comply with sharia law, which requires interest-free handling and donations to be distributed within one lunar year.

Addleshaw Goddard

O: 8; L: 7: I: 6; Total: 21
The firm acted for Cash Access UK — a non-profit joint venture between banks and building societies, including Barclays, Clydesdale and HSBC — after branch closures in the UK left some customers and small businesses without access to cash and basic banking services. Following an initial, separate pilot exercise, the firm was brought in to negotiate the legal arrangements between the financial institutions to create shared banking hubs across the UK, without breaching antitrust rules.

Shearman & Sterling
O: 8; L: 7: I: 6; Total: 21
The firm worked with campaign groups Earth Law Center and Lawyers for Nature to advise the UK beauty business Faith in Nature on appointing an additional board member. This appointee acts as a formal “representative for nature” in the corporate decision-making, providing a template that other businesses can follow.

Commended

Dechert and Kirkland & Ellis
O: 6; L: 7: I: 7; Total: 20
On behalf of UnLtd, a UK charity that supports social entrepreneurship, and Big Issue Invest, the investing arm of the Big Issue Group, the firms structured a £25mn social impact fund. This fund aims to invest in a range of social enterprises by offering flexible financial assistance.

White & Case
O: 7; L: 7: I: 6; Total: 20
The firm advised French drugmaker Sanofi on a novel sustainability-linked bond issue last year, worth $650mn, that commits the company to provide essential medicines to people in developing countries through its charitable arm.

Hogan Lovells
O: 6; L: 6: I: 7; Total: 19
The firm helped The Wildlife Trusts negotiate a contract with UK insurance group Aviva for a £38mn donation towards the charity’s work to restore temperate rainforests in the British Isles. The deal helped the charity group push ahead with plans to acquire reforestation sites, while Aviva will accrue carbon credits generated from the rewilding investment.

Vieira de Almeida
O: 7; L: 7: I: 5; Total: 19
The firm designed a financial product for fund manager Statusdesafio Capital. This novel fund buys up burnt and desertified forestry land, with the aim of profiting from the regeneration of the property and also from the value of any accredited carbon capture credits achieved from tree planting.

Standout

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer: Winner
Originality: 8; Leadership: 8; Impact: 9; Total: 25
The firm worked closely with the in-house legal and technology teams of London Stock Exchange Group to design a special contract for a 10-year strategic partnership with Microsoft. The deal involved the US tech giant taking a 4 per cent stake in LSEG worth £1.5bn as part of a cloud computing tie-up designed to improve the exchange’s data and analytics. The agreement covers how to share the intellectual property generated from the collaboration.

Mayer Brown
O: 8; L: 9; I: 7; Total: 24
Partner Rachael O’Grady has built expertise in space and satellite law over a dozen years, creating a team that, in 2022, became the firm’s global group focused on the industry. It represents satellite companies OneWeb and Inmarsat, and has advised on interruptions to operations — including satellite confiscation caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Highly commended

Sorainen
O: 7; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 23
The firm’s start-up sector group advised Oxylabs on its purchase of Webshare Software, a Silicon Valley company — believed to be one of the first such acquisitions by a Lithuania-based company. It also helped to secure a €3.5mn investment in laser maker Litilit from Taiwana Capital, the first Taiwan venture capital investment in Lithuania. In addition, the firm offers free training courses on start-ups to law students. Commended individual: Matas Mačiulaitis

Gide Loyrette Nouel
O: 8; L: 8; I: 6; Total: 22
The firm drafted a guide to contractual clauses designed to foster fairer contractual agreements between big companies and start-ups — offering greater flexibility, for example, when a start-up is late making a payment. The clauses have been endorsed by France’s economy and finance ministry. Commended individual: Laura Castex

Mills & Reeve
O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21
When pharmaceutical group GSK started its demerger of consumer healthcare company Haleon, completed last year, a multidisciplinary team from Mills & Reeve helped the in-house lawyers manage the separation.

Osborne Clarke and Kantar
O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21
The firm worked with its client Kantar to build a platform for storing and identifying the market research company’s various forms of unregistered intellectual property across its global business.

Pinsent Masons
O: 7; L: 8; I: 6; Total: 21
The firm’s cleantech team designed the proposed financing model for a new start-up, which aims to extend high voltage grid connection for an electric vehicle charge point operator. This will allow faster repowering of EVs at sites run by a UK motorway services operator.

Commended

Zepos & Yannopoulos
O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19
The firm helped Deutsche Telekom obtain Greek residency permits for more than 230 employees and their families, navigating the country’s new electronic application system.

Standout

Ashurst: Winner
Originality: 9; Leadership: 9; Impact: 8; Total: 26
The digital assets team advised global investment bank Goldman Sachs on the development of a tokenisation platform on a private blockchain, navigating complex regulatory questions across many jurisdictions. The team supported Goldman Sachs’s collaboration with the European Investment Bank, Santander, and Société Générale on the first euro-denominated bond backed by the EU institution to be issued, recorded and settled specifically on a private blockchain platform.

Bird & Bird
O: 9; L: 9; I: 7; Total: 25
The firm and its consulting arm Oxygy helped the European Commission to launch a blockchain regulatory “sandbox”, a supervised testing scheme encouraging dialogue between regulators and those businesses developing applications using distributed ledger technologies. The initiative was launched in February.

Cuatrecasas
O: 8; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 24
The firm provided legal assistance to Lisbon-based Bison Bank on the launch of its virtual asset platform, giving the bank’s clients access to cryptocurrencies and exchanges. Portuguese regulators granted a licence to Bison Bank to act as the first crypto bank in the country last year.

Highly commended

Vieira de Almeida
O: 8; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 23
The firm helped leading Portuguese football club Benfica to develop its digital asset strategy, by designing a new licensing model for use with intellectual property on blockchain. Licensers such as Benfica can now take a percentage of the product sale and any future resales in a perpetual royalty.

Hannes Snellman
O: 8; L: 7: I: 7; Total: 22
The firm helped Finnish customs authorities to conduct a public auction of bitcoin, then worth about €70mn, seized from illegal drug dealers. Funds of about $47mn raised by the sale in 2022 were donated to the Ukrainian government.

Garrigues
O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21
The firm advised Inter-American Development Bank on the issue of one of the first three US-dollar denominated blockchain-based regulated bonds in Spain. The platform developed for the funds’ launch opens the door for similar bond issues in Spain, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Hogan Lovells
O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21
The firm formally launched its digital assets and blockchain group in 2022 to help businesses integrate blockchain products into their business models. It advises on emerging regulatory and compliance frameworks for blockchain and recently worked with the Bahamian government on its new digital assets and exchanges bill.

Commended

Abreu Advogados
O: 7; L: 7: I: 6; Total: 20
The firm advised Portugal’s mint on the issuance of a physical collector’s coin with an associated non-fungible token. The coin, scheduled to be issued in the second half of 2023, will be legal tender.

Gómez-Acebo & Pombo
O: 7; L: 6: I: 6; Total: 19
The Spanish firm created a service that generates a report for tax purposes, and anti-money laundering compliance, for clients that are holding crypto assets as an investment.

Standout

Mayer Brown: Winner
Originality: 9; Leadership: 8; Impact: 8; Total: 25
The firm advised Beazley, the Lloyd’s of London insurer, on creating the world’s first cyber catastrophe bond. The lawyers adapted principles of catastrophe bonds for extreme weather events to create the $45mn bond, which will pay out to Beazley if a cyber attack on one of its clients exceeds $300mn in insurance claims. This bond is likely to be replicated as companies become increasingly concerned over the threat of cyber attacks.

Ashurst
O: 8; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 24
The firm launched a comprehensive service last year to help clients deal with ransomware and cyber attacks. This enables them to deploy crisis responders immediately, advise on legal exposure, and assess what disclosures are needed regarding data breaches.

Highly commended

Clyde & Co
O: 7; L: 8; I: 7; Total: 22
The firm worked with software developers to launch a cyber risk service, which aims to offer focused analysis of the dangers of data breaches, help with responding to attacks, and advice on pre-emptive action.

Herbert Smith Freehills
O: 7; L: 8: I: 7; Total: 22
The firm created a tool that, after a cyber breach, helps identify types of personal data breached. The service has recently been rolled out to clients globally, helping them to speed up the analysis and reporting of damage to affected customers.

Commended

DLA Piper
O: 5; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 19
The firm has extended the rollout of its data transfer service, first developed in 2020, to clients in 60 countries. The tool enables clients to analyse whether they are in breach of any data privacy laws when transferring data across borders and to mitigate regulatory risk accordingly.

Hogan Lovells
O: 6; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 19
Drawing on its expertise in the conflicting demands of local data privacy laws, the firm has advised the UK government on its international data transfer policy and on its national artificial intelligence strategy.
Commended individual: Eduardo Ustaran

Uría Menéndez
O: 5; L: 7: I: 7; Total: 19
The firm advised the Spanish government on spending programmes to improve digital connectivity, cyber security and 5G across the country from budgets secured through the EU’s Covid-19 recovery fund. Subsequent initiatives have included the continued rollout of “connectivity vouchers” providing internet access to vulnerable families and support for small businesses in digitising their operations.

Standout

Paul Hastings: Winner
Originality: 8; Leadership; 9; Impact: 8; Total: 25
The firm has devised a framework to standardise the disclosure of performance on environmental, social and governance criteria for European collateralised loan obligations — single securities backed by a pool of debt. The initiative is to help clients satisfy contractual requirements with a growing number of institutional investors that buy CLOs. It worked with investment data provider Findox, now part of the Reorg group, to develop the service.

Proskauer Rose
O: 8; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 24
The private funds group at the law firm migrated its fundraising service to a cloud-based platform, enabling the team and its clients to collaborate more easily. This approach has helped identify common investor queries and spot broader market trends.

Travers Smith
O: 8; L: 8; I; 8; Total: 24
The firm advised London-based private equity firm Epiris on its purchase of Sepura, a Chinese-owned, UK-based supplier of critical communications equipment to police and other emergency services across the world. The deal was the first to receive a clearance requiring remedies under the National Security and Investment Act 2021, which allows intervention on sales that could harm the UK’s national security. Its previous owner Hytera has faced US sanctions and import bans over spying concerns. Commended individual: Stephen Whitfield

Highly commended

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
O: 8; L: 6; I: 8; Total: 22
The firm advised private equity company Clearlake Capital and US billionaire Todd Boehly on their £4.25bn purchase last year of Chelsea Football Club, previously owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. The lawyers had 89 days to negotiate one of the largest deals of this kind. They had to show the UK government that the proceeds, currently frozen, would be spent on Ukrainian aid and that Abramovich would not profit indirectly from the sale.

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21
The firm advised US private equity firm KKR on buying a minority stake in the fibre network spin-off of Telenor, the Norwegian telecoms group. The firm’s European team collated precedents from around the world to structure the agreement.

Morais Leitão
O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21
The firm helped Portuguese power group EDP to perform two simultaneous accelerated book-builds — offerings in the equity capital markets completed in a short timeframe — raising €2bn for new projects. In 2021, the utility announced a €24bn investment plan in energy transition by 2025.

Orrick
O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21
The firm advised Zamaz, a London-based ecommerce business, on joining the London Stock Exchange without using a conventional initial public offering. Instead, the company opted for a direct listing, which raised an initial £3.7mn in September 2022. The company deployed a so-called private investment in public equity to secure backing for the listing. Commended individual: Ed Dyson

Commended

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
O: 7; L: 7; I: 6; Total: 20
On behalf of a German client that was seeking to sell to a private equity buyer, the lawyers cut the time required to draft the legal “fact book” from weeks to three days. The lawyers interviewed senior management at the company to compile a concise and condensed summary of legal facts to be shared alongside the usual data-room information.

Paul Hastings
O: 7; L: 6; I: 6; Total: 19
The firm advised Pemberton Asset Management on creating a new 20-year private credit fund that gives customers the flexibility to obtain a projected higher return over a longer investment period or withdraw funds early if required, as an alternative to the debt manager needing to market new funds regularly.

Standout

Pinsent Masons: Winner
Originality: 8; Leadership: 9; Impact: 8; Total: 25
The firm approached clients Island Green Power and Low Carbon, which both have plans to build solar parks in the east of England, alongside other local developers. It designed a framework for them to share survey, topographic and landowner information, and a proposed transmission cable corridor and grid connection. This avoided duplication of work and costs for the clients. Plans for a total of seven solar farms in the area are currently being considered by the UK’s Planning Inspectorate, although there is opposition from some local authorities and MPs. The sharing framework is replicable in other solar projects — and, potentially, wind and water projects, too.

CMS
O: 8; L: 8: I: 8; Total: 24
When Germany’s biggest gas importer, Uniper, was hit hard by the suspension of gas supplies from Russia last year and had to be nationalised, the law firm advised on a €34.5bn German bailout. A CMS team worked with German government officials to resolve legal issues and secure approval from the European Commission for one of the biggest-ever European state aid cases outside the financial sector.

Highly commended

Bracewell
O: 7; L: 8; I: 8; Total: 23
The firm represented South African bank Asba and the Mauritius Commercial Bank on lending to facilitate the acquisition of Lekela Power, described by Bracewell as the largest transaction of renewable assets across Africa to date. The firm used structurally subordinated portfolio financing, a rare arrangement in the African market — whereby lenders to a parent company do not have access to assets until lenders to the company’s subsidiaries have been paid — to allow the Infinity Renewables Energy consortium to purchase the projects.

BonelliErede
O: 7; L: 7: I: 8; Total: 22
The firm assisted Italian bank UniCredit and Italy’s export credit agency SACE with the €560mn financing of the expansion of a solar panel gigafactory in Sicily owned by a subsidiary of state-backed energy group Enel. Financing arrangements were designed to ensure the project, supported by €118mn of EU funds, complied with rules on state aid.

Hogan Lovells
O: 7; L: 7; I: 8; Total: 22
The UK’s Crown Estate, responsible for licensing the exploitation of Britain’s seabed, awarded six leases to four offshore wind farm operators in January this year. The firm designed a seven-day auction process for the client to promote best competition.

Bracewell
O: 7; L: 7; I: 7; Total: 21
The firm negotiated a complex financing deal for the renewable energy subsidiary of Italian oil company Eni to expand its joint venture, Vårgrønn, with Norwegian private equity group HitecVision. This involved Vårgrønn taking over Eni’s original minority stake in a UK offshore wind farm project in the North Sea’s Dogger Bank.

Latham & Watkins
O: 6 L: 8 I: 7 Total: 21
When several UK energy companies failed because of the Ukraine conflict’s impact on wholesale gas prices, other suppliers had to take on their customers quickly to minimise disruption to consumers. To provide the necessary financing, the firm, representing Barclays bank, negotiated with UK energy regulator Ofgem, the six largest energy suppliers in the UK, and all 10 network operators to rewrite the regulatory framework to reassign the Supplier of Last Resort payment receivables.

Commended

Addleshaw Goddard
O: 6; L: 7: I: 7; Total: 20
The firm developed an interactive tool to show clients how they could switch to renewable energy sources. The tool gives visual explanations of different options and offers advice from an energy expert on sustainability strategy.

Abreu Advogados
O: 6; L: 7: I: 6; Total: 19
The firm supported Copenhagen Offshore Partners in its pending application to develop a pioneering floating offshore wind farm on Portugal’s coast. The firm advised backers on maritime planning, regulation of power sales, environmental impact, and tax affairs.