Erstwhile Amarchand Mangaldas, the law firm that split in May into Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, is the only Indian law firm that made it into a top 20 index of Asia Pacific law firm brands published this year.

Legal market research consultant Acritas in 2014 surveyed 363 senior legal buyers in the Asia Pacific region and 315 buyers from outside the region, asking them which law firms are “perceived to be best aligned” with the Asia Pacific market.

Amarchand Mangaldas ranked sixth out of 20, coming in ahead of major international firms Ashurst, Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Top of the rankings ahead of Amarchand was Baker & McKenzie with a score of 100, followed by King & Wood Mallesons, Herbert Smith Freehills and South Korean legal giant Kim & Chang, which has around 950 lawyers.

Other national independent firms in the rankings are Beijing-headquartered Jun He Law Offices in eighth, Japan’s Nishimura & Asahi and Mori Hamada & Matsumoto in 11th and 12th respectively.

South Korea’s Yulchon and Lee & Ko, and Bae Kim & Lee were in 16th, 18th and 20th place respectively.

China and Japan both allow foreign law firms to open offices there, while South Korea is currently in the process of opening up the market to outsiders.

Acritas’ Methodology:

Acritas’ Asia Pacific Law Firm Brand Index 2015 was compiled from the unprompted responses of 363 senior general counsel in Asia Pacific organizations with annual revenues over $50m USD who, as part of Sharplegal research, were asked about their awareness of and favorability towards law firms; their consideration of firms for top-level litigation and major M&A; multi-jurisdictional litigation and deals; as well as their use of firms for high value work.

Interviews were conducted across all industry sectors. 87% of interviews were with senior corporate counsel who work in ‘elite’ ($1bn+ USD revenue) organizations, (33% were with $6bn+ USD revenue organizations) and 13% were with ‘mid-market’ ($50m-$1bn USD revenue) organizations.A further 315 senior in-house counsel from ‘elite’ organizations outside the region were asked which firms they used for their legal needs in any of seven key jurisdictions within Asia Pacific.All sample for interviews was generated from Acritas’ own database of in-house lawyer contacts and was not influenced by law firms.

[https://www.legallyindia.com/Law-firms/find-elephant-in-new-cyril-amarchand-logo-as-new-board-bags-infosys-murthy-hdfc-parekh-uday-kothak-nus-v-umakanth Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas unveiled] its new logo last week.