Hewitsons, Mills & Reeve and Taylor Vinters are joint top for Commercial litigation, dispute resolution work in Cambridge. Robert McLellan, Simon Biggin and the newly promoted Lucinda Brown are among five highly recommended partners at Hewitsons. Recent work includes representing a quarry owner in a claim for damages against a local authority.

Graeme Menzies and Jamie Wheatley are the core of a ‘capable and competent, pragmatic’ team at Mills & Reeve LLP that advises AVEVA and The Environment Agency, among others.

Taylor Vinters’ team is ‘client focused and commercially orientated’, and acts for easyJet and KPMG. It includes new team head Laurence Weeks, Edward Perrott (‘succinct, effective and professional’), and Christopher Falvey. Birketts shares number one place in Ipswich and also gets a share of top spot in Norwich with Howes Percival and Mills & Reeve.

The Legal 500 reports: “Birketts ‘gets the job done in an efficient and personal manner’; Paul Matthews is praised for his ‘clarity and speed’, and Max Roessler is ‘responsive, and has a strong commercial backbone’. The team’s experience includes major partnership disputes.

“Howes Percival’s clients include a government department and large corporates such as Ford Retail Ltd. The team includes experienced managing partner Andrew Barnes and Alison Kirby.”

‘Alive to the difficulties of any case and how best to get around them’, Mills & Reeve’s Rachel Higgs handled a £90m breach of warranty and fraud claim for SPC (Norwich) Ltd; a £50m claim against an accountancy firm; and a £2.3m breach of contract dispute. The University of East Anglia and Archant Ltd are prominent clients, the guide adds.

Elsewhere in East Anglia, Buckles shares top ranking and Greenwoods and Kester Cunningham John second tier ratings. The guide says: “Buckles’ James Maxey is ‘very knowledgeable’, and ‘provides practical solutions’; and Paul Branch and Gail Sykes are also much sought after. The mediation skills of Maxey, Branch and Peter Corrigan underpin the firm’s ‘Mediation Solutions’ service.”

It continues: “Greenwoods’ five-partner team, under Darren Morgan, is ‘fantastic; advice is in-depth, relevant and good value’. Clients include an international manufacturer of domestic goods.”

The guide adds: “At Kester Cunningham John, Luke Hibbert (‘knowledgeable, effective, a safe pair of hands’) and Don Sheahan advise regional and national corporates.”

• PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS: Graeme Menzies, Mills & Reeve