Our law firm rankings are based on three key criteria:
Case evidence
In each research cycle we ask firms to provide recent deal and case highlights and this is used to determine their position in the market.
Firms should provide their most complex and interesting matters in the research form and explain clearly to our research team why they are important and what they tell us about the firm’s abilities.
Peer feedback
We conduct an online ‘Practitioner Survey’ of law firm partners to get their thoughts and feedback on our current law firm rankings and attorney rankings.
All partners active in the relevant research categories are invited to take part and we also conduct phone and face-to-face interviews with practitioners.
Client feedback
We speak to a wide range of corporate and in-house contacts as part of our ‘Client feedback survey’ to get their opinions on the firms and attorneys they use.
In covering the United States, we focus on four main practice areas and have ranked firms either “Highly Recommended” or “Recommended” within a number of sub-categories:
Canada covers four similar practice areas, including regulatory, intellectual property, financial & corporate, and product liability litigation. In addition to our annual awards, we debuted in 2020 a set of firm practice area rankings for Canada, which include the following:
Life Science Stars
Alongside our firm rankings we also recognise the work of outstanding individuals. Our recommendations are based on the same three factors as our law firm rankings. The Stars listings also display each attorney's specific legal expertise within the life sciences sector.
Life Cycle Firms
Only a small number of firms are rated as a "Life Cycle Firm." We feel the firms listed here have a number of capabilities that allow them to handle pertinent legal issues facing a product throughout its life cycle. We chose firms based on the breadth of their life sciences practice and by meeting a threshold number of life sciences stars across at least three practice area chapters.
Chapters
The publication has four practice area chapters and one chapter dedicated to firms that can handle a product’s life cycle. Each practice area chapter is broken down to cover a number of sub-topics:
Practice Area Chapter |
Sub Topic covered: |
Regulatory |
FDA Pharmaceutical FDA Medical Devices Healthcare: Pricing and Reimbursement |
Intellectual Property |
Patent Prosecution Patent Strategy and Management General Patent Litigation Hatch-Waxman Litigation (Branded) Hatch-Waxman Litigation (Generic) |
Finance & Transactional |
Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions Licensing & Collaboration |
Non-IP Litigation |
Product Liability Government Investigation Antitrust |
Life Cycle |