Legal 500 Submissions: How to Improve Your Ranking

Understanding the research process is the starting point for improving a ranking. The Legal 500 says its rankings are based on "the totality of evidence available to the research team", drawing on:

• the firm's submission
• client feedback and referee validation
• peer feedback, including from competitors
• interviews with lawyers and market participants
• track record and recent work
• comparative analysis of the market

Several points from The Legal 500's own guidance are worth knowing:

• There is no single formula. Rankings assess performance "in context rather than applying a single universal formula", and firms can be promoted, retained, downgraded, newly ranked or removed as the evidence changes.
• Submitting is free. The Legal 500 states that there is no cost to make an editorial submission.
• Rankings cannot be bought. It states that editorial is independent and that advertisers do not receive preferential treatment. Paid profiles and reports do not affect rankings.
• Interviews are not guaranteed. The Legal 500 does not undertake to speak to every firm, and says that the absence of an interview does not count against a firm's assessment.
• Client feedback is gathered at scale. The Legal 500 says it contacts around 300,000 clients for feedback on the lawyers they instruct.

The practical conclusion: the written submission and the referee feedback carry most of the weight you can influence directly.

The Legal 500 ranks firms in tiers within each practice area and location. It also recognises individual lawyers. Its UK glossary describes the main individual categories as:

• Hall of Fame: lawyers widely regarded as being at the very top of the profession, consistently ranked as leading individuals over several years
• Leading partners: market leaders with long-established reputations, lead roles on recent significant matters and wide recognition from clients and peers
• Next generation partners: partners, generally with five years or fewer at partner level, with significant client and peer recognition and recent lead roles
• Leading associates: lawyers below partner level, including counsel and legal directors, who appear frequently on significant matters
• Recommended individuals: lawyers mentioned in the editorial, for example in firm write-ups or client testimonials

Knowing these categories helps you decide which lawyers to put forward, and what evidence each one needs.

1. Diagnose before you rewrite

Start by understanding why the practice sits where it does. Read the editorial commentary on your firm and on the firms ranked above you. Compare their matters, team depth and named lawyers with yours. Look at whether your referees responded in previous years.

The answer often points to one of four gaps: weak evidence of significant work, too few lawyers with a visible profile, little referee feedback, or inconsistent participation.

2. Make the submission clear, concise and distinctive

The Legal 500's own guidance asks for submissions that are concise and focus on what makes the practice stand out. A Legal 500 editor, in a published Q&A, described a strong submission as "a clear one with highlights described clearly and concisely", and stressed communicating the complexity and profile of the work.

In practice, that means:

• an overview that says what the team is known for, not a general description of the firm
• clear evidence of growth, new clients, hires or changes since the last submission
• plain language, with jargon explained or removed

3. Choose matters that show significance and depth

The UK submission template has space for up to 20 matters, by default 10 publishable and 10 confidential. Use that space for work that shows the practice at its best:

• recent, significant matters, explained in terms of complexity, value and importance to the client
• a spread of clients and matter types that reflects the practice's real breadth
• work led by the lawyers you want recognised, including more junior lawyers
• longstanding client relationships, which a Legal 500 editor has suggested as a good way to show track record

Do not pad the list with minor matters, and do not use confidentiality as a reason to leave out important work. Confidential matters can be included in the confidential section.

4. Build the case for individuals

Individual rankings rarely appear without evidence. If you want a partner recognised as a next generation partner, or an associate as a leading associate, the submission needs to show them leading or contributing significantly to important matters, and referees need to be able to speak about their work.

Decide in advance which lawyers you are making the case for, and check that each has both matters and referees behind them.

5. Treat referees as evidence, not an afterthought

The Legal 500 says referees are not compulsory, but that client and peer feedback is important to its research, and testimonials can only be published if referee details are supplied. Referees are contacted by an automatic email generated from the referee spreadsheet.

To make referee feedback count:

• Choose people who will respond. Clients who worked closely with the team recently are usually more responsive than the most senior contact.
• Include a mix. The Legal 500 gathers feedback from clients, introducers and referrers of work, and other third parties.
• Ask first. Make sure every referee has agreed and knows an email is coming.
• Avoid fatigue. Coordinate across practice groups and directories so the same client is not asked repeatedly.
• Use the template exactly. The Legal 500 warns that spreadsheets that are reformatted, with columns deleted, headings added or text in capitals, may not be processed, which means referees may not be contacted.
• Meet the referee deadline. Late referee lists may not be contacted in time.

6. Respect the template, portal and deadlines

Small process errors can undermine a strong submission:

• Use the current template and do not resave it in another format.
• Do not add appendices, extra sections or separate documents. The Legal 500 says these can cause the upload to fail.
• Submit through the online portal. Email submissions are not accepted.
• Note that UK Regions deadlines fall earlier than London deadlines. For the 2027 UK edition, the Regions deadline was 6 February 2026 and the London deadline 20 March 2026, with publication on 30 September 2026.
• If you submit late, it is at your own risk. The Legal 500 says it cannot guarantee a late submission will be considered.

7. Be consistent year after year

Rankings move on evidence gathered over time. A strong submission one year followed by a gap the next makes progress harder to sustain. The Legal 500's guidance notes that firms that do not submit are unlikely to be prominent in the rankings.

Treat directory work as a year-round process: capture significant matters as they happen, keep a live referee list and review the results every year.

The two directories overlap but are not interchangeable. Each submission should be prepared to the directory's own template and guidance, even when the matters are the same. Our approach to legal directory submissions plans both together, so matters and referees are coordinated without duplicating effort.

• Rewriting the prose but keeping the same weak matters. Evidence matters more than wording.
• Featuring only senior partners. Bench strength and rising lawyers need to be visible.
• Leaving out confidential work. It can go in the confidential section.
• Treating referees as optional in practice. Without feedback, researchers have less to go on.
• Breaking the template. Reformatted documents and spreadsheets can fail to upload or be processed.
• Missing the Regions deadline. It comes earlier than London and catches firms out.
• Skipping years. Inconsistent participation makes progress fragile.
• Not using the results. Rankings that are not shown accurately on profiles, practice pages and proposals do little for the firm.