Leading European law firms have been recognised for pioneering work in innovative legal services and the business of law, particularly in areas involving artificial intelligence, digital regulation, and technology. The accolades, based on a comprehensive assessment by research group RSGI, highlight the evolving landscape of legal practice across the continent in 2026.
In the category of AI, digital regulation, and technology, Addleshaw Goddard received top honours for its work with the UK industry group Open Banking. The firm helped obtain regulatory approval for a new payments platform launched in June 2026—commercial Variable Recurring Payments (cVRPs)—designed to replace traditional bank account direct debits for recurring-payment authorisation. The project involved brokering consensus among 31 banks and fintech competitors around a collective pricing model, a strategy which faced potential competition law challenges reminiscent of ongoing litigation involving Visa and Mastercard. Addleshaw Goddard successfully secured coordinated assurances from regulators that enforcement action would not be pursued against this pricing approach, creating a framework for the scheme’s commercial viability.
Bird & Bird placed highly for its role supporting the European Commission in the administration of the European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox, a three-year initiative that concluded in February 2026. Bringing together fintech companies, legislators, and academics from 30 countries, the project identified 60 practical blockchain applications ranging from taxation to child protection. The European Commission anticipates that findings from the sandbox will inform forthcoming amendments to EU blockchain-related legislation, including provisions under the Interoperable Europe Act and the Cyber Resilience Act.
Other firms commended in this category included Asters, which collaborated with Ukrainian state agencies to establish a national cybersecurity legal framework enacted in April 2025, covering 20 legislative measures aimed at safeguarding secure communications and critical infrastructure. Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer received recognition for obtaining consent to use generative legal AI to review 97,000 court documents in High Court litigation, a use of AI projected to save nearly 300 lawyer days, with the case scheduled for hearing in June 2027. Additional notable projects include A&O Shearman’s advice on the first bitcoin exchange-traded product approved by France’s regulator and Greenberg Traurig’s assistance in establishing blockchain-based arbitration procedures for the bug bounty platform Immunefi.
In the business of law segment, Ashurst Perkins Coie was singled out as a winner for delivering Project Catalyst in 2025, an AI-driven regulatory analysis tool supporting the launch of a digital bank within the EU. The project employed a dual AI-model workflow to map legislative provisions across 51 sources and extract regulatory obligations relevant to the client’s business model, identifying nearly 7,500 obligations. This approach substantially reduced legal fees compared to manual review and integrated outputs directly into the client’s project management systems for compliance follow-up.
Freshfields developed an AI-enhanced document review process for a large-scale German mass litigation, employing a “human-on-the-loop” method where AI systems flagged potential legal flaws in over 180,000 documents, diminishing review time from over 300 days to fewer than 50. PwC Tax & Legal in Spain was also recognised for deploying generative AI platforms to assist clients during competition regulator raids by swiftly analysing seized documents. Other firms noted for innovation include Three Crowns, which trained lawyers to build in-house AI legal tools under strict data governance, Bird & Bird with the launch of an AI scanner detecting risks of greenwashing in corporate marketing, and Loyens & Loeff’s MedLex AI tool facilitating life-sciences legal work on lower-complexity cases.
Several firms earned commendations for developing digital solutions enhancing legal workflows and governance. Cleveland & Co created a Microsoft Word add-on for automating document formatting, Gómez-Acebo & Pombo launched a governance benchmarking platform based on public disclosures, and Pinsent Masons devised dashboards assisting in-house legal teams at Heineken with workflow management across intellectual property, human resources, and tenancy areas.
These case studies illustrate the significant strides European law firms are making in leveraging technology, artificial intelligence, and collaborative regulatory engagement to reshape legal service delivery, improve efficiency, and address emerging challenges in digital and financial sectors.