The high calibre of Australian legal innovation resulted in a tie for the e.law Asia Pacific Box Breaker of the Year Award, as Baker & McKenzie and PLN Lawyers were named joint winners of the category, which recognises those individuals thinking outside the square to meet current legal business challenges, at Thursday night's inaugural Lawyers Weekly Icon Awards, held in Sydney.

The judges could not separate the fine efforts of both firms, with Martijn Wilder, Baker & McKenzie's Head of Global Environmental Markets & Climate Change recognised for his work pulling together a range of legal practice areas to form what we now know as "climate change law", which has assisted in creating it and adapting existing laws to develop new carbon laws and trades.

Co-winner of the award, John Ridgway, managing partner of the Pacific Legal Network, was recognised for his efforts in challenging the status quo by establishing a coordinated legal service across the English, French and American parts of the Pacific through a network of individually owned affiliates.

Other finalists included Balance Legal managing partner Ken Jagger and Legal Practice Manager (Melbourne) Cai Lin Tan for their work establishing Australia's first "secondment law firm", and Stephen Lancken, Australian Principal of The Trillium Group, for his work as a mediator, arbitrator and teacher in facilitating conversations that empower others to resolve their own disputes.

The 2010 Lawyers Weekly Icon Awards, recognising excellence in the legal profession, were held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Sydney.

Click here to read the full report on all the 2010 Icon Award winners, and don't miss full coverage of the event in the special Lawyers Weekly 500^th edition, on desks on 27 August, 2010.

To find out more about innovation and innovators in the legal industry, check out the Lawyers Weekly 'Box Breakers' minisite.