Referees Deserve Your Guidance Before Talking to the Chambers Researcher

We’ve long heard from Chambers’ editorial team that solid references are the backbone of any ranking. But far too often, we hear from researchers that law firms’ clients were unavailable for interviews or didn’t respond to emails requesting a phone call.

Here are our suggestions for making sure your referees are prepared for the interview, connect with the researcher and provide the information needed to make your firm shine.

 

Provide Researcher Contact Information

Shortly after your submission’s deadline passes, Chambers publishes the researcher’s name and email address on its website. (Go to “About Us” and then “Research Schedule.”) Alert your referees to this name and email address, asking them to be sure the email isn’t blocked from their company servers. If you know your client will be out of the office during the research period, ask if there is another individual in the organization who could pinch-hit and speak positively on your behalf.

 

Give Your Referees Message Points

Just like in a media interview, references are encouraged to have message points prepared and to take the lead on getting those points across. This preparation also will help focus the interview and make better use of the referee’s limited time.

Some references have reported that Chambers researchers did not specify the law firm about which they were calling; they simply asked clients to “tell us about the law firms that you use and your general impressions.” It is prudent for you to request that your references quickly make the connection about your firm and begin to discuss specific examples of your success.

 

Coach Them on the Legal Issues Involved

It is important for references to speak directly to the matters included in your submission. Remind them of the challenges of the matter and why – from a legal perspective – your leadership on the deal or case was effective. Perhaps remind them, for example, “In our submission, we emphasized our work together on X matter. As you know, this was a particularly challenging deal because of multijurisdictional regulations that had to be addressed.”

 

Tell Them Your Strengths

Researchers are trained to identify comparisons. In preparing your clients, help them to understand areas where your firm arguably is better than your competitors and other Chambers-ranked firms. But always do this in a positive manner, underscoring your strengths, not other firms’ weaknesses.

As always, we welcome the opportunity to share more about our Poston Content team’s experience in counseling clients through the Chambers submission process.