Law firms should highlight the significant cases they have worked on since September 2024 to boost their chances of being recognised in the 2026 IP STARS rankings and the Managing IP Awards programme.
As usual, the deadline for submitting information for the research is October 31.
In 2025, plenty of firms climbed the leaderboard among multiple disciplines. In the trademark discipline, Taylor Wessing, Nordemann, and Pirkey Barber were among the firms to climb the ranks.
The IP STARS team made 294 changes to the trademark rankings this year. At the same time, many of the firms that ranked last year successfully retained their rankings.
On the patents side, more than 870 firms have been ranked for their patent work across 51 jurisdictions in 2025. Paul Hastings, Kirkland & Ellis, and Venner Shipley were among those to climb to the top of the table.
Managing IP sat down with research editor Kingsley Egbuonu, who offered some last-minute tips and warnings for firms that are considering applying for recognition in 2026.
What’s new this year?
KE: We’ve made a few changes to the firm questionnaire for law firms. For example, we added questions to capture information about IP formalities/administration staff in a firm and how firms are using AI tools. We intend to use the information for editorial coverage and/or our awards. All the changes in the firm questionnaire are highlighted in green.
Another interesting new thing to mention is that we now also invite tax firms to participate in our research so that we can understand the IP-related work they do. We created a special, short form for them. There is an IP tax advice work section in our standard firm questionnaire for law firms. If we receive sufficient research data, our intention is to launch a rankings table or an awards category for IP tax advice work. We hope law firms and tax firms can share their work highlights in this unique area of practice.
What do firms need to do before the October 31 deadline?
KE: Start gathering information from different teams or departments in your firm, identify and obtain consent from your referees, and fully complete our firm questionnaire and client referee spreadsheet.
To help firms prepare, we’ve produced a document summarising our guidelines. We also encourage firms to read the full information on our website and listen to the webinars we hosted last month.
How can firms ensure they get themselves recognised in the rankings or awards?
KE: The most important thing to do to be considered is to complete and submit your research forms. When completing the firm questionnaire, it is important to provide as much information as possible. We value detail and transparency. However, it is worth pointing out that submission doesn’t guarantee ranking. We do not normally rank or shortlist a firm for an award without a submission and sufficient independent research data.
How many case studies should a firm highlight to boost its chances?
KE: We now ask for up to 15 case studies for the practice area(s) for which the firm would like to be recognised. Firms can, of course, submit more. The advice to provide more, if available, is particularly important for unrecognised firms. Aside from quantity, the quality of matters provided is very important.
How should you prioritise what evidence of work to submit?
KE: We advise firms to start with their most important or high-profile case studies to catch the attention of the research analyst. The case studies should be work done between September or October 2024 and October 2025. This advice is particularly relevant to the awards programme because we will be looking for remarkable achievements in 2025.
As mentioned above, we also need client referees, and for this, we expect firms to notify and obtain consent from their referees before giving us their contact details. We also advise firms to be selective with referees and exclude referees sent to other legal directories due to directory engagement fatigue.
How should you prepare for an interview if invited by the research team?
KE: The main purpose of the interview is to get feedback on our rankings and, time permitting, nominations for the awards. It is not necessary to submit before the interview. We advise firms to review the rankings on ipstars.com before the interview.
What are some of the mistakes you see in submissions?
KE: The good news is that most firms understand our methodology, what we look for, and provide strong submissions each year. But we still do encounter some issues.
Some of the issues include submitting the research form of another legal publisher; failure to follow our instructions for the client referees spreadsheet; sparse case study sections, especially failure to complete the key text fields and provide a summary of the work; marking all case studies or client names as confidential; and ignoring section 9(a) of the form, which asks for award nominations.
What about in-house practitioners?
KE: Yes, we also recognise in-house practitioners in our rankings (the Corporate IP Stars list) and the awards programme. First, we ask them to submit information, including recent achievements, for our in-house award categories. We also use the submissions, together with data from our private practice research, for the Corporate IP Stars list.
We opened our in-house awards submission portal today, October 1. Read about the in-house research here. We hope firms can encourage their clients to participate in the research.
