The business won the New Business and Service Delivery category for its ground breaking IPO where it became the first legal business to list on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, overhauling its partnership model to form a unique corporate structure.
DWF's second award was in the Data, Knowledge and Intelligence category in recognition of its excellence in data analytics to help insurers mitigate the effects of adverse claims and behaviours.
In all, DWF was named the 8th most innovative law firm in Europe – it's highest ever position in the annual rankings.
The FT Innovative Lawyers report, published today, also highlights several other DWF innovations with the business achieving recognition in five other areas.
In the Collaboration category, DWF's Legal Design Challenge, a project to redesign legal contracts in partnership with Lex Open Source, Radiant Law and Wavelength Law achieved a standout ranking. In the same category, DWF, Freshfields and University of Manchester were jointly highly commended for their work in founding the Manchester Law and Technology Initiative.
Two of DWF's digital innovations were also commended. In the Data, Knowledge and Intelligence category, DWF Verify - a digital tool to speed up the verification process in IPOs received recognition, while DWF Scope – a pricing tool focussed on customer experience was also singled out.
Jonathan Patterson, managing director of DWF's R&D arm, DWF Ventures, was named among the top ten Legal Intrapreneurs of the Year, for his role in encouraging entrepreneurial thinking across the business to bring about changes in culture and operations.
Andrew Leaitherland, Group CEO at DWF, said: "This has been a monumental year for our business in many ways as we continue our focus on doing things differently. We've transitioned from partnership to plc, expanded into new markets globally and continued to push the boundaries to deliver true innovations for our clients. I am extremely proud that DWF's innovative approach has been recognised with two FT Innovative Lawyers Awards."
