Research schedule – important update

UPDATE: 12th May 2020

We want to extend our gratitude to all the firms, sets, and in-house lawyers who have been working with us over the past few weeks in very challenging circumstances to allow us to continue our research. We have enjoyed a number of very helpful collaborative sessions with GCs and law firms discussing how best to adapt to remote-working routines.

Here is an update on our current research timetable:


EMEA: The EMEA 2020 edition was launched as scheduled on 15th April 2020 at legal500.com. If you have any questions relating to the rankings or editorial, please contact our research team via legal500.com/faqs

UK (Outside of London): Research has been completed

UK (London, The Bar, PATMA): Research started on 30th April 2020. The list of researchers is available here:

legal500.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2020/05/legal500_uk_researchers_solicitors_london.pdf

Latin America: Law firm interviews will finish on 22nd May 2020

United States: The United States 2020 edition will launch on 9th June 2020 at legal500.com

Canada: Submissions and client referees are due on 26th June 2020 (a two week extension on our last update)

Caribbean: Submissions and client referees are due on 25th June 2020

Deutschland: Submissions and client referees are due on 15th June 2020

Asia Pacific: Submissions and client referees are due on 19th June 2020

The process of contacting in-house referees has now recommenced, and responses are coming back to us in huge quantities so a big thank you to everyone who is taking the time to participate in our research.

The Legal 500 has announced a series of webinars that we are hosting, and also a list of webinars that the IBA is hosting, with our support. The full list is available here legal500.com/events/webinars-home/ and will be updated regularly

Also coming soon will be “The Legal 500 podcast”. We will be making announcements via the website and our social media channels so be sure to follow when this appears.


UPDATE: 8th April 2020

Our research team has done an incredible job working remotely for the past few weeks and remain committed to bringing the legal market the very best in rankings and analysis in an ever-changing world. Our thanks as always go to all the firms, sets and in-house lawyers who have worked with us to ensure that business has continued as (un)usual.

We wanted to keep you updated as to our research schedule following our changes and extensions two weeks ago. Here’s what you need to know about each of our guides…


EMEA: The EMEA 2020 edition will launch as scheduled on 15th April 2020 at legal500.com

UK (Outside of London): Research has been completed

UK (London, The Bar, PATMA): Research starts on 30th April 2020. If you have any submissions or client referees still outstanding, we would ask that you do all you can to get them to us by this date

Latin America: Law firm interviews will finish on 22nd May 2020

United States: The United States 2020 edition will launch on 9th June 2020 at legal500.com

Canada: Submissions and client referees are due on 12th June 2020

Caribbean: Submissions and client referees are due on 25th June 2020

Deutschland: Submissions and client referees deadline has now been extended to 15th June 2020

Asia Pacific: Submissions and client referees deadline has now been extended to 19th June 2020

The process of contacting in-house referees will commence on 30th April 2020


UPDATE: 25th March 2020

The Legal 500 understands that, at present, law firms’ ability to communicate effectively with clients is under immense stress, as are firms’ own systems dealing with remote working infrastructure and staff availability.

The last thing we want to do at this challenging time is to add more noise to your relationships with clients. Accordingly, we are making the decision today to suspend all client feedback surveys globally for 4 weeks, to allow firms and clients a chance to get their essential services and communications back up and running.

Our scheduled law firm interview window will also change to take into account the pressure that law firms are under to set up their staff for remote working. Our research schedule will now be as follows.

Research processes for London solicitors and the London Bar (The Legal 500 UK) will be suspended until 30 April. In addition to the suspension of client research set out above, we will be extending the interview period by three weeks, to allow greater flexibility for firms who may struggle to coordinate personnel – so our research period will now end on 26 June. (Our research for firms and The Bar outside of London has now largely concluded with the exception of some scheduled interviews agreed with firms and sets).

We will be adding a similar extension to the interview period for firms in Latin America, which will now conclude on 22nd of May, four weeks later than scheduled. While many firms have happily arranged to help with our research within the pre-existing schedule, and research is ongoing according to the availability and partners and practices concerned, we hope that added flexibility allows firms that need more time to participate in the research.

To be clear – no firms will be penalised in rankings or coverage for taking advantage of this increased flexibility, and we will take into account all client feedback we are able to obtain during the revised schedule.

We will continue to assess the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on future research projects, including Asia Pacific, United States, Deutschland and EMEA in the weeks and months ahead, and we are committed to offering equivalent levels of flexibility to firms and their clients in the weeks and months ahead.