http://marketing.chambers.com/chambers-asia-pacific-submissions-kit/ (2024)

Choose your referees carefully

The best referees will have worked closely with you in the 12 months immediately preceding the submission deadline – ideally, with several members of your team including partners and more junior staff – and be willing and able to respond to Chambers’ request when it comes.

Your referees need not all be fee-paying clients of the firm: you can also choose international co-counsel or other professional advisers with whom you have worked in the past year.

Choose referees who will have the time and ability to respond to our request for feedback. Sometimes, the most senior person at a client organisation will not be the best referee; they might be too busy to respond and might only know the lead or relationship partner. Someone with greater day-to-day involvement on your matters, even if they are less senior, might be better able to find the time to respond and could provide a fuller picture of your team’s work.

You can download the submission and referee spreadsheet templateshere, under ‘Submission form’ and ‘Referees form’. Our research is structured by practice area and by jurisdiction with over 250 sections of research covering jurisdictions across AsiaPacific, with around 30 separate areas of law covered. Research is typically carried out over a month, though larger and more complex research areas may be researched for much longer

How do I know which practice area to select?
All practice areas covered in the Chambers Asia-Pacific Guide, and their respective submission deadlines, can be found on the ChambersResearch Schedule. Further details on what is covered within each practice area can be found using ourPractice Area Definitionspages or getting in contact with a member of the Chambers Asia-Pacific research team.

How can I upload my documents?

Submission documents and referee spreadsheets can be uploaded online, via chambers.com,
using MyAccount.

To login/create an account on the website, please click below.

A ranking decision is almost entirely derived from what a researcher unearths from the submission document and feedback from clients and other participants in the market, including other lawyers, members of the judiciary, governmental figures and law professors.

Decisions are made primarily on client feedback and evidence of high calibre work for the most sophisticated clients. Feedback from other sources is used to provide insight on market profile and an informed view on technical capabilities, though the value of this kind of feedback varies considerably by practice area and by jurisdiction.

Why send a submission and referee spreadsheet?
Firms can be and have been ranked without sending in any submission documents and client references – our research generates significant suggestions for firms which should be included and clients commenting on additional members of their law firm panels, and we can use publicly available information to examine a recent activity.

However, we would always recommend providing some evidence of a firm’s recent work and putting forward client references.

Doing so allows Chambers to gain a deeper understanding of the firm and its lawyers first-hand, allowing a firm to tell its own story instead of Chambers researchers having to rely on other sources of information. This also allows Chambers to analyse the firm’s recent performance relative to its competitors, putting it in the best position to be considered for ranking among the top-rated firms and individuals.

What does a submission document contain?
A submission document contains areas for firms to introduce and describe a practice group and key members of the team, list key clients and provide feedback on our existing coverage. Most importantly, the submission document contains room for up to 20 highlights from among the firm’s recent activity. These can be either publishable or confidential – with publishable work highlights sometimes being used for editorial purposes as a representative work example.

What is the most important part of a submission document?
The work highlights themselves are the most important facet of the submission document. Simply put, we look for evidence of the firm’s and lawyers’ abilities in representing business clients in some of their most important mandates, ranging from high-value or cross-border transactional work to bet-the-company litigation mandates.

Work highlights should be simple and concise. A well-written work highlight is similar to a newspaper article – a short, two or three sentence introduction which factually explains what took place, followed by a more detailed description of why it’s important. It is understood that this is not always possible in technically complex sections or those with multiple claims and appeals, but in general conciseness is key.

How do you deal with confidential issues in the submission?
Our submission template is divided into 10 publishable and 10 confidential matters, however you are welcome to amend this division according to your own requirements, so long as the total number of work highlights does not exceed 20.

While we would prefer to have the name of the client for corroboration purposes, we do understand that sometimes it’s going to be impossible to do so. If there is a particularly impressive work highlight you want to include, but cannot name the client, please do include as much detail as possible regarding the details and scope of the work and we will work with what we have.

Confidential Information
All confidential information is very clearly delineated in our documents– with dedicated space for confidential work highlights and client lists.

The most valuable referee is one that can offer an informed opinion regarding the qualities of the firm and lawyers and also has the time to speak in detail. General Counsel and Chief Legal Officers of large businesses are often difficult to pin down and may only have had a fleeting relationship with only the lead lawyer on an engagement, while individuals further down the hierarchy often can provide a fuller view of the team, from relationship partner to associates, and also often have more time to provide a detailed account of their experiences.

What is Chambers’ process for contacting referees?
We reach out once at the start of research and in most cases will send out periodic reminders. Initial contact is via email, offering either a phone call or the opportunity to fill in a written survey.

We generally ask the client;
- How the relationship came about
- What kind of work the firm did for them
- For their positive and negative opinions of the practice as a whole and the lawyers/solicitors and repeat this to cover all firms and individuals the client has been referred for.

Many referees are referred for multiple firms or multiple practices within the same firm. When interviewing these clients, all current referrals are on display to the researcher. The researcher will cover all outstanding referrals in one comprehensive interview.

How can I make sure my referees respond to Chambers’ request for feedback?
We typically see better engagement from clients when they’re aware that they have been put forward as referees before the research is underway, so they know to look for an ‘@chambers.com’ email.

If clients report that they haven’t heard from Chambers when they were expecting to, then please feel free to report this to the researcher or a member of the research team.

What steps is Chambers taking to ensure it highlights women lawyers?
We place diversity and inclusivity at the core of our research processes. Our researchers carry out dedicated calls with women lawyers and younger partners, as well as encouraging all law firms to send in a referee spreadsheet which is gender-balanced. We are taking these steps to broaden the sources we speak with to eventually compile our rankings, so that we broaden the pool of attorneys we hear about and investigate.

When are rankings released?
Research is carried out over 7 months, running from February to August. Firms that achieve rankings are typically notified of their inclusion shortly after the end of research, with the full rankings released in December.

Maximise your referee feedback

Make sure to get your referees’ permission before including them on the Chambers referee spreadsheet. It also helps to send them a reminder shortly before research begins, so they know to expect an email from Chambers.

Our initial contact will always be by email and will come from the assigned researcher’s email address. Referees will either be invited to fill out a short online survey or to book a time in the researcher’s calendar for a telephone interview. Make sure to get your referees’ permission before including them on the Chambers referee spreadsheet. It also helps to send them a reminder shortly before research begins, so they know to expect an email from Chambers.

Our initial contact will always be by email and will come from the assigned researcher’s email address. Referees will either be invited to fill out a short online survey or to book a time in the researcher’s calendar for a telephone interview. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete, and our telephone interviews with referees typically last around 15-20 minutes. he survey takes about 10 minutes to complete, and our telephone interviews with referees typically last around 15-20 minutes

Provide as much relevant detail about your matters as you can

There is space on the submission template for up to 20 work highlights. These matter write-ups should demonstrate your standout recent work in the practice area for which you are applying.

The form gives space both for Publishable and Confidential matters. Anything in the confidential section will only be used for Chambers’ internal analysis and ranking purposes and will never be published.

Chambers researchers will not draw any negative inference from the fact that work is listed in the Confidential section of the form, and there is no minimum required number of Publishable matters. We would always prefer to receive more relevant and useful information about your work, even if this is on a confidential basis, rather than receiving a bland, less-detailed write-up in the Publishable section with only the information that can be publicly disclosed.

But don’t overdo the matter descriptions

Concision and clarity are key when describing your team’s work highlights. Keep each matter description to one page on the form. Make sure the key points about the matter are described clearly and be sure to explain what makes this work stand out and why it is significant.
Remember that, while our researchers are intelligent and highly educated, they may not be specialists in your practice area or the legal system of your jurisdiction. Some legal and technical jargon will be unavoidable but work highlight write-ups should avoid these wherever possible.

Showcase your wider team

Bench strength is a key factor in our analysis, so don’t allow your submission to be dominated by one lawyer; make sure to highlight up-and-coming junior partners and associates, as well. Give them the opportunity to provide client referees and include their matters among your work highlights.

Use Chambers Asia-Pacific Submission Kit to create the strongest submission you can. This kit gives you best practice guidance, actionable recommendations and invaluable insight into what the team consider during the research process.

For more information and FAQs please visit:
chambers.com/faqs
Or contact:enquiries@chambers.com

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