Law firms Dundas & Wilson and Maclay Murray & Spens have emerged as the most accomplished corporate and commercial players in Scotland.

Both firms were ranked as "tier one" in six out of the 10 key practice areas in the latest edition of the Chambers UK directory.

The guide, published last Thursday by Chambers & Partners, is eagerly awaited by members of the legal profession and users of legal services. The findings, which evaluate firms across a range of corporate disciplines, are valued since they are based on in-depth research with clients.

After Dundas & Wilson and MMS, the next highest performing firm in Scotland was McGrigors, which was top-ranked in five of the 10 practice areas.

The guide also suggested that Brodies has usurped Shepherd & Wedderburn as the fourth member of the "Big Four" law firms in Scotland. Whereas Brodies was ranked tier one in four areas, S&W achieved this honour in just three.

Other firms scoring well included Dickson Minto and Turcan Connell, which were both ranked as tier one in two areas. Anderson Strathern, Burness and Pinsent Masons were each top-ranked in one category.

In the critical field of corporate finance - advising companies on mergers and acquisitions and fundraisings - the same four firms were ranked in the top tier as last year. These were Dickson Minto, Dundas & Wilson, Maclay Murray & Spens and S&W.

The guide said that Dundas is providing an increasingly powerful offering in London, especially in Alternative Investment Market work, but that it remains conscious of the need to protect its Scottish client base. That could have been a subtle dig at McGrigors. The guide said that McGrigors - which failed to be ranked tier one in Scottish corporate finance - has successfully dealt with ending its link with KPMG and is now placing "a lot more emphasis on London." However, it still excelled at other areas of the law in Scotland.

Dundas was described as having "flexed its muscles on big-ticket deals" in Scotland, including advising Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance on its £189m acquisition of Aberdeen-based Production Services Network. The guide added that MMS's takeover of the corporate and real estate teams of Aberdeen practice Iain Smith had "significantly strengthened its Aberdeen presence".

S&W was described as providing a "London service at Scottish rates" and its partner Stephen Trombala drew special praise. The guide said: "His star is in the ascendant: he's diligent and dynamic."

In the area of banking and finance, Burness was a new entry into the top tier, where it joined established players Dickson Minto, Dundas and McGrigors. The guide highlighted Burness's role in advising Bank of Scotland on the £1.1bn joint acquisition of McCarthy & Stone, adding that its banking team had been strengthened through some new arrivals.

McGrigors, however, was described as "pre-eminent for banking and finance matters in Scotland". Clients lauded the project finance team's "excellent response times - the lawyers are always available, even at weekends".

Elsewhere in the banking and finance category, MMS was demoted from first to second tier. However, its head of department Susan Kelly was described as "someone who gets respect from the other side in negotiations" and "definitely one of the stars in the banking world in Scotland".

Firms highlighted for their work advising on securitisation and asset-backed finance included Tods Murray and Brodies.

In property, Chambers UK said Brodies is now pre-eminent in Scotland, having bulked itself up through a string of recent mergers and acquisitions of other law firms. Brodies was said to be "the fastest-moving firm in the market", with a team of more than 70 property professionals, and to be mopping up many of the new clients.

The guide added that both Brodies and Burness have reaped dividends from their decision not to open up London offices. This means London-based firms do not see either firm as a com- petitor when referring work on cross-border deals.

McGrigors, which also ranked tier one for property, was described as having a "truly superb" real estate finance team. Other firms mentioned for the quality of their property work included Biggart Baillie, which is acting for Whitbread on the disposal of its Beefeater and Brewer's Fayre chains to Mitchells & Butlers, while Burness was described as being involved in "nearly all the major developments" in the Central Belt, including Edinburgh's Caltongate and the urban village at the SECC in Glasgow.

Semple Fraser - whose "stellar" property clients include Tesco, Land Securities and British Land - won kudos because it is capable of handling UK-wide property deals from a Scottish base, largely thanks to the fact that 25% of its solicitors are dual-qualified.

In the construction cate-gory both MacRoberts and D&W slipped out of the top tier. This was partly a result of the success of London-based Pinsent Masons, which was described as "pulling away from the pack and into a league of its own" in Scottish construction law. Pinsent Mason's "brilliant" Alastair Morrison was described by clients as "pragmatic and commercial in his approach; a delight to work with".

In employment law, Dundas's "intelligent and diplomatic" David Walker was praised, as was MMS's Amanda Jones, partly because of her expertise in discrimination matters.

In intellectual property only MMS and McGrigors were seen as top drawer.

At the former, Gill Grassie and Fiona Nicolson were described as "popular figures who set the standard for IP law in Scotland", while McGrigors was praised for consistently getting the work done ahead of time, without bringing down the quality." In the related world of information technology, the pre-eminence of MMS is being challenged by both Dundas and McGrigors.

Clients showered praise on McGrigors' skills in litigation, partly because of its lawyers' ability to "understand the technicalities of industry and tailor their advice accordingly". Head of litigation Craig Connal was said to have "established a huge profile by being the first solicitor advocate to be appointed QC".

Another prominent figure in litigation was Burness's Philip Rodney, who was said to have "a sharp mind and a good sense of the big picture." Alison Gow of Semple Fraser was described as "a formid-able litigato with tons of determination."

In private client work Turcan Connell was described as "the leader in Scotland" by clients. Chambers said: "The firm fields an extremely high level of focused expertise, including six partners accredited as specialists in trust law - a unique concentration of talent in Scotland."

Firms ranked in tier two for private client work included, Anderson Strathern, Brodies, Murray Beith & Murray, MMS and Pagan Osborne.

Aberdeen firms Paul & Williamson and Stronachs were described as continuing to mop up the best assignments in their native city. However, Chambers warned these firms that they could be under threat as Central Belt firms further expand into the buzzing Granite City marketplace.