Our Legal Marketplace Analyses cover the top practitioners in the world in each jurisdiction according to the research this year. We also highlight those firms whose individuals stood out.

Click the links below for in-depth analysis including the leading individuals and quotes from the market.

Arbitration - Lawyers

Our main list for both arbitrators and counsel who excel in the arbitration space

Legal Marketplace Analysis | Full listings

Arbitration - Expert Witnesses

Highlighting the best non-lawyer experts in the field

Legal Marketplace Analysis | Full listings

Arbitration - Future Leaders

The very best practitioners (lawyers and expert witnesses) aged 45 and under

Lawyers - Legal Marketplace Analysis | Partners - full listings | Non-Partners - Full listings

Expert Witnesses - Legal Marketplace Analysis | Full listings

Please note that due to the large number of practitioners that we list, only a proportion are covered in the Legal Marketplace Analyses. You can view the full listings using the Market Insight Tool links above.

Alternatively, you can search the complete listings (for all categories) by region or country using the Market Insight Tool.

Search the full listings

Leading firms

WWL does not rank law firms or sets, only individual practitioners. The charts below show the firms and sets home to the most listed practitioners in this year’s guide.

To see the firms with the most listed practitioners in each category, see the Legal Marketplace Analyses (links above).

Lawyers

White & Case once again come top in terms of numbers of practitioners listed, while other top-tier international firms Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith Freehills, King & Spalding and Clifford Chance all have 25 or more listings. All appear well set for the future as well, with a near-equal number of Future Leaders recommended as more senior names.

You can see how the top lawyers fared in our Legal Marketplace Analysis.

Experts

Among expert firms, FTI Consulting and Compass Lexecon once again stand at the head of the pack, but strong performances from practitioners at Secretariat, HKA, and Berkeley Research Group see them closing the gap.

Browse the coverage of the top experts in the Legal Marketplace Analysis.

Global Elite Thought Leaders

WWL considered 3922 practitioners for inclusion in our main Arbitration and Arbitration Expert Witnesses listings (not including Future Leaders). Of these, 1225 practitioners were listed as recommended practitioners, while only 97 (2.4 per cent) were accorded our highest ranking of Global Elite Thought Leader.

The 64 lawyers and 33 expert witnesses selected were regarded as the very best by peers and clients, achieving the highest number of recommendations in the research.

You can view the full list of Global Elite Thought Leaders here:

View all Global Elite Thought Leaders

Research summary

The 2021 research process was our most extensive ever. Thousands of practitioners and referees responded to our requests for feedback on the market, resulting in a record number of individual votes, and an increase of 67 per cent on our 2020 research.

The listings see lawyers and expert witnesses from 95 countries listed, while more than 800 law firms, barristers’ chambers and consulting firms are represented.

This year alone, respondents also provided more than 10,000 individual comments on the practitioners under consideration. This extraordinary response has meant that for the first time, we have been able to publish a selection of the feedback received for each practitioner with a professional biography. This incredible selection of feedback can be viewed on our Market Insight Tool.

Explore the feedback on the Market Insight Tool

Full details on our research process can be found on our FAQ page. If you have any feedback on our research, please email us at editorial@whoswholegal.com.