Non-practising solicitor, legal directories specialist and founder of legal PR consultancy, LexRex Communications, Victoria Moffatt gives her advice to lawyers trying to get ranked or improve their rankings in the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners directories.

With just a few weeks to go before the Legal 500 deadlines and the next tranche of ongoing Chambers deadlines, now is the perfect time to get cracking with your submissions. If you are submitting for the first time, have submitted but not been ranked, or if you’re ‘stuck’ mid-table, read on for actionable advice that will help you to create your best submissions yet.

Be strategic

My first piece of advice for anybody managing or involved in a legal directories project is to approach things strategically. If you run a firm, take the time to really think about where your strengths lie in terms of your services, and don’t fall into the trap of believing that you have to submit to all practice areas. If you run a team, be realistic about your strengths. It is far better to draft a few really excellent submissions than to apply a bulk approach.

Once you’ve created a shortlist of practice areas, take a look at the current rankings for these specialisms. You are looking to see which ranked teams you often come across in practice. These are the firms that are essentially your competition within the rankings, and if you never come across them in your work, it may be that you aren’t quite operating yet at the level you need to in order to get ranked.

If, however, you are comfortably swimming in the same pond as those ranked and you are regularly exchanging correspondence with them, this can be a good sign of the quality of your own work.

Next, have a look at the sort of clients that these firms are working with, the types of transactions or deals they are managing, and try to identify whether there are any similarities or cross-over with the work that you are regularly undertaking. Again, if you have confidence that you belong in the group as a result of what you see reflected back to you, this is a positive sign.

Look at the practice area definitions

This is a really important step and something I think many teams fall down upon – often because they haven’t allowed themselves enough time to draft strong submissions, or because they are trying to hit too many practice areas.

Both Chambers and Legal 500 have really helpful practice area definitions on their websites

• Legal 500 practice area definitions
• Chambers and Partners practice area definitions

The reason it’s so important to review these is that many law firm teams operate differently to the practice area definitions provided, meaning that they include matters that fall outside of the scope of the directories’ definitions, essentially wasting one of the twenty precious case studies. Or worse, they fail to include relevant matters.

Also, note that the practice area definitions are subject to change each year, so matters that may have been relevant last year may not now fit into your usual or chosen practice area, or vice versa.

Think about how you present your case studies

Each directory submission provides space for up to 20 case studies, in either confidential or publishable format. Please note that you don’t have to identify any of your case studies, they can all be confidential if necessary. For some areas – family, some High Net Worth practice areas, corporate, sanctions and commercial property, confidentiality is sometimes an absolute must. However, for some matters even in these practice areas and in others (and as long as you have client consent), being able to discuss matters publicly can enable your name to be associated with your clients if and when you are ranked. From a PR perspective, this brand association can be really powerful. So do think about this strategically and don’t just assume everything has to be confidential. Always check with your clients of course.

Where you can name clients, do. Even if they are in the confidential sections (again with consent). Where you can’t name the client, it is helpful to give an indicative title, if possible to do so without identifying the client.

In terms of how you order the case studies, it makes sense to have a think about some sort of system. One way to do this is by seniority of fee earner and then by importance / value / technicality / novelty of matter. This way you are probably front-loading your submission with your most noteworthy cases.

Remember that all of the research carried out by the directories is undertaken by people – they are typically university educated individuals, who are probably not practising lawyers. It’s your job to secure and hold their interest, so be thoughtful about what you write. You almost certainly don’t need the level of detail that you think, but you do need to outline what you did and why it was important. Keep each matter to one page or less (the whole section, not just the narrative).

Finally, where the matters have been a team effort, include a line for each of the key players, outlining their roles. This gives your more junior team members an opportunity to be mentioned, and can be particularly insightful for the researchers, especially if there isn’t space for their own matters, or they aren’t quite senior enough to justify their own case studies just yet.

Don’t skimp on the narrative

The narrative sections are where you can tell your team’s story and it provides the perfect opportunity to talk about what you’ve achieved over the past 12 months, your plans for the future, any innovations or changes you are making that benefit clients, and to identify the particular strengths and niches within the team’s practice areas.

Referee pointers

The editorial teams at both Chambers and Legal 500 consistently state that the referee sections are where they get the real research value. And although there’s nothing you can do about the layout or information you are required to provide, there are things you can do to generate the best possible referee feedback.

First of all, remember that Legal 500 allows you to include as many referees as you want. Chambers UK Solicitors’ Guide recently increased the referee allowance to 30 from 20, although HNW remains at 20. Check the website for confirmation for other guides.

An ideal reference is a client that has worked with you during the course of the past 12 months, ideally on one of your case studies. However, these referees are relatively rare.

Other great referees are Counsel if you use them. Try to limit your KC’s though as they are often flooded with requests, and Chambers for example, will limit how many times it contacts referees that are included on multiple submissions. See here.

You can and should also consider whether experts and other lawyers and professionals would be willing to discuss your work, and if so, include them.

It also makes sense to ‘warm up’ your referees by messaging them in advance of the research periods and then checking in during the research. If you’d like a template email for referees you can request one here. It goes without saying that you need referee consent before including them.

Depending on your firm account and the relevant directory, you may be able to see which referees have responded to the directories, and prompt those that haven’t.

More guidance

Always have a good look at the Legal 500 guidance pages here. In addition to the practice area definitions, they also outline practice areas by region and contain generally very helpful information. The Chambers and Partners guidance pages here and here are also very comprehensive.

Both Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 have regular newsletters you can subscribe to via LinkedIn.

If you’d like more advice like this, along with deadline reminders and tips throughout UK directories season – sign up to our free newsletter: The Directories Bulletin. And for even more hands-on advisory and access to a range of legal directories webinars and content, become a member of our Legal Directories Resource Hub. There’s no cost to join.

Finally, if your legal directories are starting to get on top of you, there is still time to get some help. We provide a full drafting and consultancy service, or if budget is a concern, our legal directories Review service is available at just £495 + vat per submission.

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