Our first table shows solicitors ranked by the number of their stock market clients ­ both fully listed and AIM. The first five places are unchanged from last quarter, with Slaughter & May leading the field albeit with one client fewer this time ­ 96 rather than 97. The only firm in the top five to have gained a client is Eversheds, up from 92 to 93. Herbert Smith and DLA have swapped places, now being sixth and seventh respectively. Making a reappearance this month is Berwin Leighton Paisner in joint twelfth place alongside Osborne Clarke, both with 40 clients.

The second 'size' table shows solicitors whose clients are making the most profit. Slaughter & May continues to dominate, with clients showing an aggregate pre-tax profit of £5,325.5m ­ a sad slump from last time when the figure was £8,383.8m, but still nearly twice that of Herbert Smith in second place with £2,864.9m. Linklaters has fallen two places from second last quarter to fourth this time. Ashurst Morris Crisp has tumbled from eighth to eleventh. As in February, only the clients of DLA in the bottom spot at number thirteen, show a negative figure of -£290m, though this is a larger deficit than the -£199.4m February figure. Overall, profit figures are noticeably down from three months ago.

The first of our two 'growth' tables is concerned with solicitors whose clients are the fastest growing according to the average increase in pre-tax profits. Linklaters gets the gold medal as it did in the last quarter, though the percentage is down sharply from 6.9% to 1.2%. Pinsents has risen from joint number three to number two but can only achieve a figure of 0.0%, and thereafter everything is in red ink, from Clifford Chance with -2% to Freshfields Bruckhuas Deringer still bringing up the rear but with a figure of -15.3% (-25.6% last time). The biggest fall is that made by Hammonds from fifth to eleventh, while Clifford Chance has climbed from ninth in February to fourth this time. Overall the picture is slightly brighter than in recent quarters.

Lastly comes the table showing solicitors placed according to the average increase in clients' earnings per share. Here Pinsents has overtaken Herbert Smith (up three places) and DLA (up one place) to take the top spot with 5.1%. Fourth is Osborne Clarke, down from number one in February, this time round with a figure of 1.7%. Hammonds, in fifth place, has a negative figure of -0.2% and the minus signs run down the rest of the column to Ashurst Morris Crisp at number thirteen (down from tenth last quarter) with -11.9%. Clifford Chance, bringing up the rear last time with a figure of -26%, has climbed just one place to number twelve but with a significant change to -8.4%. Linklaters has fallen from number six to number ten, reflecting the change in the figure of its clients' earnings increase per share from 0.5% in February to -4.9% this quarter.