New data has revealed the LB100 firms that clients most strongly recommend, with Leigh Day emerging as the top-scoring firm and Freshfields rising sharply up the rankings this year.
The findings are drawn from the responses to the question: ‘On a scale of 0–10, how likely are you to recommend this firm?’, which is posed to all Legal 500 referees, enabling a Net Promoter Score (NPS) to be calculated for each firm.
NPS is a client satisfaction metric calculated by taking the percentage of ‘promoters’ – respondents that score firms nine or ten out of 10 – and subtracting the percentage of ‘detractors’ – those scoring firms six or below. Respondents who score firms seven or eight are considered ‘passives.’
Based on an analysis of almost 90,000 responses for the UK’s 100 largest law firms by revenue – which was carried out for the first time last year – Leigh Day scores most highly, with an NPS of 87.2%.
The claimant-side disputes firm sits ahead of TMT and IP specialist Wiggin on 84.4%, with Scots firm Shepherd and Wedderburn in third on 84.3%.
Other firms to make the top 10 include Slaughter and May, Travers Smith and last year’s top-scoring firm, pensions boutique Sackers.
Among the firms to have most significantly improved their NPS scores since last year’s research, Freshfields is the sharpest climber, with its NPS score increasing by more than 12% from 65.8% to 77.9% this year.
Other firms to have increased their scores by more than 7% on last year include RPC, DWF and northwest firm JMW.
Freshfields London managing partner Mark Sansom (pictured) put the firm’s increased scores down to its focus on ‘building trusted, long-term relationships’
‘We’re investing in our people, technology and global platform so we can stay ahead of the challenges our clients are dealing with,’ he said. That commitment to high-quality, collaborative service is what drives us every day.’
Looking at just the magic circle firms, Slaughter and May scores above its larger peers with an NPS of 82.8%. This marks the second year in a row that Slaughters has topped the City’s elite, and comes on the back of it also being identified as has having the best-quality partners, based on Legal 500 data.
When comparing NPS scores by geographic breakdown, London firms once again score the highest on average, with almost half of the top 20 firms being single-office London firms, with an average NPS score of 79.2%.
Alongside Wiggin, Travers and Sackers, the highest scoring London firms include Harbottle & Lewis and Farrer & Co.
Regional firms have the second highest average NPS score with 76.5%, followed by international (75.8%) and national (73.3%). The strongest showings from regional firms include northern firm Ward Hadaway, Guildford’s Stevens & Bolton and Scotland’s Morton Fraser MacRoberts.
This article is based on data gathered through Legal 500’s annual research programme, which captures millions of data points each year. LB100 firms not featured in this ranking did not receive a sufficient number of referee responses for the data to be considered statistically robust. For more information on our methodology and our other data products, please contact [email protected].
