Over 3,000 in-house counsel contributed to the new star system, developed by Acritas, which lists and rates some of the best lawyers in the market. The resource also explains why clients consider each practitioner to be exceptional.

The Acritas Stars shortlist was compiled at the request of general counsel sitting on the GC panel for Acritas, as a way to help in-house teams identify the best lawyers in the business and the reasons why other clients think so.

“In-house counsel are able to search by the reason, such as expertise, great service, value or commerciality, in addition to the more standard search criteria of jurisdiction and work type, when looking for a peer-recommended lawyer,” Acritas said.

Following the first round of 5,685 nominations for the new list, Acritas has revealed the top 28 stars. Mr Vrisakis, who is a corporate partner at HSF, made that list with three independent nominations.

Leading the pack was Hanno Wollmann from Austrian law firm Schoenherr. Mr Wollman received six nominations in Acritas’ first round of submissions.

Four other global lawyers from the US, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany received four independent nominations each, with the remaining 24 practitioners receiving three nominations each.

Acritas shared an analysis of some of the trends to emerge from its survey data. The percentage of women nominated, 19 per cent overall, reflects the proportion of lead partners in firms who are women, Acritas said.

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The survey has also shown that female clients are more likely to recognise female colleagues as stars.

“While Acritas Stars is not yet the definitive guide to every great lawyer in the world, it will become more and more robust as we continue to survey senior in-house counsel around the world on an ongoing basis. The list will grow at the rate of around 50 new stars per week,” Acritas said.