Legal Directories Panel

Thank you for attending our "LFMP March Panel: Legal Directories."  Our guests James Haggerty of Chambers & Partners and Anna Baubock of the Legal 500 provided a wealth of practical information for legal directory submissions. We hope the key takeaways from the panel below are helpful. 

General research process:

• Both directories plan to stay consistent with how they conduct research across their guides with no major changes planned for researching the US submissions.

• New Products/Developments:

  • Chambers:

    • The Chambers USA 2022 will include 20 new practice area rankings; and there are plans to expand coverage for areas including IP, tech, OSHA and Energy – see here https://chambers.com/topics/new-submission-areas-for-usa-2023

  • Legal 500:

    • Green Guide (legal sector’s contribution to a green transition), Firms to Watch (new category across all Legal 500 rankings), Miami and Houston City Focus (in Legal 500 LatAm edition; LatAm work handled by teams in those cities).

    • Also launched podcast - https://www.legal500.com/podcast/

• Tips for Successful Submissions:

  • Clear, concise, factual submissions without marketing fluff

  • Focused documents without marketing commercial language

  • Don’t nominate too many lawyers (between 1-5) to be ranked. Focus on select group of lawyers, giving each lawyer a few matters (2-3 at least).

  • Most important factors in submissions:

    • Explain WHY matter is significant, novel or why it was a complex matter. What makes it stand out from other lawyer’s work.

    • Connect the dots for the researcher using data points.

    • Tell the researcher how the practice has developed in the past year and plans for future

    • Get the submission in on time. The researcher has to read 50 - 100 submissions in each practice area

    • Chambers: remember to fill out "which other firms are advising on this matter" box -- this gives researchers context on competitive landscape

• First-Time Submissions:

  • Both take "holistic" approach-- it may take a few cycles before your new practice area builds up the reputation or track record to be ranked

• Moving up in Rankings:

  • Chambers: primary criteria is client feedback as well as submitted work, feedback from other firms plays a smaller role

  • Legal 500: primary criteria is submission, client feedback plays supporting role, peer review only directly feeds into decision about ranked individuals (confirming market visibility.) 

• Client Referees:

  • Submit referees on time to avoid scheduling issues

  • Select referees who have 1) worked closely with your practice area and 2) have the time to give a detailed interview ("probably not the CEO")

    • Chambers:

      • Referees can email individual researchers DIRECTLY if they are expecting to hear from Chambers and haven’t and once research for their referred section has begun

      • The number of referees has been increased to 30 per practice area for Chambers USA only

      • Update your referee list annually (avoid "referee fatigue"/select most relevant clients for that year)

    • Legal 500:

      • Referees must give feedback via provided link (feedback request is sent from editorial@legal500.com -- make sure this is on "safe senders" list)

      • There is no limit to the number of references you can submit for each practice area (the more, the better)

      • Update your referee list annually (avoid "referee fatigue"/select most relevant clients for that year)

• Confidential Information:

  • Include as much publishable information as you can in the work highlights

  • Try to give as much detail as you can for confidential work-- they understand that you are limited, but "vague information is better than no information"

• D&I Updates - Usage & Penalties:

  • Both are limited in the data they can collect; looking for ways to improve this reporting in the future

    • Chambers: currently collecting gender stats, but barred from asking for other data in certain jurisdictions

    • Legal 500: encourage firms to put some more thought around D&I into their submissions without breaching privacy concerns; don’t currently capture D&I data but do monitor the rankings for D&I

• Misc.:

  • The calendar for Chambers 2023 has been published

  • Legal 500: 2023 Guidelines will be published mid-August 2022

    • Always review new guidelines/amendments