Top 5 Law Firms in New York and London

Here are the 5 largest law firms in London and New York based on revenue. Information was compiled by The Lawyer and The American Lawyer and is based on 2007 revenues.

1. Clifford Chance, London - $2,660.5m / £1,727.2m

2. Linklaters, London - $2,588.5m / £1,680.5m

3. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London - $2,358.5m / £1,531.1m

4. Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, New York City - $2,170m / £1,408.8m

5. Allen & Overy, London - $2,034m / £1,320.5m


2010 revenues as compiled by The American Lawyer

1. Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, New York City - $2,100m / £1,354m

2. Clifford Chance, London - $1,874.5m / £1,209m

3. Linklaters, London - $1,852.5m / £1,195m

4. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London - $1,787m / £1,152m

5. Allen & Overy, London - $1,644m / £1,060m

Top 5 Most Famous and Influential Londoners

1. Queen Elizabeth II tops my list for being the most famous and influential Londoner of all time. "The Queen" as she is affectionately known the world over has demonstrated to us all how to carry on delivering service to her country through challenging times and in the face of adversity several times over during her 61 year reign. Whilst remaining constitutional Monarch over 16 Sovereign States The Queen has steered the British Monarchy into the modern era embracing social media and popular culture.

2. Queen Victoria was also the Empress of India and was the last Monarch of the House of Hanover and the longest reigning Monarch in British history. The Victorian era was responsible for a huge expansion of the British Empire and along with it great industrial and political changes which remain at the heart of much of our world today. The disciplined approach Queen Victoria delivered to her stewardship of the crown laid the foundations for Britain becoming the foremost global superpower of it's time.

3. William Shakespeare. Whilst the top two places on this list are reserved for royalty, the global reach of Shakespeare's work, across languages by expanding the potential of characterisation, plot, language and genre ensured that his work remained posthumously central to the study of literature - particularly in the English speaking world. Shakespeare influenced many famous novelists after his time, including Charles Dickens at number 4 on this list.

4. Charles Dickens. Although Dickens was born in Portsmouth, the nomadic nature of his family live allows him entry to this exclusive list - and many of his novels continue to capture the imagination the world over of the magical side of Victorian London with some of the most fascinating characters seared into popular culture including Ebenezer Scrooge, The Artful Dodger, Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.

5. Tim Berners Lee is widely credited as being the inventor of the world wide web, assembling a set of tools already in existence to create the phenomenon which nowadays it is hard to imagine being without. TBLs entry on this list is down to the sheer scale of transformation the world wide web has had on the world over such a short period of time.