Latham & Watkins may once again have taken the top spot for pay but it couldn't quite push Norton Rose off the podium.

The full results are set out in Inside Info. However the issues dominating this year's scores were how well firms handled the downturn and how well they treat their staff. And White and Case illustrates exactly how important these issues are - the firm may have come second for pay, but poor scores in these areas saw it drop down to just 41st on the table. Associates felt that when it came to handling redundancies, pay freezes and bonuses the firm, which has always been quite autonomous in London, suddenly seemed dominated by New York. One associate commented that "there was no room for flexibility on pay or bonus".

Meanwhile Hammonds appeared to come back from the dead to make third place overall. The firm, which has in the past been plagued with everything from financial difficulties to shoe fetishists, received glowing praise for its treatment of staff and came top of the class for promoting its talent.

Whilst US firms still score best for pay, the inclusion of Pinsent Masons in the top four shows that associates also value a firm that pays a fair wage for reasonable hours. With a respectable 73% score for pay, associates commented on the "value culture" of the firm and that it "paid well in comparison to similar firms". 

Wragge once again crushed lesser firm biscuits underneath it (Wragges PR, you know where to send the freebies) - and Norton Rose's toilets "live up to the hype. They're amazing!"

Meanwhile while Hammonds came top for its parties, Ince & Co also scored highly for its "very, very, very delicious" canapes, as did Holman, Fenwick and Willan whose parties apparently end in "spit-roasting" which, respondents insist, is a good thing. Bringing up the rear is Eversheds... well it's not really a place with a party atmosphere at the moment.

Winners
	Pay	Prospects	Downturn	Treatment	Biscuits	Toilets	Parties
1	Latham & Watkins	Hammonds	Norton Rose	Norton Rose	Wragge	Norton Rose	Hammonds
2	Jones Day	RPC	Reynolds	Hammonds	Lovells	Clifford Chance	RPC
3	White & Case	Latham & Watkins	Hammonds	Bird & Bird	Olswang	Reed Smith	Ince & Co
4	Pinsent Masons	Trowers & Hamlins	Stephenson Harwood	RPC	Norton Rose	Lovells	HFW
5	Linklaters	Norton Rose	Slaughter & May	Latham & Watkins	Osborne Clarke	Talor Wessing	Latham & Watkins

Losers
	Pay	Prospects	Downturn	Treatment	Buscuits	Toilets	Parties
48	Talor Wessing	McGrigors	LG	BLG	Irwin Mitchell	Stephenson Harwood	Charles Russell
59	Dundas & Wilson	Irwin Mitchell	Travers Smith	White & Case	Denton Wilde Sapte	BLG	TLT
50	BLG	Eversheds	DLA	DLA	Baker & McKenzie	Travers Smith	Dundas & Wilson
51	Eversheds	LG	Eversheds	Eversheds	TLT	McGrigors	Shoosmiths
52	Irwin Mitchell	Shoosmiths	Shoosmiths	Shoosmiths	LG	Trowers & Hamlin	Eversheds

See the full results on Inside Info.