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.

The Top 5 Museums in London and New York

The Louvre in Paris is the envy of every major city in the world containing more than 380,000 objects and displaying 35,000 works of art which attract 8.5 million visitors every year, more than any other museum in the world. London and New York City also boast some very impressive museums with vast collections of art and artefacts. Here is a list of what are considered to be the best 5 of the bunch.

1. The British Museum, London

The British Museum sees around 6 million visitors pass through it's doors each year to see an impressive 13 million different objects from representing the rich history of human culture around the world reflecting London's global presence. The British Museum houses relics from virtually every civilization in the world including Chines, Asian, Aztec and Classical Art. The must see artefacts at the BM are the Egyptian Mummies, the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles. The building is impressive too. The central quadrangle was redeveloped to a design by Foster & Partners to become the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court and is the largest covered square in Europe. Architects Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners are the designers behind a £100million new World Conservation and Exhibition Centre to house many of the temporary displays. Incredible since admission to the British Museum is free.

2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

The main building at "the Met" is one of the largest art galleries in the world attracting around 5 million visitors every year. The Museum Highlights tour is the best way of seeing the Met as it covers roughly 1.6 million square feet. Highlights include the Temple of Dendur in the Egyptian collection in a purpose built glass walled gallery with views over Central Park as well as Adam & Eve, a well known engraving by Albrecht Durer. The Met houses everything from Islamic art and European paitings to collections of arms and armour. The entrance fee is $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and $10 for students with children and members free.

3. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City

At the moment, the Museum of Modern Art has a wonderful Matisse exhibition concentrating on four years of the painters life: Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917. The exhibition impressively sets some of the work of Matisse amongst other works of the time which helped inspire and engineer the style of Matisse. The show also uses x-rays and computer enhanced technology to demonstrate how much work went into some of the pieces. It is this kind of delivery that has given MoMA the reputation of being one of the foremost galleries for modern art in the world. From an initial gift of eight prints and one drawing, the museum now has a collection of over 150,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, architectural models and more. It also has a massive archive of over 22,000 films and 4,000,000 stills, 300,000 books on art and files on more than 70,000 artists which contribute to MoMA's mission to be one of the principle primary sources of information on modern art in the world today.

4. Tate Modern, London

London's Tate modern used to be a power station which is built on the bank of the River Thames and has been magficently transformed into one of the best art galleries in the world. The huge turbine room provides an impressive entrance to the gallery which links up with The City via the Norman Foster designed Millenium Bridge over The Thames. The gallery is large, bright and airy with room upon room of cartoon, pop, sculpture as well as more iconic twentieth century artists such as Matisse, Moore, Dali and Picasso. The Tate Modern only opened in 2000 yet last year saw 4,700,000 visitors pass through it's doors.

5. The National Gallery, London

The National Gallery in London stands very grandly on the north side of Trafalgar Square, a busy square incorporating Nelson's Column, the statues of lions and the water fountains. Similar to the MoMA it was founded to house a collection of just 36 paintings. Today it houses works from almost every major school of art with over 2,300 paintings. The collection includes Rembrandt, Monet and Van Gogh and similar to the Metroploitan Museum of Art in New York. The best way to navigate the National Gallery is with one of the guided tours which is free of charge as is entry to the gallery although donations are appreciated. The National Gallery saw about 4,700,000 visitors in 2009.

Top 6 Investment Banks in London and New York

Here is a list of the 6 largest financial services companies with investment banking operations headquartered in London and New York by market capitalisation.

1. HSBC, London - $173.5bn / £111.325bn

2. JP Morgan Chase - New York City - $147.27bn / £94.5bn

3. Citigroup, New York City - $108.65bn / $69.7bn

4. Goldman Sachs, New York City - $76.434bn / £49.044bn

5. Barclays, London - $59.6bn / £38.23bn

6. Morgan Stanley, New York City - $36.21bn / £23.23bn

Top 5 Interdealer Brokers in London and New York

Interdealer Brokers (IDBs) are the middlemen for investment

banks dealing in billions of dollars worth of transactions everyday in currency, bonds, derivatives, stocks and credit markets. As they compete against one another their offerings are expanding, from property derivatives to Islamic products. IDBs do not take positions but collect commission for expediting orders and distributing market data which is where they make their money.

Here is a list of the 5 largest interdealer brokers headquartered in London and New York, by market capitalization.

1. ICAP, London - £2.62bn / $4.07bn

2. Tullett Prebon, London - £801.61m / $1.244bn

3. BGC Partners, New York - £772m / $1.2bn

4. GFI Group, New York - £585.39m / $909m

5. Collins Stewart, London - £199.5m / $310m

The top 4 brokers above account for nearly 70% of market activity and Collins Stewart operation is part of a wider range of offerings which includes Wealth Management.

On June 25th 2008, ICAP supported the Red Arrows as they performed their first ever aerial display above New York City as part of a larger North American goodwill tour.

Top 5 Hospitals in London and New York City

This is a list of what are considered to be the top 5 hospitals in London and New York City. Data is taken from the "ranking web of world hospitals", an initiative of the Cybermetrics Lab, a research group belonging to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), the largest public research body in Spain which publishes a list of the top 2,000 hospitals in the world. Cybermetrics Lab rankings are shown in brackets.

1. (1) NYU Langone Medical Center, New York City
Academic Medical Centre affilliated with New York University known for evidence-based clinical care across a wide range of specialties including its five key clinical areas: cardiac and vascular, cancer, musculoskeletal, neurology and neurosurgery, and children’s services.


2.  (35) Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City
Founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC has long been a leader in cancer surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. It was the first to develop services specifically dedicated to the psychiatric aspects of cancer, to the relief of cancer pain, and to genetic counselling.


3.  (58) Institute of Cancer Research, Royal Cancer Hospital, London
The ICR has been responsible for a number of breakthrough discoveries, including that the basic cause of cancer is damage to DNA and pursues its research focused into three main research themes: genetic epidemiology, molecular pathology, and therapeutic development. These areas of research are essential for the development of personalised cancer medicine.


4.  (100) Guys' and St.Thomas' Hospital NHS, London
Founded circa 1100 and named after St.Thomas Becket, originally run by a mixed order of Augustinian monks and nuns dedicated to St.Thomas Becket. Nowadays one of London's largest and best known NHS trusts providing free healthcare and specialising in dermatology, cardiothoracic surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, Paediatric neurology (Evelina children's hospital), Critical Care and Crtitical pharmacology.

5.  (127) New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York City
Founded in 1771 by a Royal Charter granted by King George III of England making it the second oldest Hospital in the United States. As a University Hospital it is affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools: Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons and Cornell University's Weill Medical College.

Top 5 Foreign Exchange Institutions in London and New York

Euromoney reports that London and New York account for a massive $2.018 trillion (£1.306 trillion) worth of trading in foreign exchange which accounts for 50.7% of global turnover. Of the total amount of foreign exchange traded in London and New York, more than 67% is traded in London which makes The City the world capital for foreign exchange trading. Most FOREX trading is undertaken by the global institutions. Here is a list of the top 5 London and New York headquartered participants in foreign exchange trading and their percentage of overall activity (source Euromoney FX survey FX poll 2010)

1. Barclays Capital, London - 11.08%

2. Citi, New York City - 7.69%

3. JP Morgan, New York City - 6.35%

4. HSBC, London - 4.55%

5. Goldman Sachs, New York City - 4.28%

10 facts about The Shard, London Bridge and construction progress

As we come up to christmas, everyone involved and everyone watching construction of the Shard at London Bridge should be proud of the progress made on what is due to become the tallest building in Europe. Here are 10 facts about the project so far.

• The project team has achieved an outstanding one million hours without incurring a RIDDOR accident for which a small celebration was held on site for operatives attended by Irvine Sellar (Sellar Properties), Gareth Lewis and MP Simon Hughes.
• So far more than 3,500 glass panels have been fitted to the building.
• At the beginning of December, The Shard became the tallest building in the UK at a height of 244m with the core topped out, surpassing One Canada Square at Canary Wharf.
• Construction has included London's largest ever continuous concrete pour at 5,500 cu metres which was delivered and poured over a 36 hour period
• Architect Renzo Piano is one of the world's best known architects having worked with Richard Rogers and on projects such as the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the New York Times building. The Shard is Piano's first UK commission.
• The site incorporates the UK's tallest construction crane at 255 metres.
• The Shard becoming the UK's tallest building was marked by London Mayor Boris Johnson visiting the top of the building.
• The Shard will become one of the tallest hotel buildings in the world outside of Dubai once completed, by virtue of the Shangri La hotel.
• The Shard is part of a £2bn investment in the regeneration of the area around London Bridge which includes London Bridge station and London Bridge Place, a 17 storey building for which work is already underway.
• Once completed the entire project will provide permanent employment for over 12,500 people.

10 Largest Stadia in London and New York

London and New York City boast some of the best and most modern sporting venues in the world having four stadiums with capacities of over 80,000. Wembley Stadium and the New Meadowlands stadium are the two most expensive stadiums in the world costing around $1.6 billion dollars each to build.

1. Wembley Stadium, London - 90,000 capacity

Home of the England National Football Team but also a multi use venue.

2. New Meadowlands Stadium, New York City - 82,566 capacity

Joint venture between the New York Jets and New York Giants (American football)

3. Twickenham Stadium, London - 82,000 capacity

Home of the England National Rugby Team

4. Olympic Stadium, London - 80,000 capacity

Venue for 2012 olympic games - completion 2011

5. Emirates Stadium, London - 60,355 capacity

Home of Arsenal FC (soccer)

6. Yankees Stadium, New York City - 52,325 capacity, includes standing

Home of the New York Yankees (baseball)

7. Stamford Bridge, London - 41,841 capacity

Home of Chelsea FC (soccer)

8. Citi Field, New York City - 41,800 capacity

Home of the New York Mets (baseball)

9. White Hart Lane, London - 36,310

Home of Tottenham Hotspur FC (soccer)

10. The Boleyn Ground, London - 35,303

Home of West Ham United FC (soccer)

The Top 10 Hotels in London and New York City

The top ten hotels in London and New York City as assessed by readers of Institutional Investor magazine. This means that the survey has been produced from the opinions of some of the toughest hotel guests to keep happy - Senior Financial Executives.

1. Mandarin Oriental, New York City


2. Ritz-Carlton, New York City


3. Four Seasons, New York City


4. Carlyle, New York City


5. Ritz, London


6. Plaza Athenee, New York City


7. Peninsula, New York City


8. Mandarin Oriental, London


9. London NYC, New York City


10. Claridge's, London

London, New York City, The Global Financial Centres Index and the top ten Global Financial Centres

In 2005 Z/Yen set up the Global Financial Centres Index to help society's understanding and use of finance over the long term and increase our knowledge of financial centres. Cities are subjected to rigorous analysis by survey results. It was noted in the 2010 edition of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 8) that

1. There remains no significant difference between London and New York City in the GFCI 8. Respondents continue to believe that these centres work together for mutual benefit.

2. Hong Kong (in third place) is now within ten points of London and New York (having been 84 points behind in March 2009). Ten points on a scale of 1,000 is not significant and that Hong Kong has joined London and New York as a genuinely global financial centre. Singapore may well join this trio soon.

The Global Financial Centres index is assessed on people, business environment, market access, infrastructure and general competitiveness. The top ten Global Financial Centres for 2010 (GFCI 8) are as follows -

1. London, England
2. New York City, USA
3. Hong Kong
4. Singapore
5. Tokyo, Japan
6. Shanghai, People's Republic of China
7. Chicago, USA
8. Zurich, Switzerland
9. Geneva, Switzerland
10 Sydney, Australia

Industry sector sub-indices are also created using only the questionnaire responses from respondents working in the relative industry sectors. Below shows the position of London and New York City in each of these sub-indices although it should be noted that Wealth Management and Private Banking is relatively new and should be viewed with caution as the sample size was smaller.

Asset Management - London (1), New York (2)
Banking - New York (1), London (3)
Government & Regulatory - New York (1), London (2)
Insurance - New York (3), London (5)
Professional Services - London (1), New York (2)
Wealth Management/Private Banking - London (1), New York (3)

The 10 best restaurants in London and New York City

The S.Pellegrino World's Best Restaurants for 2010 list has a number of entries from London and New York. Extracted into this list are the top 10 best restaurants in London and New York with the S.Pellegrino ranking in brackets.

1. Daniel, New York City(8)

www.danielnyc.com

2. Per Se, New York City(10)

www.perseny.com

3. Le Bernardin, New York City(15)

www.le-bernardin.com

4. Momofoku Ssam Bar, New York City(26)

www.momofuku.com

5. St.John, London(43)

www.stjohnrestaurant.co.uk

6. Hibiscus, London(49)

www.hibiscusrestaurant.co.uk

7. Eleven Madison Park, New York City(50)

www.elevenmadisonpark.com

8. Jean Georges, New York City(52)

www.jean-georges.com

9. Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley, London(58)

www.the-berkeley.co.uk

10. Zuma, London(66)

www.zumarestaurant.com

10 Biggest Selling Music Acts from London and New York City

London and New York are true heavyweights when it comes to entertaining the world having produced music acts which pepper every list and compilation of the best music acts of all time from Rolling Stone magazine to VH1 and from true rock hall of fame legends to modern day heroes and villains. This is a list of the biggest ever selling music acts from London and New York City by highest reputed sales followed by London giants Led Zeppelin performing at New York's Madison Square Garden in 1973 - a legendary band at a legendary venue.

1. Led Zeppelin, London - 200 million-300 million

2. The Rolling Stones, London - 150 million-300 million

3= Mariah Carey, New York City - 200 million

3= Pink Floyd, London - 200 million

5. Whitney Houston, New York City - 170 million

6= Frank Sinatra, New York City - 150 million

6= Genesis, London - 150 million

8 =David Bowie, London - 140 million

8= Barbra Streisand, New York City - 140 million

10. Status Quo, London - 118 million

Top 10 Largest Companies in London and NYC by Market Capitalisation

A list of the top ten largest companies with headquarters in London and New York by market capitalisation. The total value of just these top ten titanic companies exceeds an astonishing $1.2 trillion (£750 billion) split almost equally between London and New York (source: market data digital outlook close: 22/11/2010)

1. HSBC, London - $184,311m (£115,628m)

2. JP Morgan Chase, New York City - $149,604 (£93,834m)

3. Pfizer, New York City - $132,885m (£83,349m)

4. BP, London - $129,109m (£80,997m)

5. Citigroup, New York City - $121,430m (£76,168m)

6. Shell, London* - $113,210m (£71,020m)

7. Phillip Morris International, New York City - $107,235m (£67,263m)

8. Glaxosmithkline, London - $103,304m (£64,807m)

9. BHP Billiton, London** - $81,543m (£51,159m)

10. Goldman Sachs, New York City - $81,495m (£51,118m)

*Royal Dutch Shell shares headquarters with The Hague, Netherlands

**BHP Billiton shares headquarters with Melbourne, Australia

10 Tallest skyscrapers in London

A list of the 10 tallest skyscrapers in London compiled from skyscraperpage. This list includes only buildings that have 'topped out' and not others under construction with all heights to spire.

1. Heron Tower - 242m (794ft)*

2. One Canada Square - 235.1m (771ft)

3= 8 Canada Square (HSBC) - 199.5m (655ft)

3= 25 Canada Square (Citigroup) - 199.5m (655ft)

5. Tower 42 - 183m (600ft)

6. 30 St. Mary Axe - 179.8m (590ft)

7. Broadgate Tower - 164.3m (539ft)

8. One Churchill Place - 156.4m (513ft)

9= 25 Bank Street - 153m (502ft)

9= 40 Bank Street - 153m (502ft)

Heron Tower has topped out and is still undergoing the internal fit out.

10 Tallest skyscrapers in London and New York City

This list is a clean sweep for New York. Not suprisingly all ten of the top ten tallest skyscrapers in London and New York are in New York City - all heights include height to the tip of the spire on buildings. Information compiled from skyscraperpage. This list does not include skyscrapers that are currently under construction. There is a separate list for the ten tallest buildings in London.

1. Empire State Building, New York City - 443.2m (1,454ft)

2. Bank of America Tower, New York City - 365.8m (1,200ft)

3. Chrysler Building, New York City - 318.9m (1,046ft)

4. New York Times Tower, New York City - 318.8m (1,046ft)

5. American International Building, New York City - 290.2m (952ft)

6. 40 Wall Street, New York City - 282.5m (927ft)

7. Citigroup Center, New York City - 278.9m (915ft)

8. Trump World Tower, New York City - 262.4m (861ft)

9. GE Building (Rockefeller Center), New York City - 259.1m (850ft)

10. CitySpire Center, New York City - 248.1m (814ft)

The 6 Best Universities in London and New York City

Each year QS publishes a list of the world's best universities which this year saw the University of Cambridge take the crown which has been held by Harvard for the last four years. This list shows the top featuring universities from London and New York City and in brackets where they came in on the QS list along with the score in comparison to Cambridge which defaults as 100. The QS rankings assess university research quality, graduate employability, teaching commitment and international commitment.

1 (4) University College London (UCL), London - 98.54

2 (7) Imperial College, London - 97.78

3 (16) Cornell University, New York City - 90.44

4 (21) King's College, London - 88.45

5 (41) New York University (NYU), New York City - 78.41

6 (80) London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London - 68.86

5 Largest Accountancy Firms in London and New York

These are the five largest accountancy and business services firms headquartered in London and New York by revenue (2009 figures)

1. PricewaterhouseCoopers, London

$26.2bn (£16.98bn)

2. Deloitte, New York City*

$26.1bn (£16.91bn)

3. Ernst & Young, London

$21.4bn (£13.86bn)

4. RSM International, London

$3.87bn (£2.5bn)

5. Grant Thornton, London

$3.6bn (£2.33bn)

*Although Deloitte has it's global headquarters in New York, it is a UK private company founded in London.

Top 5 Insurance Companies in London and New York

Figures show 2009 revenues for Insurance led financial services companies

1. American International Group, New York City -

$110.1bn (£70.9bn)

2. Aviva, London - £97.8bn (£62.98)

3. Prudential, London - $70.3bn (£45.25)

4. Metlife, New York City - $53bn (£34.11)

5. Legal & General, London - $41bn (£26.39)