And the winners of the Legal Cheek Awards 2024 are…

Legal Cheek

7 months ago

Who won what: revealed 🏆

Last night, the legal community gathered to honour the achievements of the nation’s top trainee-rated firms and chambers at the annual Legal Cheek Awards ceremony.

This year’s Legal Cheek Awards, sponsored by BARBRI and BPP University Law School, was held at the Battlebridge Suite of Kings Place London.

More than 250 guests from the UK’s premier law firms and barristers’ chambers attended the much-anticipated ceremony, alongside social media influencers and prominent industry figures.

After enjoying some fizz and canapés, Victoria Cromwell, BARBRI’s Head of New Business, and Caroline Lister, Director of Client Partnerships at BPP, delivered welcome addresses.

Victoria Cromwell, BARBRI’s Head of New Business, and Caroline Lister, Director of Client Partnerships at BPP, delivering the welcome addresses

Legal Cheek‘s Sophie Dillon and Saad Khalil, the hosts of this year’s awards, were joined by award sponsors, as well as Legal Cheek student campus ambassadors and staff, to reveal the winners across the 25 categories featured in this year’s ceremony.

The winners were determined by the results of our annual trainee and junior lawyer and barrister surveys, which included responses from over 2,000 lawyers across the country.

So who won what? Read on to find out…

Best law firm for training 2024: Mayer Brown

Highly commended: Accutrainee, Addleshaw Goddard, BCLP, Forsters, Herbert Smith Freehills, Macfarlanes, Pinsent Masons, Slaughter and May, Travers Smith

Best law firm for quality of work 2024: Hogan Lovells

Highly commended: Akin, Bates Wells, Cooley, Forsters, Goodwin Procter, Jones Day, Latham & Watkins, Osborne Clarke, Ropes & Gray, Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Best law firm for peer support 2024: Shoosmiths

Highly commended: Fieldfisher, Gibson Dunn, Hill Dickinson, Lewis Silkin, Osborne Clarke, RPC, Stephenson Harwood, Taylor Wessing, Withers

Best law firm for partner approachability 2024: Kennedys

Highly commended: Brabners, Bristows, Dentons, Eversheds Sutherland, Howard Kennedy, Katten Muchin Rosenman, Shoosmiths, Squire Patton Boggs, Trowers & Hamlins

Best law firm for work/life balance 2024: Clyde & Co

Highly commended: Ashfords, Cripps, Gateley, Mills & Reeve, RWK Goodman, Russell-Cooke, Wedlake Bell, Weightmans, Winckworth Sherwood

Best law firm for legal tech 2024: Addleshaw Goddard

Highly commended: Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Burges Salmon, CMS, Dentons, Fletchers Solicitors, Penningtons Manches Cooper, TLT, Travers Smith

Best law firm for perks 2024: Weil Gotshal & Manges

Highly commended: Clifford Chance, Cooley, Kirkland & Ellis, Milbank, Morrison Foerster, Sidley Austin, White & Case, Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Best law firm office 2024: Lewis Silkin

Highly commended: Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Cooley, Gowling WLG, Greenberg Traurig, K&L Gates, Kingsley Napley, Mishcon de Reya, Morrison Foerster, Paul Hastings, Vinson & Elkins

Best law firm for WFH 2024: TLT

Highly commended: Addleshaw Goddard, Akin, Allen & Overy, Bevan Brittan, Michelmores, Osborne Clarke, Shakespeare Martineau, Walker Morris, Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Best law firm for eco-friendliness 2024: Bates Wells

Highly commended: Burges Salmon, Charles Russell Speechlys, Forsters, Lewis Silkin, Michelmores, Orrick, Osborne Clarke, TLT, Travers Smith

Best law firm for international secondments 2024: White & Case

Highly commended: Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, HFW, Norton Rose Fulbright, Watson Farley & Williams

Best law firm for client secondments 2024: DWF

Highly commended: Bird & Bird, CMS, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, Taylor Wessing.

Most admired law firm 2024: Latham & Watkins

Highly commended: Addleshaw Goddard, Allen & Overy, Bird & Bird, Burges Salmon, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith Freehills, Kirkland & Ellis, Osborne Clarke, Slaughter and May

The Legal Cheek firm of the year 2024: Osborne Clarke

Highly commended: Burges Salmon, Cooley, Farrer & Co, Forsters, Howard Kennedy, Lewis Silkin, Shoosmiths, TLT, Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Best use of social media 2024: Mary-Grace Olu (TikTok)

Highly commended: Founder of ‘It’s All Hearsay’, Megan Hulme (Instagram); Mia Siddique aka ‘Legally Possible’, (Instagram); Henry Nelson-Case, ‘that corporate lawyer’ (TikTok); The CMS accounts for graduates, (Instagram and TikTok); Ali Obeid (TikTok); Harry ter Haar aka “James Somerset” (TikTok)

The winner of this category was decided by an independent judging panel, made up of Robbie Mullett (Made in Chelsea star and future trainee City solicitor), Jordan Sanga (Big Brother winner for 2023 and former lawyer), and Aishah Hussain (editor at Law Middle East and former Legal Cheek features editor).

Jordan Sanga and Robbie Mullett presenting the award for best use of social media

Best Legal Cheek Journal contribution 2024: Lauren Slade – How election legislation has failed the UK’s visually-impaired voters

Highly commended: Access to justice: how can we do more? by law student Sophia McKenna; Could you be fired by a robot – and would UK anti-discrimination law protect you? by law graduate and future trainee solicitor Puja Patel; Non-fatal strangulation and suffocation: why was this new offence necessary and what has been its impact? by English graduate and aspiring barrister Lucy Sutton; Competition chronicles: Microsoft vs the CMA and FTC by law student and aspiring commercial solicitor Dara Adefemi; Failure to prevent fraud and what it means for businesses by aspiring barrister Shifra Moriarty; Legal Takeaway: Who’s who for Deliveroo? by aspiring solicitor Joshua Masson

The winner of this category was decided by an independent judging panel, made up of The Right Hon Lord Burrows (Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom), I. Stephanie Boyce (former President of the Law Society of England and Wales), and Suzi Ring (Legal Correspondent at the Financial Times).

Legal Cheek Campus Ambassador of the Year 2024: Alexandra Shuck

Highly commended: Shannah McKenna, Sophia McKenna and Manik Sibal, Cardiff University; Vaughan Temiloluwa Oluwafemi, University of Dundee; Mariella Vildoso, Ulster University.