2021 Mer­i­tas ​‘Elite’ Law Firm Network

Cham­bers out­lines the exact­ing cri­te­ria for ​‘Elite’ net­works in their com­men­tary for the 2021 guide:

“In the Elite cat­e­go­ry of the Lead­ing Law Firm Net­works sec­tion, the rank­ings focus on the most impres­sive inde­pen­dent law firm net­works worldwide.

The chief cri­te­ri­on for a lead­ing legal net­work, is that the mem­ber firms are inde­pen­dent of each oth­er and any con­trol­ling enti­ty. A law firm net­work’s rank­ing in this sec­tion, is con­tin­gent on the rank­ings, and the rank­ing strength, of its mem­ber firms across the var­i­ous Cham­bers Guides.

For the most part, the net­work should exist with­out rely­ing on a cen­tral law firm. A strong law firm net­work posi­tions itself as a cost-effec­tive alter­na­tive to an inter­na­tion­al law firm with many inter­na­tion­al branches. 

The net­works con­sid­ered demon­strate an added-val­ue beyond the impres­sive mem­ber­ship sta­tis­tics. This is estab­lished either through affir­ma­tive feed­back from the mem­bers, or evi­dence pro­vid­ed in a sub­mis­sion document.”

Swaab Man­ag­ing Part­ner, Mary Digiglio said, ​“we’re delight­ed to be a part of the Mer­i­tas glob­al net­work of inde­pen­dent law firms. Swaab have been mem­bers since 2009 and, dur­ing that time, the net­work has pro­vid­ed our clients imme­di­ate access to trust­ed legal advi­sors in oth­er coun­tries and across Aus­tralia. It’s also pro­vid­ed our lawyers with unique pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and a glob­al net­work of contacts.”

About Mer­i­tas

Mer­i­tas is a glob­al alliance of inde­pen­dent, mar­ket-lead­ing law firms that pro­vides legal ser­vices to com­pa­nies look­ing to effec­tive­ly cap­ture oppor­tu­ni­ties and solve issues any­where in the world. Clients ben­e­fit from local knowl­edge, col­lec­tive strength and new effi­cien­cies when they work with Mer­i­tas law firms. The per­son­al atten­tion and care they expe­ri­ence is part of Mer­i­tas’ indus­try-first com­mit­ment to the utmost in qual­i­ty of ser­vice and putting client pri­or­i­ties above all else. Found­ed in 1990, Mer­i­tas has mem­ber firms in 247 mar­kets world­wide with near­ly 8,000 ded­i­cat­ed, col­lab­o­ra­tive lawyers. 

Mem­ber firms in Aus­tralia and New Zealand

• Martel­li McK­egg, Auck­land https://​www​.mer​i​tas​.org/​f​i​r​m​/​M​a​r​t​e​l​l​i​-​M​c​K​e​g​g​-​A​u​c​kland ]
• Ben­nett & Philp, Bris­bane https://​www​.mer​i​tas​.org/​f​i​r​m​/​B​e​n​n​e​t​t​-​P​h​i​l​p​-​L​a​w​y​e​r​s​-​B​r​i​sbane
• DMAW Lawyers, Ade­laide https://​www​.mer​i​tas​.org/​f​i​r​m​/​D​M​A​W​-​L​a​w​y​e​r​s​-​A​d​e​laide
• Madg­wicks, Mel­bourne https://​www​.mer​i​tas​.org/​f​i​r​m​/​M​a​d​g​w​i​c​k​s​-​M​e​l​b​ourne
• Swaab, Syd­ney https://​www​.mer​i​tas​.org/​f​i​r​m​/​S​w​a​a​b​-​S​ydney
• Williams + Hugh­es, Perth https://​www​.mer​i​tas​.org/​f​i​r​m​/​W​i​l​l​i​a​m​s​-​H​u​g​h​e​s​-​L​a​w​y​e​r​s​-​Perth