The TMT Specialist Bird & Bird has one of the most distinctive identities in the international legal market: it was the UK’s first TMT specialist, one of the first firms to organise itself around industry sectors rather than practice groups (in 1998), and one of the first law firms to have its own website —

One of the UK’s most ambitious international growth stories of the past decade. Born from the 2003 merger of Manchester’s Addleshaw Booth & Co and London’s Theodore Goddard, AG has transformed from a strong national player into a genuinely international firm — now operating from 21 offices across three continents and posting eight consecutive years

The self-styled “original global law firm” — and for once, the marketing claim holds up. Baker McKenzie was pioneering international legal work before the Magic Circle had thought seriously about life beyond the Home Counties. Founded in Chicago in 1949 by Russell Baker and John McKenzie, the firm has spent seven decades building a network

Lean by Big Law standards at around 900 lawyers, Akin competes on quality and trajectory rather than scale. Founded in Dallas in 1945 by former FBI agent Robert Strauss — who later became US Ambassador to the Soviet Union — Akin has always been a firm where law and politics intersect. That DNA endures: today