The Legal 500 FAQs

Use the Submissions Portal to send Submissions documents and Client Referee lists.

Select United States – City Elite option, check the practice areas you are submitting for and add the lawyer’s name. Select upload in the Submissions document field to add your submission. Select Upload in the referees field to add your referee clients list.

For data security, use the pre-formatted Word / Excel templates and do not alter their layout. You need a separate Word / Excel file for each practice area and can return to add amended files subject to the submissions timetable.

If you have any questions regarding your ranking, please contact us.

Our research includes interviews with top practitioners, referee and peer feedback, and evidence of key matters worked on by the ranked attorneys during the past year. Our selection process begins with researchers creating a list of prospective candidates, which is extensively reviewed by our editorial team.

All shortlisted lawyers are invited to make a submission and participate in a brief 30-minute interview with our researchers, while submissions and interviews are also open to all qualifying attorneys.  During the interview, we also solicit extensive peer feedback regarding other lawyers operating in their respective legal sectors. Lawyers are also invited to supply client references to support their inclusion.

Legal 500 US Elite aims to highlight key lawyers operating at regional players across business centres in the United States. Notably, US Elite seeks to recognize key US lawyers outside global elite firms, opting to focus on those at regional powerhouses that may be neglected by other rankings.

US Elite emphasizes lawyers who are handling work at the top of the legal market in their respective cities.

Each year we survey hundreds of thousands of clients on the legal services they receive, allowing us to recognise the best-performing firms for Client Satisfaction.

We assess Client Satisfaction using four different headline criteria:

• Lawyer and team quality
• Billing and efficiency
• Sector knowledge
• Net Promoter Score (NPS®)

Net Promoter Score (NPS®) is a client experience metric first devised by Bain & Co, resulting in the only valid globally comprehensive law firm NPS® ratings in the market.

Client Satisfaction accolades for each of these headline criteria are awarded to the top 30% performing firms nationally (subject to data validity/market size).

We assess law firm performance over a four-year period.

Our rankings assess the world’s best law firms according to multiple criteria, including an evaluation of the complexity and significance
of work completed, the strength of the team and key individuals within it, and peer and client endorsements. All practices ranked in
our tables are considered the elite of their profession.

Alongside these rankings, we are acknowledging Client Satisfaction excellence for the best-performing firms in each jurisdiction. This does not mean that ranked practices without accolades do not provide excellent client service, but it does allow those with truly outstanding scores to see this achievement recognised by Legal 500.

Client Satisfaction performance is just one of a broad range of assessment criteria that are considered in order to make accurate ranking decisions, with other factors including the complexity and significance of completed work, the strength of the practice, key individual professionals on the team, and peer and client endorsement. All rankings at legal500.com should be regarded as a recommendation.

Firms can view their specific data by purchasing KPI analysis reports, available by overall jurisdiction and practice area. These show how a firm scores across Client Satisfaction criteria and relative to select competitors. To enquire, contact Legal 500 or speak to your account manager.

Our KPI analysis reports are indicative and will help ascertain any aspects of service requiring attention outright and relative to the market.

Ensuring your firm has responsive referees is also important, in order to generate a fair and accurate sample of each practice’s most recent clients.

Contact us to enquire about purchasing a KPI report or information on our premium subscription package, which includes access to our Referee Track & Add feature — enabling you to track referee response rates and add new referees.

Clients are asked to score firms on each of the following criteria and sub-criteria: 

Lawyer and team quality:

• Partner Availability and Engagement
• Quality of Associates
• Quality of Partners

Billing and efficiency

• Appropriate Resourcing
• Efficiency in Delivering the Legal Product
• Billing: Transparency
• Billing: Value for Work Done
• Communication and Case Management

Sector knowledge

• Profile in the sector
• Industry/Commercial Knowledge

Our Net Promoter Score (NPS®) client experience matrix asks the question: ‘How likely are you to recommend this law firm?’. Answers are given on a 0-to-10 scale, from ‘not at all likely’ (0) to ‘extremely likely’ (10), and respondents are categorised as ‘detractors’ (0-6), ‘passives’ (7-8) or ‘promoters’ (9-10). The NPS® is calculated by: 

• ignoring the passives; and 

• deducting the percentage who are detractors from the percentage who are promoters. 

Client Satisfaction accolades are awarded based on the last four years of consolidated referee data.

For most firms, we have more detailed information available beyond
jurisdiction and practice area, including analysis on sub-practice areas, office location, sectors/industries and year-on-year change.

Contact us for more information or (for existing customers) speak to your account manager. 

Client Satisfaction is one aspect of using a law firm’s services. Companies should also consider expertise and capabilities recognised in rankings.

Rankings and Client Satisfaction assessments are measures of relative excellence among the world’s best law firms.

If your referees have not been able to provide feedback, or have missed the emails prompting them to do so, we have a contingency in place. Feedback can be submitted via this link:

https://www.legal500.com/referee-form/

This can be distributed to referees, who can use the form to submit feedback all year round. If this is submitted in a timely fashion, then it can be considered along with feedback submitted via the usual channels. Please note that there is no guarantee that feedback submitted outside of the research window will be published.

This also applies if email contact details have changed or incorrect details have been submitted.

Both websites provide ranked lists of recommended law firms and lawyers assessed through independent editorial research. legal500.com can also offer law firm recommendations based on objectively measured Customer Satisfaction scores.

Some observers distinguish the services by saying chambers.com reflects perceptions of law firms and individual lawyers, while legal500.com focuses on law firm clients’ perceptions and real-world experience. In a 2023 client referee survey, 90% of those expressing a preference preferred legal500.com. legal500.com reports approximately 50% more web traffic than chambers.com based on 2022/23 figures.

Submissions Analysis Reports (SAR) are Legal 500’s quantitative feedback product, providing firms objective data on their submissions relative to market peers and average scores within a jurisdiction. Reports are typically booked before or after a guide launch but before the next submission deadline, and are designed to target areas for future improvement. Reports also include full and unedited client testimonials.

Please Contact us to request login details.

No.

We take data security very seriously, and we are not prepared to accept confidential or third party information (such as Law Firm Submissions and Client Referee lists) via email. Any submissions sent by email will be regarded as a security risk and not be processed.

If you want to submit to The Legal 500 then you must register for The Legal 500 Portal and then upload your information via the Portal. No exceptions!

Legal 500 has been entrusted with confidential information from law firms for 35+ years. Firms can only upload information via the secure Legal 500 Portal..

Legal 500 has data protection policies; law firm information is ring-fenced; email copies of submissions or referee lists are not accepted because of security risks; Legal 500 is Cyber Essentials certified; and staff cannot copy, print, or email files sent to Legal 500. Privacy Policy and Third Party Information Undertaking are available on the site..

Help is available for completing the Word template and Excel template.

We use standardised templates, although they do vary from edition to edition. You can download the latest version for each edition from:

Asia Pacific; Canada; Caribbean; Deutschland (in English); Deutschland (in German); Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA); Latin America; United Kingdom (Solicitors); United Kingdom (The Bar); United States

You need to download two templates:

Client Referee lists: this is an Excel template. Help on filling it in can be found below.

Law Firm Submissions: this is a Word template.

Yes. For data security, pre-formatted templates must be used.

If they are not used, documents cannot be uploaded via the Portal. Legal 500 only accepts files via the Portal, not email. Firms need both the Word template for submissions and the Excel template for Client Referee lists.

Get a reminder of your username or get a new password.

You use the Portal to send us Submissions documents and Client Referee.

Follow these steps:

Which Edition you are submitting for? Choose between: Asia Pacific; Canada; Caribbean; Deutschland (in English); Deutschland (in German); Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA); Latin America; United Kingdom (Solicitors); United Kingdom (The Bar); United States.

Check the submissions timetable for that Edition, visit our Submissions Information page.

Check which Country and Practice Areas you are submitting for. There is a list of Practice Areas here.

Do you want to create a Law Firm Submission or a Client Referee list (or both)?

To create a Law Firm Submission: download the pre-prepared Word template for that Edition here.

To create a Client Referee list: download the pre-prepared Excel template for that Edition here.

For data security reasons, you must use the pre-formatted Word / Excel templates, and cannot alter their layout, or delete any unwanted sections. If you do, the file will be rejected as a security risk.

You will need a separate Word / Excel file for each Practice Area

Upload the file(s) to us

You can come back and add new files, or amended files (but check the Submissions Timetable, to make sure you will not be too late – see (1) above)

You need to pre-register on behalf of your firm. Please apply here. We will then email you with login details.

The client research undertaken for The Legal 500 has two main threads and encompasses both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Each year we write to firms inviting them to provide information on their specialist areas of practice and requesting specific details of work undertaken in the preceding year (some of which will be confidential and not in the public domain). This approach gives us a standard level and quality of data which, in turn, enables us to benchmark legal services providers with both more precision and more assurance.

We conduct interviews in person or by telephone with specialist attorneys in each subject area – generally the head of department or nominated partner. We also conduct interviews with chief executives, managing and senior partners of law firms, and practice managers. This helps us to obtain a clear picture of the direction the firm is taking and its strategy.

We contact 300,000 clients asking for feedback on the lawyers they instruct. Additionally, our team has regular contact with commerce and industry throughout the year as part of our ongoing research. Although interviewees are often in-house counsel, they are by no means exclusively so; in many cases it is the chief executive or finance director who has strategic responsibility for the buying decision, even where it is the in-house function that may have more day-to-day dealings with the actual providers. We interview investment bankers, commercial bankers and accountants who work regularly with lawyers.

Interviews are based on a standard-form questionnaire. However, supplementary questions and more wide-ranging conversations about both specific law firms and the key issues which inform the purchase of legal services are in fact the norm. This is not least because interviews are conducted by experienced journalists and researchers with a considerable depth of market knowledge. All interviews are non-attributable. Over the course of the year, we also receive numerous unsolicited comments and recommendations from clients.

As well as contacting those clients referred to us by law firms for the purposes of verification of their submissions, we benchmark these findings against a detailed representative sample of the world’s leading companies. In particular, we ensure that we have contacted a statistically valid sample of leading clients when ranked either by market cap, by business sector, or by region.

When reviewing the performance of a firm or department we use various criteria; our focus is on the bench strength of the team (including partners and associates), and the consistency of quality of the individuals within the team. Our assessment will be influenced by all the things that make the complete practice in that field. Areas that are considered include (but are not limited to):

• Very strong technical ability available for the most complex and innovative work
• Most prestigious clients
• Individuals with the contacts at, and credibility with, the top clients
• In-depth capability beyond star partners
• Capacity for the biggest transactions/cases
• Market share
• Historical track record on top deals/cases
• Clear investment for the future in a particular practice area
• Progress made with acquiring new clients/ market share
• Strength in associated areas – eg can an M&A department undertake competition work to an equal standard?
• Reputation for handling complex, innovative deals
• Capacity to handle all client requirements in an area – eg international offices/connections
• Commitment to IT and the use of IT to improve client services
• Perception in the market.

Yes.

All historical data, showing firm and and selected editorial for the past 5-13 years is available as part of a firm profile package on our Historical data website (data varies from region to region; data includes all firm rankings tables; individual recommended lawyers are included within the text but are not listed in tables).

If there are broken or non-functioning links, contact Legal 500.

If there are factual errors, contact Legal 500.

We do not accept Law Firm Submissions or Client Referee lists other than for the practice areas listed for that particular edition of The Legal 500. See the list of practice areas, for each of the various editions, here.

If you think we should add a new practice area for future edition, then please contact us.

It is impossible for our editorial to meet the aspirations of every firm and we know that there will always be firms that feel their abilities have not been properly recognised.

Please understand that our editors and researchers use their own judgement. They take into account a wide range of factors (including, but not limited to, Law Firms Submissions, Client Referee feedback, work handled, market feedback, client satisfaction scores, and historical performance).

We welcome constructive criticism and critical feedback. If you think we have got it wrong then do contact us (and set out the justifications for why you think we are wrong). We do not, however, enter into correspondence about our rankings and our editorial commentary.

If you would like further analysis of your submission,  editorial ranking and position in the market, we have a range of reports that can be commissioned before, or after, publication of the rankings. Please contact Tim Verbrugge for further information.

Law Firm Submissions are an important part of our editorial research process. If you don’t provide us with background information, then we have to rely solely on publicly available data. In practice, this means that a firm that does not send us a Law Firm Submission is unlikely to feature as prominently in our editorial and in our rankings.

Legal 500 speaks to many firms but cannot speak to every firm. The Law Firm Submission and Client Referee list are usually the core background information researchers need. If researchers need to speak with an individual lawyer, they will email. Firms should focus on making submissions comprehensive and providing as many referees as possible.

The first step is to provide us with a written editorial Law Firm Submission. You can upload that to us via The Legal 500 Portal. You will need to register to use the Portal – apply here. You should also send us a list of Client Referees that we can contact (to request their confidential feedback)

Please refer to the editorial Submission Guidelines for advice on the information we ask for. There should be a separate Law Firm Submission, and Client Referee list, for each practice area you want to be considered for.

No. Size, strength and depth of team are factors considered, alongside quality of work, calibre of clients, referee feedback, and individual practitioner reputation. A small department can still be worthy of recommendation.

The editorial team researches the legal market, assigns rankings and writes editorial.

There is no cost to make an editorial submission. Editorial is independent and advertisers do not receive preferential treatment. Sales relates to paid-for firm and partner profiles, which are written by firms, not Legal 500. Editorial and sales operate independently.

For sales queries, contact the relevant sales contact.

Editorial research is based on written editorial submissions and follow-up research with firms and referees. Provide a written Law Firm Submission via the Portal, register to use the Portal, and send a list of Client Referees for confidential feedback. Use the Submission Guidelines and provide separate submissions/referee lists for each practice area.

Legal 500 surveys over 300,000 law firm clients each year and states that it has more research data on law firm clients than any other organisation in the world. Legalease Research Services provides client satisfaction data reports to many leading firms.

We have been entrusted with confidential information from law firms for 35+ years. The credibility of The Legal 500 is based on the fact that firms can trust us with confidential information – knowing we will take care of it.

All Law Firm Submissions are held in our secure (Sharepoint) internal system (we are Cyber Essentials certified). Our Staff cannot copy, print, or email any Submissions. We have comprehensive data protection policies. You can download our Privacy Policy and our Third Party Information Undertaking here.

If there are new/updated practice areas, these will be highlighted when the guidelines are released.

In some jurisdictions, major clients will select a ‘panel’ of law firms to act for them. If you are on a ‘panel’ then do please tell us.

If you are not on a ‘panel’, or if your jurisdiction does not have panel appointments, please leave the entire section blank.

No. Legal 500 does not undertake to speak to all firms. The editorial team relies primarily on written Law Firm Submissions and clients contacted via Client Referee lists.

Firms that strongly want an interview can email the relevant researcher after the submission deadline.

Yes, but if the submission deadline has passed it may be too late for the editorial team to take it into account.

Yes. But if the submission deadline has passed, then it may be too late for the editorial team to take into account.

Yes. Editorial researchers do not see firm-provided profiles because editorial research is independent from the sales process. The editorial team expects a Law Firm Submission and Client Referee list for each practice area the firm wants to be recommended in.

Yes. We understand that one piece of work may involve several practice areas. So feel free to include it in the Word document for each of those practice areas.

Include it as a publishable work highlight, but leave the client’s name blank (empty).

On our Law Firm Submission template (Word) we leave space for you to provide up 20 matters (10 publishable, and 10 confidential/non-publishable). But feel free to add more.

For how to add more space, so you can add more work highlights, follow the instructions in that section of the Word template. But do not add an appendix, a new section, or a separate document; if you do, you will ‘break’ the pre-formatted template, and you will not be able to upload the file to us via The Legal 500 Portal.

We encourage you to supply additional information – the more the better. But if something is confidential then do ensure it is clearly marked as ‘confidential’.

Use the Submissions Portal to send Submissions documents and Client Referee lists.

Select your edition and check the practice areas you are submitting for.. Select upload in the Submissions document field to add your submission. Select Upload in the referees field to add your referee clients list.

For data security, use the pre-formatted Word / Excel templates and do not alter their layout. You need a separate Word / Excel file for each practice area and can return to add amended files subject to the submissions timetable.

Yes. For data security reasons, you must use our pre-formatted template.

If you don’t, then you will not be able to upload the documents to us via The Legal 500 Portal – and remember that we only accept files via the Portal (we do not accept them via email).

Use Legal 500’s pre-formatted Word template. Different templates are used for different editions. Download the latest versions from the submissions information pages for each edition, complete the Word document, and upload it via the Portal.

Editorial research and rankings are based partly on public information and market knowledge, and partly on submissions from law firms containing detailed background information about strengths, work, expertise and team experience. Some information may be strictly confidential. Law Firm

Submissions are important to the editorial and rankings process and must use the pre-formatted Word template and be uploaded through the Portal.

We have been entrusted with confidential information from law firm for 35+ years. The credibility of The Legal 500 is based on the fact that firms can trust us with confidential information – knowing we will take care of it. For example:

• Email addresses are held on a secure server (we are Cyber Essentials certified).
• All email addresses and personal data are deleted 28 days after that edition is published.
• We do not accept Client Referee lists by email (because of security concerns).
• We never sell emails, and not do we ever allow any other organisation to access those email addresses.

We have comprehensive data protection policies. You can download our Privacy Policy and our Third Party Information Undertaking here.

Yes, we can check. Please contact us here.

You do not need to do anything. We will ignore the duplicate (provided both lists are sent to us before the submissions deadline).

Yes. If a Client Referee appears more than once in a Practice Area Client Referee list, the duplicate entries are automatically deleted. Note: this only applies if the duplicates were sent to us before the submission deadline.

Yes. You can add one or more referees to your Client Referee list if you email us before the submissions deadline. After that date, it may be too late.

To add one or more referees, prepare a new Client Referee list (using the standard Excel template). Use The Legal 500 Portal to upload that file to us.

Yes. You can remove one or more referees from your Client Referee list if you contact us before the submissions deadline. After that date, it may be too late.

To delete one or more referees, please contact us.

Use the Submissions Portal to send Client Referee lists.

Select your edition and check the practice areas you are submitting for. Select Upload in the referees field to add your referee clients list.

For data security, use the pre-formatted Excel templates and do not alter their layout. You need a separate Excel file for each practice area and can return to add amended files subject to the submissions timetable.

Organise client data in this order:

Open the pre-formatted Excel file. Delete the text in merged cell B1 and enter the law firm name.

Use the dropdown in D1 to select the country.

Use the dropdown in F1 to select the practice area.

Fill in client details in the same column order. Title, First name, Surname, Job title, Company, Industry/Sector, Country, email address.

then upload the spreadsheet via the Portal.

Yes. For data security reasons, you must use our pre-formatted templates.

If you don’t, then you will not be able to upload the documents to us via The Legal 500 Portal – and remember that we only accept files via the Portal (we do not accept them via email).

You must use our pre-formatted Excel Spreadsheet for your Law Firm referee spreadsheet.

You can download the latest version by visiting our Submissions information page, and selecting the edition you are submitting for.

From here, you must (1) Download the Excel spreadsheet; (2) complete it; (3) upload it to us via The Legal 500 Portal. Our FAQs tell you how to do each of these steps.

No.

The whole basis of the Client Referee system is that it is confidential. Clients must know that their comments are not being fed back to the firm and that their anonymity is preserved.

No.

The whole basis of the Client Referee system is that it is confidential. Clients must know that their comments are not being fed back to the firm and that their anonymity is preserved.

Only one, plus scheduled reminders.

If an individual is named as a Client Referee by multiple firms, and/or for multiple practice areas, then the one email from us will include multiple links (enabling them to comment on all those firms, and all those practice areas).. This may reduce the chances of getting a response but we do it to avoid client-fatigue (ie clients being sent too many emails), and it is why we always advise firms to use a wide range of Client Referees.

Yes.

But be aware of ‘client fatigue’ – which is when one client is asked to give references for multiple practice areas (and may also be asked by other firms). In that situation, a client may not bother to respond, or may give a cursory response. So do consider whether you should be using a wider variety of different clients.

We will email you shortly before we send emails to your Client Referees; typically we try to give 5 days advance notice. This will let you contact them to encourage them to respond to our emails.

No. You can include any client as a referee, provided the client has worked with the firm in the past 18 months.

We welcome the full range of Client Referees – senior, junior, and mid-ranking. We especially welcome clients who have direct experience of working with a firm (rather than a more senior person who may have no personal knowledge of how the firm performs).

As many as possible! A good minimum guideline is at least 20 per practice area.

Firms are encouraged to provide as many referees as possible per team, per practice area. This increases the amount of positive feedback we are likely to receive.

Please ensure that referees have given their consent.

We email Client Referees asking for their opinions on strengths, weaknesses, innovation, individuals, and the general legal market. All comments and feedback from Client Referees is on a confidential, non-attributable basis. A referee may be a client, an introducer or referrer of work, or counsel.

Yes. We want to hear from anyone who can legitimately comment on the firm’s abilities. For example In-house counsel, Direct access clients, Corporate clients, Barristers (leaders, juniors, opposition), Other/referring law firms and judges.

We want the referee to have worked with the firm in the past 18 months (or be in a position to comment on work done in the past 18 months).

Anyone who can legitimately comment on the firm’s abilities. This may be someone other than a client – for example, In-house counsel, Direct access clients, Corporate clients, Barristers (leaders, juniors, opposition), Other/referring law firms and judges.

We want the referee to have worked with the firm in the past 18 months (or be in a position to comment on work done in the past 18 months).

If you submit late then it is at your risk – we cannot guarantee that a Law Firm Submission will be considered.

Our deadlines are fixed so our research team can spend as much time as possible in analysing Law Firm Submissions and obtaining as much feedback as possible from Client Referees. If you miss a deadline then our researchers may have done the bulk of their work on a section of the editorial by the time you submit – in which case, you may well be too late.

Law Firm Submissions: whilst we will do what we can to examine late Law Firm Submissions, they may not be reviewed in detail by our research team.

Client Referees: Client Referees lists submitted after the deadline may still be processed, but we cannot guarantee when they will be processed. And bear in mind that client responses may arrive too late to be taken into account by our editorial team. Note that if you submit a Client Referee after the deadline, and that referee has already been named by another law firm, then it will be too late for us to contact that client (if the client has already been emailed, we will not email them again).

It is best to stick to the submission deadlines. If you want to tell us that your Law Firm Submission or Client Referee list will be late then please use this form.

It depends on which edition of The Legal 500 you are submitting for.

We publish over 10 different editions, and each has its own deadline. Click the link below to find the submission deadline for the edition you want to submit for:

Asia Pacific; Canada; Caribbean; Deutschland (in English); Deutschland (in German); Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA); Latin America; United Kingdom (Solicitors); United Kingdom (The Bar); United States

There is also a Deadlines Calendar which contains all deadlines (for all editions), on a month-by-month basis.