The nominations provided by law firms are part of our decision-making process. The editorial committee will use these, in conjunction with interviews with law firms and in-house counsel, to select the most innovative deals of the year. Ultimately the decision is that of IFLR. It is not the result of a poll and we do not use an external panel of judges.

We find this to be the best way to retain integrity and consistency across all our awards in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. IFLR applies the same analysis and methodology to each. It is not hard to discover the true legal innovation, and the one that has had the greatest market impact.

We find that using a judging committee or selection of clients to pick the winners makes it impossible to retain consistency and comparability in judging approach.

When searching for innovation, IFLR looks for new legal structures, deals that overcome new regulatory hurdles and regional firsts that adapt existing technology to local regulation. The difficulty and intricacy of that innovation is assessed, as well as its likely market impact. The role of the individual law firm on the deal is also considered in order to decide how much credit the firm should receive towards the team of the year awards and national law firm of the year awards.

If you want to talk to us, please contact the lead researcher for your region

Africa: Deborah Olaniyi
Americas: Brandon Edwards
Asia-Pacific: Nancy Ping
Europe: Alexander Griffiths
Middle East: James Wilson

Please send us your submissions for Africa, Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe by December 5 2024.

Yes. All deals must have reached financial close between January 1 2024 and December 31 2024. Deals that have been announced or signed cannot be considered.

We have usually only approached one person at each law firm. We would like you to coordinate the response from your firm. If you are not the appropriate person or would prefer us to contact other people ourselves, please tell us immediately to ensure that your firm is not omitted.

There is no connection between advertising and the success of a deal or firm in IFLR’s surveys or awards. The IFLR legal awards are built on editorial objectivity.

IFLR speaks to in-house contacts to help assess which deals are the most innovative. Our researchers will call only select contacts that you provide. The contacts will be used for no other purpose than IFLR editorial research.