Disputes Services
What is the Legal 500 Disputes Services?
The Legal 500 Disputes Services aims to spotlight leading providers of specialist services that underpin complex litigation, arbitration, and investigations. This initiative recognises the role that expert service providers play in high-stakes disputes, from eDiscovery and forensic analysis to litigation funding and strategic communications.
Through in-depth and independent research, our team will identify market-leading providers known for their technical excellence, innovation, and strong reputation among instructing lawyers and clients.
How are firms selected for these rankings?
Leading firms in each category are evaluated based on the sophistication of their work, the strength of their teams, the quality of client feedback, and their reputation among instructing lawyers and peers.
Firms are invited to submit work highlights and client references, and to participate in interviews with our research team. Throughout the process, we gather independent feedback from law firms, in-house counsel, and other market participants who procure these services.
Which areas will be assessed?
The rankings are organised into distinct categories that reflect how clients typically procure these services, recognising that disputes often involve multiple, complementary forms of expertise applied at different stages of a matter. Although some providers operate across multiple service areas, the rankings are designed to distinguish between different types of expertise, helping clients identify specialists in the particular discipline they require.
Submission deadline: Friday 4 December
Launch date:Tuesday 30 April
Meet the editors responsible for researching and producing this guide:
Submissions should be concise and focus on what makes your practice stand out.
Providing referees isn’t required, but client and peer feedback is important to our research because it offers independent, third-party validation of your work.
Submissions template
NB: This template is in .docx format. Do not resave it in any other format as it may not be compatible with our system.
We will soon be starting research for the 2027 edition of Legal 500 Disputes Services Guide, and invite you to provide us with editorial submissions according to the attached guidelines.
Referees must reach us no later than Friday 4 December. No referee will be accepted after this date.
Submissions should reach us no later than Friday 4 December. The following guidelines will help you to prepare a submission.
Firms appear in the editorial sections of Legal 500 free of charge. Any queries regarding directory listings (i.e., paid-for advertising entries) should be addressed to Jeremy Stephenson (email [email protected]) and Alexander Owen (email [email protected]).
If you have any queries, please contact us via legal500.com/faqs
Cameron Purse
Editor, Legal 500 UK Solicitors London
Submissions by practice area
The editorial of Legal 500 is structured by practice area.
To submit, firms should provide a completed submission form and list of referees in a separate Excel document, using the templates available at:
https://www.legal500.com/the-legal-500-submission-information/disputes-services/
Please remember: this is your opportunity to sell your firm and your practice – tell us what makes you unique.
Confidentiality
All information provided to us may be published by all Legal 500 and Legalease Ltd products, unless it is marked as confidential. Please identify clearly any confidential information – whether client names, deal or case values, or other details – by marking that information CONFIDENTIAL, in bold red and upper case. Please use red typeface for all of the confidential information. You do not need to write in red in the confidential matter boxes.
Please avoid putting global confidentiality restrictions at the front of submissions. Please also try to be as clear as possible about what exactly is confidential; is it the case as a whole, the name of the client, or the issue/value at stake?
Sending submissions
You must only use the Legal 500 Submissions site to send your Word document and accompanying referee spreadsheets to our research team. Please go to https://submissions.legal500.com/wp-login.php and login for full instructions.
You should also send a spreadsheet of referees relating to the practice area in the same format. Please note, the deadline for submitting referees is Friday 4 December 2026.
Please avoid emailing submissions. Emailed documents will be deleted and will not be actioned.
Please ensure you send your submissions in by the deadline. The timetable for the research will be adhered to rigorously.
Detailed submission guidelines
Please provide a separate document for each practice area. For each practice area, please provide the following:
Practice Overview:
Brief bullet points introducing key points about your practice. For example, mention hires and departures, tell us what you are best known for, and point out a very significant case or deal. Avoid lengthy paragraphs and avoid unsubstantiated claims.
Feedback on the 2026 edition:
Do you agree with the ratings the practice received in the editorial and ranking of the 2026 edition? Firms are encouraged to provide brief feedback, including advising as to a suggested ranking for the forthcoming edition, based on evidence. (Please note that firms are ranked alphabetically within tiers).
Contact details:
Please provide contact details for the person we should contact to arrange to follow up on the submission, i.e., contact name, position, email address and telephone number.
Individual rankings:
The rankings in Legal 500 focus on the bench strength of the teams within firms.
To be ranked, individuals should be consistently involved in market-defining matters, and widely acclaimed by peers and clients.
Team information:
Please avoid including extensive biographies. The information required here is as follows:
- Head of team (including job title and email address)
- Total headcount
- Leading individuals in the team
- Significant recent arrivals and departures
- Individuals that spend more than 50% of their time working in the practice area
- Office location of all individuals named
Referees (separate document):
Please provide a list of referees that we can contact for feedback. All referees will be contacted by email. The list should preferably contain both longstanding referees and more recent client gains. Some junior referees can be more responsive than senior figures. 20 referees per practice area is a good minimum guideline, if possible. You may provide as many referees as you wish – we will contact all referees that are submitted on time. We may contact late referees, but we reserve the right to contact them at a much later date (or not at all). If a late referee has already been submitted on time, we will not contact them again.
Referees must be provided by 4th Decemeber 2026 in a separate document — please use the referee template at: https://www.legal500.com/the-legal-500-submission-information/disputes-hub/
For more information about how to fill in the referee spreadsheets, please read the guideline document at: https://www.legal500.com/the-legal-500-submission-information/united-kingdom-solicitors-submissions/
Detailed work highlights:
Please provide details of up to 20 matters. These should be matters which the firm considers to be significant and which indicate the team’s range of recent expertise. Try to reflect the breadth of the firm’s experience, not simply the biggest mandates. In each instance, please identify the firm’s role, indicate which individuals led the advice and mention start/end dates. Please identify the client. You are also encouraged to elaborate briefly in order to put each transaction/case in context, rather than simply listing the matter in question. At least one matter should be cleared for publication.
You may also identify other highlights, for example, new client gains. Also useful are any hard facts that can be provided to put the practice in context; for example, for transactional practice areas, consideration will be given to the total number of deals handled and the aggregate deal value for the year.
The focus of the research is on recent work. If you think older work is significant – or would help us better to understand the practice – then please do mention it and explain why it is of interest.
Tip: If submitting in an area for the first time, it is recommended that you include several examples from the previous two years, as well as at least 10 new examples of work.
Active clients:
Providing a list of active key clients is a quick way to convey useful information. Identify new clients and indicate the length of longstanding client relationships.
Want to suggest a new area to cover?
Contact us via legal500.com/faqs to set out the case, including the following information:
- the practice area/s you would like to see introduced
- the parameters of the practice area/s as you would see it
- the reasons why you feel these new sections are merited
- 4 or 5 highlights of this type of work which your law firm has handled in the past 12 months
- a list of other law firms which are also active in this practice area (usefully including relevant contact details, in case we wish to contact them for their view too)
Practice areas included in the research scope
This section will recognise service providers who focus on identifying, Locating, and assisting in the recovery of assets in cases such as fraud, Insolvency, divorce, and enforcement proceedings. Firms should emphasise their expertise in uncovering hidden or dissipated assets, including those held through complex corporate structures, offshore jurisdictions, or nominee arrangements. Submissions should highlight how teams combine investigative techniques with financial analysis, and how they collaborate with insolvency practitioners, litigation teams, and enforcement agencies to support successful asset recovery.
This section covers firms conducting due diligence, corporate investigations, and intelligence gathering in support of litigation, arbitration, enforcement proceedings, and dispute-related decision-making. Firms should outline their experience in providing background research on parties and witnesses,corporate intelligence on opposing entities, investigating, fraudulent conduct, and athering evidence in jurisdictions with limited disclosure regimes. Submissions should highlight how teams combine open-source research, human intelligence networks, and analytical capabilities, as well as their experience handling high-stakes disputes, operating across multiple jurisdictions with differing Privacy regimes, and advising major law firms and corporates on contentious matters.
This section will cover service providers specialising in the identification, collection, processing, review, and production of electronically stored information (ESI) in litigation and investigations. Firms should outline their experience in handling large-scale, multijurisdictional matters involving complex data sets, advanced analytics, and technology-assisted review. Submissions should also highlight the team’s technological infrastructure, expertise in data privacy and cross-border transfers, and ability to manage significant volumes of data across multiple custodians and platforms.
This section will include players providing investigative accounting and financial analysis in the context of litigation and disputes.Services typically include examining past financial events, such as fraud investigations, transaction reconstruction, forensic audits, and analysis of financial misrepresentation. Firms should highlight their experience handling complex financial disputes across areas such as commercial litigation, shareholder disputes, professional negligence claims, and regulatory investigations. Submissions should emphasise the technical expertise of the team, their investigative approach, and their ability to present complex financial evidence clearly and effectively to courts, tribunals, or other relevant authorities.
This section will include brokers who arrange after-the-event (ATE) insurance, adverse costs insurance, and other litigation risk transfer products. Firms should outline their experience advising claimants, defendants, and funders on insurance solutions for commercial disputes, arbitrations, and class actions, including instances where they work alongside litigation funders. Submissions should highlight the team’s ability to structure bespoke policies for complex or high-value disputes, relationships with underwriting capacity across multiple markets, understanding of both claimant- and defendant-side risks, and expertise across different dispute types and jurisdictions.
This section covers insurers who underwrite after-the-event (ATE) insurance, adverse costs insurance, and other litigation risk products. Firms should outline their experience providing capacity for commercial disputes, arbitrations, and class actions, and describe their approach to insuring both claimant and defendant risks. Submissions should highlight how underwriters assess case merit, price risk, and provide capital to support litigation insurance policies, including instances where they work alongside funders on claimant-side matters. Firms are encouraged to detail their appetite for large or complex disputes, speed and flexibility in underwriting decisions, claims-paying record, and reputation among brokers, law firms, and litigation funders.
This section covers intermediaries who connect claimants and law firms with litigation funders. Unlike litigation insurance brokers, who focus on arranging risk protection, funding brokers source non-recourse capital to finance the pursuit of claims. Firms should outline their experience advising on funding structures, negotiating terms with funders, and managing competitive funding processes for commercial disputes, arbitrations, and portfolios of claims. Submissions should highlight market knowledge, relationships across the funding community, ability to secure competitive terms for high-value and complex matters, and understanding of both claimant-side and law firm funding requirements.
This section covers funders headquartered or primarily operating in the UK who provide non-recourse capital to claimants and law firms for commercial litigation and arbitration. Firms should outline their experience funding high-value and complex disputes, including shareholder actions, insolvency-related claims, international arbitration, competition claims, and collective proceedings. Submissions should explain how funders assess case merit, assume risk, and structure returns based on damages recovered or settlements achieved. Firms are encouraged to highlight the size of their deployable capital, sophistication of case assessment processes, track record across different dispute types and jurisdictions, and reputation among leading law firms and repeat users.
This section covers US-headquartered funders providing nonrecourse capital for commercial litigation and arbitration.Firms should outline their experience funding complex, high-value disputes such as antitrust claims, patent Litigation, international arbitration, securities litigation, and mass torts. Submissions should highlight the scale of available capital, the structure and depth of investment committees, and the funder’s track record across different practice areas and jurisdictions. Firms may also wish to note any differences in risk appetite or return expectations compared to UK-based funders, as well as their international reach and relationships with major law firms and repeat claimant-side users.
This section will highlight strategic communications advisers who manage reputational risk during litigation, investigations, and disputes. Firms should outline their experience providing media strategy, crisis management, takeholder engagement, and digital reputation services in contentious contexts. Submissions should highlight experience managing the disclosure of proceedings, responding to adverse publicity, coordinating with legal teams, and protecting client reputation throughout trials and settlements. Firms are encouraged to describe their work on high-profile or complex disputes, collaboration with litigation teams and in-house counsel, and their ability to coordinate multijurisdictional communications strategies while maintaining privilege and confidentiality.
To access the submission portal, please log in via Account Services. If you’ve used the portal before, enter your email address to receive a secure login link. If your details aren’t recognised or you previously used a username, you’ll need to register and create a new account. Once verified, your account will be linked to your firm.