Blakes maintains top spot in Thomson Reuters Law Firm Brand Index

The top 10 Canadian firms in 2022 were (in ranked order):

• Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
• McCarthy Tétrault LLP
• Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
• Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
• Torys LLP
• Stikeman Elliott LLP
• Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP
• Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
• Bennett Jones LLP
• Dentons LLP & Gowling WLG (tied in tenth place)

Commenting on Blakes’ top spot, managing partner Bryson Stokes said: “We are proud of our teams for consistently anticipating our clients’ needs and delivering innovative solutions to their most complex and sensitive challenges.”

Among questions in the survey, researchers asked corporate leaders about their awareness of and favourability toward Canadian law firms, as well as their consideration of firms for major M&A, top-level litigation, high-value and inbound work. 

Thomson Reuters’ 2022 indexes covers the legal markets in five separate countries or regions — the United States, the United Kingdom, Mainland Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as Canada. Each index is based on data compiled in 2021 from Thomson Reuters Sharplegal study.

A post-pandemic shift was clearly going on across all regions. Traditional law firm differentiators like historic reputations or relationships with individual lawyers gave way to other factors such as clients’ need to have fast, trustworthy advice from their external counsel. The rapid response aspect of legal work was increasingly important to clients, especially as in-house lawyer workloads continue to grow.