What You Need to Know About Repurposing Chambers Submissions for The Legal 500

As your law firm works to complete its final Chambers USA submissions for the 2022 guide, you may be considering ways to repurpose the information you undoubtedly dedicated countless hours collecting and drafting throughout the year. Repurposing Chambers submissions for comparable rankings by its chief competitor, The Legal 500, is certainly one approach to maximizing the value of time already invested in elevating your firm’s brand in prominent legal directories.

As you consider whether to pursue rankings in The Legal 500 United States, there are a few points to consider:

• The Legal 500 United States includes considerably fewer categories than Chambers USA. Subcategories covered by The Legal 500 United States span 11 practice areas and nine industries.
• The Legal 500 exclusively covers national practice rankings, rather than state or regional rankings.
• With the exception of its “leading trial lawyers” list, The Legal 500 does not rank individual lawyers. However, key individuals are recognized within the editorial sections of the guides.
• The Legal 500 submission portal provides free access to its ConvertNow tool for firms that purchase profiles in the guide. Firms may upload their Chambers submissions to the portal and the tool automatically converts relevant information to the corresponding fields in The Legal 500’s template.

If you’ve decided to get more mileage from your Chambers submissions by repurposing them for The Legal 500, there are a few key differences between the forms to note.

The Legal 500’s form includes a section on innovation.

The form asks: What innovations has your practice introduced to benefit your clients? This may include initiatives regarding people, billing, diversity, technology, collaboration, as well as any sustainability or environmental initiatives and best practices. Where possible, and linked to the matters provided, please provide tangible examples of how this has worked in practice.

Plan ahead to craft a thoughtful response that demonstrates your firm’s ongoing commitment to innovation, as well as the practice’s achievements in this area over the past year. While Chambers’ template doesn’t require information on firm innovation (yet), you can repurpose the messages you develop for next year’s Chambers submissions, as well as other award opportunities for that matter.

The Legal 500’s form spotlights key individuals.

As previously stated, while The Legal 500 generally doesn’t rank lawyers, the guide does recognize “leading individuals,” “next generation partners” and “rising stars” in the editorial sections. In the “Your Team” section of the form, firms may nominate exceptional candidates who standout in their fields. Firms are encouraged to put forth “talented women and minority lawyers” in consideration for inclusion in these areas.

Submissions and referees for The Legal 500 United States are due Nov. 18, 2021. Firm interviews will be conducted between December 2021 and February 2022. The guide will be published in June 2022.

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