The annual FT Innovative Lawyer Awards Europe celebrate law firms, clients, in-house legal teams and legal service providers who are passionate about driving innovation in the legal sector. This year's awards received 428 submissions and nominations were received from 96 law firms and 34 in-house legal teams.

The "Innovation in Responsible Business" award recognises the Travers Smith's team, led by Sam Cottman (also commended for his work in this category), for its work establishing the Domestic Abuse Response Alliance (DARA), a multi-firm advocacy alliance, representing survivors of domestic abuse who are not eligible for legal aid but who cannot afford to pay for private representation. This work included structuring the project, securing funding from multiple funders, creating the governance framework, facilitating expert family law supervision and training for volunteer lawyers and creating a bespoke case management system and website. After the number of at-risk individuals rose during the pandemic, the firm brought together 250 lawyers from seven firms to help clients from the National Centre for Domestic Violence access emergency protection.

In addition, Shawn Curran was listed as one of the 10 legal "Intrapreneurs", heralded for driving changes in Legal Technology from within their firms. Shawn was recognised for developing various tools including Etatonna, MatMail and Biblio. 'Biblio' solves an issue with historic transaction bibles dependent on software that had depreciated over time. This was a huge project that involved building an internally developed bibling system that converted all historic bibles in to a modern, consistent Travers Smith format.

The firm was also commended in the "Learning and Development" category for its use of "Smart Collaboration" – a psychometric tool which assesses approaches to collaboration and encourages better co-operation amongst teams.

Sam Cottman, Pro Bono Partner commented: "DARA is such an important project, which the firm has committed hundreds of hours to. I am delighted that the FT has recognised how essential this project is and, working in tandem with the brilliant founding members, I am looking forward to driving growth in the coming years."

Edmund Reed, Managing Partner commented: "I am delighted that we have been recognised in these highly competitive awards as one of the most innovative law firms in Europe and for the great work we are doing in supporting our clients and the innovation we are showing in the Legal Technology, Learning and Development and responsible business space. Winning the Responsible Business award is a true reflection of what Sam and the wider firm have achieved with the creation of DARA. Congratulations to all the teams involved!"