Best managedSlaughter and May has emerged alongside Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as one of the UK’s best-managed law firms according to a survey of leading lawyers – despite the City giant’s famously dismissive attitude to management.

The surprise result comes in this week’sLegal Week/EJ Legal Big Question survey, which polled more than 100 lawyers on the best-run firm, with Slaughters only narrowly beaten to the top spot by Freshfields, with the firms respectively polling 19% and 20%.