Financial Times Innovative Lawyers submissions for Europe 2025
The FT Europe Innovative Lawyers 2025 is open for submissions
The 2025 FT Innovative Lawyers Europe Report in which we explore the key developments in the legal sector, is open for submissions. We are seeking entries that detail case studies of innovative work, in both the practice and the business of law, from law firms and in-house legal teams.
The most innovative submissions will be shortlisted for the accompanying FT Innovative Lawyers Europe awards event, which will be held on Thursday, September 18 at the Natural History Museum in London. The shortlisted submissions will be featured in the FT Innovative Lawyers Report, published in print and online on Friday, September 19.
You can see full details about the programme and how to submit in the submission guidelines.
Key Dates:
April 7- deadline for submissions and index survey
July – awards shortlists revealed
September 18- awards event in London
September 19- report publication on FT.com and in the Financial Times newspaper
For more details, refer to our FAQs & Everything you need to know guide.
You can also find the full FT Innovative Lawyers Europe 2024 report here.
A&O Shearman and KPMG Abogados took home the big awards in London on 13 September at a sold-out awards event in the Natural History Museum.
The in-house legal team at Unilever also won big with the award for most innovative legal team.
Among the themes of the report is a clear message that talent management in law firms is finally changing, recognising the value that people can bring from unconventional backgrounds and skillsets beyond traditional legal work.
We had a number of extraordinary examples of innovation in legal practice from tackling a fraudster claiming to have invented bitcoin, to designing new funding models for African countries. We spoke to lawyers in Ukraine finding ways to get their economy ready for EU membership. We also saw how mass claims litigation is making its mark on the European legal landscape, helped by technology and new business models.
We took a close look at how lawyers are using their skills and resources to take climate change to court, tackling states and corporations to make them recognise the tangible risks of not taking action on carbon emissions and other damaging side effects of doing business.
INNOVATIVE PRACTITIONER Marion Palmer, Hogan Lovells
INNOVATIVE LEGAL INTRAPRENEUR Idoya Fernández, Cuatrecasas
MOST INNOVATIVE LAW FIRM IN EUROPE A&O Shearman
MOST INNOVATIVE LAW FIRM IN EUROPE (HEADQUARTERED IN EUROPE OUTSIDE UK) KPMG Abogados
PRO BONO Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
SUSTAINABILITY AND ESG Linklaters
DEALS AND FINANCING Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
DISPUTE RESOLUTION Mishcon de Reya
PRIVATE CAPITAL Ropes & Gray
RESTRUCTURING Weil, Gotshal & Manges and White & Case
TECHNOLOGY SECTOR Bird & Bird
UNLOCKING FINANCE White & Case
GENERATIVE AI TOOLS A&O Shearman
GENERATIVE AI STRATEGY DLA Piper
NEW LEGAL PRODUCTS CMS
REGULATORY SOLUTIONS Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
IMPROVING CLIENT EXPERIENCE Ashurst
DATA-ENHANCED KNOWLEDGE Herbert Smith Freehills
LAW FIRM STRATEGY Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
TALENT MANAGEMENT Cuatrecasas
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT Garrigues
Read more about the Practice of Law and Business of law submissions
MOST INNOVATIVE IN-HOUSE LEGAL TEAM IN EUROPE Unilever
LEGAL TEAM: USING GENERATIVE AI Unilever
LEGAL TEAM: COMMERCIAL AND STRATEGIC ADVICE Vodafone
LEGAL TEAM: SUSTAINABILITY AND IMPACT Greenpeace International
LEGAL TEAM: NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES Cariad (VW)
LEGAL TEAM: OPERATIONAL TRANSFORMATION Iberdrola
LEGAL TEAM: OUTSIDE COUNSEL MANAGEMENT HSBC
LEGAL TEAM: PEOPLE AND SKILLS Zurich Insurance Group
Read more about the case studies here