Now that the dust has settled over the announcement of the ALB Hong Kong Law Awards winners, one thing has become clear. While it was a tough year for the economies of the SAR itself and the region as a whole, players right through the ranks of Hong Kong’s legal services industry still managed to record another fantastic year of landmark transactions, cutting-edge solutions and at times startlingly sophisticated advice.

The ALB Awards, well established as Hong Kong’s leading awards event, were attended by a GFC-defying 400-plus pre-eminent lawyers from both in-house and private practice. And, while the four-month in-depth research process had already produced deserving lists of finalists in each of the 35 categories, the announcement of the winners was as keenly anticipated as usual.

This year it was Baker & McKenzie and Freshfields who claimed the largest number of awards on the night – five each. Perennial finalist JSM won an impressive four trophies, while Clifford Chance and an ascendant Simmons & Simmons took three each.

 “Winning five ALB awards – covering equity, debt, M&A, project finance and IT & telecoms – is about as good as it gets,” said Simon Marchant, Freshfields’ Asia managing partner. “It's always good to get recognition for our work, and especially so given that the last year has seen some of the most challenging market conditions that we have experienced.”

All in all, 41 different organisations – among them 10 in-house teams – won awards. Included in the winners were firms from Korea (Bae Kim & Lee, Kim & Chang), Taiwan (Lee and Li), Singapore (WongPartnership) and of course mainland China (Jun He, King & Wood, Zhong Lun).

Perhaps the biggest category of the night – Hong Kong Law Firm of the Year – had been redefined by organisers ALB for the 2009 awards: all firms with an office in Hong Kong were eligible, as opposed to recent years where only firms headquartered in Hong Kong were considered. While for the last several years JSM and to some extent Deacons had dominated the award, it was Linklaters – advisers on as many as eight finalist deals and finalists itself in four Firm of the Year categories – which took the award this year.

Praise for the ALB Hong Kong Law Awards 2009

 ALB Hong Kong Law Awards 2009 – the big winners