McGuireWoods has been recommended for the fifth straight year by corporate counsel — one of only 25 firms on this elite list — in an annual survey compiled by Boston-based BTI Consulting Group. The list reflects the value corporate decision makers ascribe to client service excellence and legal expertise.
The report, “BTI Most Recommended Law Firms: The Firms Corporate Counsel Recommend,” is based on unprompted responses by the highest ranking legal decision makers at large organizations with revenue of $1 billion or more. McGuireWoods ranks among the elite firms that have consistently earned recommendations at a time when fewer corporate counsel are recommending their primary law firms to peers.
“These are the firms — out of the 650 core law firms serving large and Fortune 1000 clients — corporate counsel are willing to bet their reputation on and recommended to their peers,” the BTI report says of the 25 firms who have made the list for five years in a row.
In the 2015 survey, only 33.3 percent of corporate counsel said they recommend their primary law firms to peers. That represents a substantial drop from the 40.1 percent who recommended their primary law firms last year, and the second-largest drop in the 15-year history of the BTI survey. The 25 firms that have earned recommendations for five years in a row “have instilled a cultural advantage when it comes to the superior client service required to earn a client’s unprompted recommendation,” the report notes.
BTI based its survey findings on 317 in-depth telephone interviews with leading legal decision makers between March and September of 2014. It is the second time in recent months that BTI has ranked McGuireWoods among the elite law firms for client service. The firm was named among the top 20 law firms in BTI’s 2015 “Client Service A-Team” rankings, jumping five spots from the previous year. It marked the third year in a row and ninth time since 2002 that McGuireWoods made the elite list of 30 firms whose overall client service outperform all other firms by a factor of six.
“Client service is a core value that drives everything we do,” said Tom Cabaniss, the managing partner of McGuireWoods. “It means a great deal to us that clients recognize our commitment enough to recommend us to their peers. We are grateful for the trust they continue to place in us.”
For more coverage of the BTI report, read Law360’s story here.