Best Lawyers®️, the oldest and most respected guide to the legal profession globally, is pleased to announce the release of the 15th edition of The Best Lawyers in Australia™️ and the inaugural Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Australia™️.
For 15 years, Best Lawyers has captured, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of Australian leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area. Using the same Purely Peer Review™️ methodology, this year our recognitions are expanding to honor lawyers earlier in their careers through our "Ones to Watch" awards.
“We are proud to grow our scope, while maintaining the same esteemed methodology, to recognize a different demographic of talented and deserving lawyers in Australia through our inaugural ‘Ones to Watch’ honors,” said CEO of Best Lawyers Phillip Greer.
Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Australia awards are presented to attorneys who are earlier in their careers for outstanding professional excellence in private practice. These recipients typically have been in practice for 3-8 years, whereas the honorees recognized in The Best Lawyers in Australia have on average been in practice for more than nine years.
We talked with Kristen Greer, Best Lawyers Senior Research Manager, about Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Australia. “Providers of legal services is a competitive and crowded market and through recognition in ‘Ones to Watch’, an attorney can distinguish themselves and their work from their peers,” said Greer, who spearheaded production of the Australia publication. “Clients also can feel good about selecting a specific lawyer who has third-party verification for their own specific needs.”
Greer went on to say, “In our candid peer review, we ask how likely a voting lawyer would be to recommend another lawyer for a matter, and that gets to the heart of what people want to know: whether or not a person is the best to handle a matter for them,” she said. “We think our methodology does that very well. Corporate counsel departments have a plethora of guidelines used to make a final choice, but we have a role in helping them make a final decision. The areas to make an impact are wide open for young Australian lawyers. They are definitely the ‘Ones to Watch.’”
The Australian Financial Review, our long-time media partner, will feature an excerpt of the 15th edition of The Best Lawyers in Australia and the inaugural Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Australia on April 20th, 2022.
The full list of lawyers recognized in The Best Lawyers in Australia and the inaugural Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Australia will be published in the digital publication covering Australasian countries to be released in the summer. This business-to-business digital publication honors the listed lawyers and features thought leadership whitepapers from some of our most notable firms and lawyers.
The 2023 edition of The Best Lawyers in Australia recognizes the professional excellence of 4,437 lawyers in 95 practice areas and the inaugural edition of the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Australia recognizes 389 honorees across 43 practice areas.
The Best Lawyers in Australia Publication Statistics:
- 4,437 Listed Lawyers
- 95 Practice Areas
- 312 “Lawyer of the Year” Honorees
- 22 “Law Firm of the Year” Honorees
- 10 Metropolitan Areas
- Sydney is the Metropolitan Area with the Most Listed Lawyers
Top 10 practice areas by number of recognized lawyers in The Best Lawyers in Australia:
- Litigation
- Insurance Law
- Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Corporate Law
- Construction / Infrastructure Law
- Real Property Law
- Mergers and Acquisitions Law
- Commercial Law
- Insolvency and Reorganization Law
- Labour and Employment Law
Top 10 most searched practice areas in Australia in 2021 on bestlawyers.com:
- Immigration Law
- Litigation
- Commercial Law
- Insurance Law
- Labour and Employment Law
- Corporate Law
- Tax Law
- Personal Injury Litigation
- Real Property Law
- Medical Negligence
A lawyer can only be nominated for one publication at a time, either Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch or the traditional Best Lawyers list. An awarded lawyer can be recognized for multiple years but cannot indefinitely remain recognized in "Ones to Watch." "Ones to Watch" is not a seed list to Best Lawyers and all hopeful candidates must be nominated and vetted by their peers recognized in Best Lawyers.
Publication Statistics for Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Australia:
- 389 Listed Lawyers
- 61 Firms with Listed Lawyers
- 43 Practice Areas
- 6 Metropolitan Areas
- Sydney is the Metropolitan Area with the Most Listed Lawyers
Top Five practice areas by number of recognized lawyers in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Australia:
- Litigation
- Corporate Law
- Insurance Law
- Real Property Law
- Mergers and Acquisitions Law
In addition to historic individual lawyer recognition, more than 300 lawyers were recognized as “Lawyer of the Year” honorees and 15 firms received a “Law Firm of the Year” award in 22 practice areas. “Lawyer of the Year” awards are bestowed to only lawyers with the highest overall peer-feedback for a specific practice area and geographic region. “Law Firm of the Year” awards are country and practice area specific. They are determined based on a handful of factors, including feedback from lawyers recognized by Best Lawyers on individual lawyer and firm-wide work, the size and coverage of the firm in a specific practice area, historical analysis of the firm’s “Lawyer of the Year” awards in this area and research surrounding the firm’s overall scope and areas of expertise.
The “Law Firm of the Year” Honorees are:
- Allen & Overy - Oil and Gas Law
- Allens - Alternative Dispute Resolution, Competition Law
- Arnold Bloch Leibler - Insolvency and Reorganization Law, Tax Law
- Ashurst - Occupational Health and Safety Law
- Barry.Nilsson. - Insurance Law
- Clayton Utz - Project Finance and Development Practice
- Corrs Chambers Westgarth - Information Technology Law, Intellectual Property Law
- Gilbert + Tobin - Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law
- Herbert Smith Freehills – Litigation, Real Property Law
- Johnson Winter & Slattery - Energy Law
- King & Wood Mallesons - Banking and Finance Law, Private Equity Law
- Maddocks - Planning and Environmental Law
- MinterEllison - Construction / Infrastructure Law, Labour and Employment Law
- Norton Rose Fulbright Australia - Regulatory Practice
- O'Loughlins Lawyers - Retirement Villages and Senior Living Law
Interested in seeing Best Lawyers honorees in Australia? Use our Find a Lawyer tool to search by location and specialty.
