WINNERS

• 1st - Eversheds
Eversheds has brought in a raft of pioneering initiatives that will ensure the firm remains shipshape for the foreseeable future in both client relationships as well as internally. With chief executive David Gray and chairman Alan Jenkins at the helm, the management team took a leaf out of the Football Association's rule book and introduced a yellow and red card scheme to spur partners into tightening up their lockup performance.
Meanwhile international integration officer Stephen Hopkins and senior associate Diana Newcombe have been looking at managing the firm’s client relationships. The firm this year introduced Global Account Management System (GAMS) - a ground-breaking management programme. The system combines two of Eversheds project management packages giving in-house counsel the control over price from the very start. It was one factor that clinched Eversheds the Tyco deal and other clients including Akzo Nobel and Samsung.
With other firms now responding to GAMS, Eversheds one-size-fits-all model of partnering in-house departments is shaping the market.

• 2nd - Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
The management of magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer made some tough decisions when it restructured its partnership, but the results have proved visionary. Not only is the firm leaner and more focused on the issues that really matter but it has retained its key partners and clients into the bargain. Most importantly, the firm has ensured that any action that will impact on the firm as a whole has been well communicated to all members of staff, with the aim of making sure there is a sense of mutual commitment and motivation. The appointment of employment partner Caroline Stroud to the role of global HR partner is testament to the firm’s commitment to its people.

• 3rd - Travers Smith
Travers Smith’s managing partner Chris Carroll and senior partner Alasdair Douglas have been sticking to the firm’s slogan ‘small but beautiful’, but Carroll, who has now been at the helm for more than seven years, has been working hard to make it bountiful too. A committed ambassador for the firm and the UK legal profession, he has been jet setting the globe, solidifying and streamlining Travers’ best friends strategy abroad. Though not afraid to break some eggs (as the closure of the German offices shows) he has cemented Travers’ ties all over the world, and it is hard to argue with a near-quadrupling of average profits per equity partner (PEP) in four years, busting through the £800,000 mark in 2007. Very much a mid market corporate powerhouse.

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Open to management teams in any UK firm as well as teams from International firms based in the UK. Entries from Continental Europe will also be considered.

Judges will be looking for evidence of:

• Strategic vision
• Clarity of internal communications
• Demonstrable effect on the firm’s bottom line
• Consistently strong financial management

Entries welcome from:
Private practice teams	√
Nominations by in-house teams	√

Previous Winners:
2007	Simmons & Simmons
2006	Shoosmiths
2005	Linklaters
2004	Addleshaw Goddard
2003	Clifford Chance