Eversheds has been ranked as the strongest legal brand in the UK, ahead of DLA Piper and Pinsent Masons.
The research, conducted by Acritas, is carried out every year among 2,300 senior buyers of legal services.
Eversheds has taken first position for three of the past four years, leading last year’s Acritas rankings of the most popular legal brands.
It was also revealed by The Lawyer as being the third most commonly used firm by FTSE 250 business, just falling behind Slaughter and May and Linklaters.
Slaughters, ranked as The Lawyer’s best financially managed firm of 2014/15, meanwhile took fourth position in the Acritas brand rankings. It came up behind DLA Piper and Pinsent Masons, with DLA Piper rising four places into second place and Pinsent Masons dropping to third.
The magic circle firms featured in the bottom half of the top 10, as Clifford Chance was ranked in fifth spot ahead of Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
While Baker & McKenzie retained its title last October as Acritas’ top global brand, the firm was ranked in tenth place based on UK data. It remained behind Herbert Smith Freehills and Allen & Overy, who took eighth and ninth spots respectively.
The Acritas research tracks how buyers of legal services select firms and ranks them on how well they perform on measures including favourability, consideration for top-level litigation and M&A and top of mind awareness.
| Rank | Firm | Brand index score |
| 1 | Eversheds | 100 |
| 2 | DLA Piper | 91 |
| 3 | Pinsent Masons | 82 |
| 4 | Slaughter and May | 80 |
| 5 | Clifford Chance | 78 |
| 6 | Linklaters | 72 |
| 7 | Freshfields | 69 |
| 8 | Herbert Smith Freehills | 58 |
| 9 | Allen & Overy | 48 |
| 10 | Baker & McKenzie | 47 |
| 11 | Norton Rose Fulbright | 45 |
| 12 | Hogan Lovells | 39 |
| 13 | Clyde & Co | 38 |
| 14 | CMS | 37 |
| 15 | Gowling WLG | 35 |
| 16 | Squire Patton Boggs | 34 |
| 17 | Simmons & Simmons | 25 |
| 18 | Ashurst | 24 |
| 18 | Bond Dickinson | 24 |
| 18 | DWF | 24 |
Source: Acritas