Directors & Boards': 2009 top corporate governance law firms.

Directors & Boards presents its third annual ranking of top law firms specializing in corporate governance issues. These rankings represent the unaided responses from 314 respondents to our legal services survey, which was conducted in September 2009.

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We asked directors to name up to three law firms which they felt were best in each of the following categories: general corporate governance issues, director liability, board level and board level M&A.

Because of the broad base of governance professionals represented in our database, this year we chose to build this list solely by choosing the responses of public and private company directors. This decision resulted in some serious changes to the rankings, but reflect, we think, the broad consensus of board members.

The top 10 responses in each category are presented here.

Best in Dealing with General Corporate Governance Issues 2009 Rank 2008 Rank 1 1 Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom 2 3 Wachtel Lipton Rosen & Katz 3 4 Gibson Dunn & Crutcher 4 8 Debevoise & Plimpton 5 6 Jones Day 6 5 Weil Gotschal & Manges 7 NR Cravath Swain & Moore 8 9 Ropes & Gray 9 NR Sullivan & Cromwell...