Legal Awards - SME News

Meet our amazing team

The Nomination Team can assist with answering any queries that you have regarding a nomination, or the process involved in taking part in one of our award programmes.

Please get in touch with us via email or over the phone if you have any questions - we are happy to help!

Meet The Team

Key Dates

Entries Open:Monday 13th November 2023

Entries Close:Monday 19th February 2024

Winners Announced:May 2024

About the SME Legal Awards

SME News is delighted to announce the return of the UK Legal Awards for the sixth consecutive year. The awards are organised by SME News and have been designed to acknowledge and celebrate the firms and individuals who have exhibited excellence, innovation, and leadership in the legal sector and society.

The awards are inclusive of all businesses that operate in the legal sector in the UK, irrespective of their size, location, or specialisation. We invite nominations from any legal firm or individual who has achieved outstanding results, provided exceptional service, or contributed positively to society.

The UK legal sector in 2024 will encounter various challenges and opportunities arising from various global disruption events throughout the last few years. The demand for legal services is expected to increase by 2%, with promising prospects for property, immigration, restructuring, and insolvency law. Law firms are more willing to adopt alternative fee arrangements to satisfy client needs and remain competitive in the market. UK firms will pursue expansion in the US market through mergers or alliances, while smaller firms will seek organic growth through marketing and client retention. Law firms will also adopt a client-centric approach, using data analytics and personalisation to deliver higher-quality services, as well as offering more virtual services to enhance convenience and accessibility.

SME News is hosting the UK Legal Awards 2024 to honour and commend the remarkable achievements of the legal firms that operate in the UK. These awards are an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the quality, innovation, and diversity of the UK legal sector, and to recognise and reward the firms and individuals who have made a significant difference.

The UK Legal Awards 2024 is a merit-based awards programme meaning that the winners are determined by their performance, achievements, and contributions, rather than by the number of votes or nominations they receive. There are a broad range of categories that aim to cover all different areas of expertise and specialisation in the legal sector.

The process is simple: in addition to nominations, we have our dedicated in-house research team that identify, evaluate, and award firms that we believe deserve to be recognised for their achievements. Using this method ensures that, regardless of industry or size, businesses can be judged on an equal basis.

These awards are entirely free to enter and if your firm is fortunate enough to be successful, you will be presented to our circulation of 78,000 and promoted on our official website for a minimum of 12 months.

Furthermore, our awardees are welcome to select from our range of competitively priced promotional opportunities to increase exposure of the good news.

By participating in the UK Legal Awards 2024, firms and professionals can receive recognition and gratitude for their hard work and success in the legal sector. In addition to this, our successful awardees will also benefit from increased visibility and a well-deserved enhancement to their brand reputation.

If you would like to nominate yourselves, or indeed another firm you deem worthy, then please click on the ‘Nominate Now’ button. Alternatively, please do not hesitate to contact the awards team for further information.

FAQ's

How long has SME News been in circulation for?

SME News was first launched in 2017 making it one of AI Global Media’s newer publications. SME News is a quarterly magazine circulated to just over 78,000 recipients. The publication seeks to inform, entertain, influence and endorse the start-up and SME business culture in the UK. We aim to achieve this by providing quality editorial and rigorous research utilising a multimedia platform capable of targeting key stakeholders of dedicated advisers, experts and contributors.

SME News is owned by AI Global Media, a UK based publisher which has over 200 issues to its name since 2010.

Where did the nomination come from?

In the interest of nurturing an environment proven to produce a high response rate, we don’t ask nominees to reveal any personal identity. With regards to methodology, we often nominate candidates ourselves and, when it comes to voting, if you didn’t cast a vote through a self-submission, it is likely to have been cast via a colleague or client who has received one of our direct invitations.

One of the main mantras of our awards system is that your ability to succeed is not linked to the number of votes received, meaning your award is presented purely on merit. In the interest of security and fairness, we track unusual behaviour on our website to identify repeat votes and cyber-threats.

What happens if I agree to be shortlisted?

In the interest of focusing our efforts on relevant and eager candidates, we ask all nominees to accept their position on the shortlist giving people complete control in the decision on whether they would like to move forward with the award. Nominees who accept are subject to our scrutiny during the internal vetting procedure and are given the opportunity to present their own data to be considered alongside information collated by our research team. This can take up to 8 weeks for final assessments to be rendered.

Who makes the final decision?

We employ an entirely impartial panel of 5 individuals to conduct all research. At the helm of the panel, is a veteran academic leader with international academic and training experience and is well versed in research, fact-checking and mediation. SME News’ research is overseen by Martyn Walters, who holds a master’s in history and experience in coaching, sales and hospitality.

This two-tiered system allows for a neutral mediator which we feel allows a more efficient method when determining individuals and companies most deserving of winning an award and has brought us much success and commendation throughout its use.

Is there a winner’s ceremony/award dinner and if so, when does it take place?

The short answer is, no.

We decided to not focus our efforts on a celebratory event. Despite being an enjoyable occasion, it doesn’t support our group’s philosophy of cost-effective marketing. We follow the belief that optional costs associated with an award are better placed in a year’s worth of online marketing for the winner rather than spending large sums on a ceremonial evening.

Our press announcements are made digitally, online and across our network to enforce our position as digital publishers. We aim to provide you with the tools (both digital and physical) to generate real-world value.

What happens if I am deemed successful?

After you have been notified we enforce a short press embargo while the programme manager will liaise with you to establish your preferred method of coverage. Generally, our coverage takes the form of a digital celebratory magazine, we also offer physical trophies, wall mounted certificates and plaques and digital certificates, web-based advertisements and press releases which can be custom designed for you or your company.

Are there any costs involved?

As mentioned there are no compulsory costs in accepting a nomination or winning an award with SME News. We do offer a variety of paid additional benefits for our winners, but these are completely optional. To demonstrate our commitment to no mandatory fees, all our winners are offered a free of charge promotional package. Our company policy will always remain: regardless of budget, our clients should always be able to garner the full value of the award and our seal of approval. We offer a variety of promotional opportunities to our winners, as we have an extensive network and we know, more than anyone, the wider business benefits from promoting industry awards.

Why does your email domain differ from your website domain?

Because we send a large volume of emails, we separate our campaign email sends from our transactional ones. This structure helps to ensure a prompt and thorough response from one of our diligent team members. The sending email address will always be recognisable but please contact us via the address on this page if you have any concerns.

Methodology

Researching nominees

The SME News team work ardently to identify market leaders, innovators and enterprising start-ups, driving many of the nominations themselves.

We also encourage external nominations via the SME News subscribers, online visitors, social media followers, clients and wider circulation.

Nominating parties are invited to put forward either third-party businesses whom they hold in high regard, or their own organisation.

Shortlisting nominees

All nominees are formally requested to accept their nomination. Should any firm or individual rather decline at this point, they are simply taken out of the running.

Those formally accepting are given the opportunity to submit additional materials in support of their nomination. Although there is no obligation to complete and supply material, we have found that many nominees value this stage, in the process, as much as our research team do.

Evaluating and judging

Our dedicated research team will assess all information presented to them.

The team gather information independently from a variety of publicly accessible sources, which are assessed alongside any material supplied by a nominating party or the nominee themselves.

The research team casts their final judgment, based on various criteria including: client dedication, innovation, business growth, longevity, online reputation, customer feedback and business performance.

Our deserving winners

Once winners are determined, they are personally notified before any public announcement is made, allowing time for any communications throughout the wider business and the coordination of marketing strategies.

Unfortunately, not everyone can be a winner; however, all who take part are encouraged to come back next year.

Once the press embargo is lifted, details of our SME award winners will be made public via the website, award winners’ magazine and subscriber newsletter.

Making the most

We are prepared to offer a range of promotional packages and items to SME award winners, which vary from inclusion in the free-of-charge winners’ directory, to trophies, content in our magazine and on our website.

We encourage all winners to publicly announce their win independently. Announcements via company websites, social media, via publicly released press releases, and through local and national press are all great ways of maximising the exposure which can be gained from such an amazing achievement. If you have need of further advice, on how to gain maximum exposure from your win, please feel free to get in touch. We are happy to assist our clients with their needs.

Legal Awards (2024)