How to prepare for the launch of the 2023 edition of Legal 500
6 September 2022
Legal 500 has confirmed that later this month, on 28 September 2022, the 2023 edition of Legal 500’s UK Solicitors legal directory will launch. You’ll then finally learn whether the work you put into the submissions earlier this year has paid off.
As mentioned in my article dated 11 August 2022, Chambers provides each law firm with information on which departments and individuals will be ranked in advance of the launch, so you’re able to prepare the profiles. As Legal 500 doesn’t provide you with the information in advance, you may think there’s nothing you can do other than wait for the results to be released. However, this isn’t the case. Here I walk you through how to prepare for the launch of the 2023 edition of Legal 500, which can be of significant benefit when the results are finally released.
Review your Legal 500 results from last year
Now is the time to familiarise yourself with last year’s results so it will be much easier on 28 September 2022 to analyse this year’s results against them.
It’s helpful to create a spreadsheet of last years results, featuring both departments and lawyers who were ranked last year, together with their ranking positions. I’ve created a helpful Legal 500 Results Sheet template for you to download, which enables you to easily identify areas of both growth and decline.
Click here to download my helpful Legal 500 Results Sheet template
If you have various departments and lawyers, it’s helpful to complete this spreadsheet in advance of the results being announced.
Once the results are announced and the spreadsheet is fully complete, it’s an extremely helpful tool to set your objectives for the 2024 Legal 500 submissions.
Review your 2023 Legal 500 objectives
Now is also a good time to take a look back and review your 2023 Legal 500 objectives. That way, you can easily determine if they’ve been achieved once the 2023 results are released on 28 September 2022.
When reviewing those objectives, you may identify goals which are no longer relevant or have changed somewhat. For example, if one objective was to achieve a Tier 2 ranking for a department which is no longer servicing, or for a particular lawyer to retain a Rising Star ranking but they’ve since been promoted to Partner. Not only will reviewing your objectives help you easily determine whether they’ve been achieved when the results are announced, but they’ll also assist you when preparing your 2024 Legal 500 objectives, as it won’t be long now before the process begins again.
Review your competitors' current positions
Also, at this point I would recommend reviewing the current position of your competitors. Where are they now? Are they achieving higher, lower or similar Tiers to you? When the results are announced, your priority will be reviewing where your departments and lawyers have been ranked, but you’ll then review where your competitors have been ranked. It’s therefore good practice to make a note of where your competitors currently are so you can then review how they have faired in comparison to you following the launch.
Carrying out this analysis will also help you when preparing for the next submissions.
Webinar: Preparing for Legal Directory Submissions
We’ll be hosting webinars in the coming months on preparing for the 2024 Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 submissions.
If you’d like to register your interest for these webinars, click on the link below and complete the form, confirming your interest.
All content in this article was correct at the time of publication.
