Mallesons has snatched the top spot in the Which Lawyer “Recommended Firms in Australia” survey, achieving a “leading” ranking in 12 out of the 17 practice areas surveyed and another two “highly recommended” rankings.

The firm beat its nearest two rivals by a clear margin; Clayton Utz, which scored eight “leading” rankings and another seven “highly recommended” rankings, and Freehills, which scored nine “leading” and six “highly recommended” rankings.

The Which Lawyer? survey, formerly known as PLC Global Counsel 3000, provides information and rankings on law firms and lawyers in more than 100 countries.

Firms can be awarded “leading”, “highly recommended”, “recommended” or “recognised” rankings for 17 different practice areas.

To determine the rankings, in-house counsel are surveyed at regular intervals throughout the year, and information is collected from them regarding the work that they outsource, the outside lawyers/firms they instruct, and their opinion on the quality of services the outside lawyers provided.

The firms and partners are also given the opportunity to provide information on developments in their practice, the type of work they’re doing, major transactions they’ve been involved in during the year and any international or domestic developments that may have affected their practice.

Research is also carried out on broad market, legal and economic developments, and on major domestic and international transactions, disputes and projects that have been carried out over the year.

The firms’ final rankings are based on the weight and number of recommendations that each firm is given by in-house counsel and private practitioners.

It has been a good year for Mallesons as far as law firm surveys go. As Lawyers Weekly reported recently, Mallesons, along with Allens Arthur Robinson, also topped the Australian firm rankings for individual practice areas in the 2008 Chambers Global survey.

If the Which Lawyer? survey results are anything to go by, Australian firms are much stronger in some practice areas than others. While seven firms received “leading firm” rankings for restructuring and insolvency work, not a single firm achieved a leading firm ranking for investments funds, and only Allens Arthur Robinson achieved it for life sciences.

The other area where Australian firms performed most strongly was capital markets: debt and equity, for which four firms received “leading” rankings.