Q: How accurate / recent are the Contact Statuses I see in the Referee Management Tool?

The t ool updates in real time, keeping you up to date and informed throughout the process for whenever you choose to check the status.

Q: What does In Progress status on the Referee Management Tool mean?

In P rogress status – When Chambers has emailed the referee and we are early in the research process. No action is required at this stage and normally we will see referees replying to our emails in the days and weeks after we reach out . However, you will also be able to see the date our last email was sent next to the referee’s contact status, so if you are following up with your referee to notify them Chambers has reached out, you can share that information.

Q: Where can I find the recommended action column in the Referee Management Tool?

Recommended actions are now enclosed within each status . If you want to see a detailed explanation of the status of any one of your referees , or find out any action we recommend that you take for the referee, you can click on the referee’s status and a pop-up window with an explanation on the best course of action will appear.

Question 1

When and how often does the Referee Management Tool update?

Accepted Answer

The tool updates in real time. The ‘last updated’ feature at the top of your practice area’s page refers to the last time we have seen a change in status for one of your referees.

Question 2

What does the Research Status in the Referee Management Tool mean?

Accepted Answer

The Research Status, which is displayed for each practice area and location you have submitted for on the homepage of the Referee Management Tool, reflects what stage we are at in relation to our research. There are three statuses that can be displayed in the tool:

To be started – you will see this status before the Research Start Date. This means that research has not yet started for this section and that a researcher has yet to be assigned to it. At this stage, submissions and referees can still be amended or re-uploaded until research commences. Once a researcher is assigned to start work and is ready, they will move the section to ‘In Progress’ and no further changes can be made after this point.

In Progress – you will see this status appear on a section at any time after the Research Start Date, but before the Research End Date for the section. This status means that a researcher is assigned to the section and they are actively conducting research. This means they are reviewing submissions, emailing referees and conducting interviews and surveys. Research will remain in progress until the researcher has collected all the information they can in the time allotted. During the ‘In Progress’ stage, customers are encouraged to monitor the status of their referees and any actions that may be required to help Chambers reach them. You can inform your referees when Chambers has reached out and also check the statuses weekly or halfway through to send reminders to any referees that have not yet responded.

Complete – this status will appear after the Research End Date for the section. It means research has finished for this section. The section will move to the Historic area of your RMT 20 days after the Research End Date shown. The researcher has completed their attempts to contact and collect feedback from as many referees as possible and has now moved on to a different section/research project. We cannot go back and conduct further interviews or request feedback at this stage, so we encourage customers not to follow up with their referees further after this point. The final status of referees will change to either ‘Contacted’ or ‘Unable to contact’ to give you a clear indication of the final results of our outreach to your referees.

Question 3

Are Research Start & End Dates indicated on the the Referee Management Tool subject to change?

Accepted Answer

These dates are not fixed and can be subject to change. Our research schedule is set out at the beginning of each cycle but sometimes schedules have to be adjusted and research on certain areas may sometimes happen later than initially planned. If this should occur, we will update the Research Start and End Dates in the tool to ensure it reflects the most up-to-date information.

Question 4

Why are some of my sections in the Historic Tab of the Referee Management Tool?

Accepted Answer

Following customer feedback, we have created the Historic area of Referee Management to allow firms to continue using their referee contact data. A section moves to the Historic tab 20 days after the Research End Date, signifying that the research for that section has completed and no further changes will be made to the referee statuses. The historic data will build for up to three years of submissions.

Question 5

How accurate / recent are the Contact Statuses I see in the Referee Management Tool?

Accepted Answer

The tool updates in real time, keeping you up to date and informed throughout the process for whenever you choose to check the status.

Question 6

What does Pending Status on the Referee Management Tool mean?

Accepted Answer

Pending Status - When Chambers has not yet attempted to contact your referee. We expect to reach out to this referee via email as soon as the researcher is ready to start work on this section. 

Question 7

What does In Progress status on the Referee Management Tool mean?

Accepted Answer

In Progress status – When Chambers has emailed the referee and we are early in the research process. No action is required at this stage and normally we will see referees replying to our emails in the days and weeks after we reach out. However, you will also be able to see the date our last email was sent next to the referee’s contact status, so if you are following up with your referee to notify them Chambers has reached out, you can share that information.

Question 8

What does Contacted Status on Referee Management Tool mean?

Accepted Answer

Contacted Status – When we have had a response from a referee of any kind, the tool will show that they have been successfully ‘Contacted’ to let you know our researcher has heard back from the referee. Contacted will display when:

the researcher is in touch with the referee to arrange an interview, has an appointment for an interview or has completed an interview with the referee;

the referee has completed a survey we sent to them; or

the referee has been in touch and expressed a preference not to participate or provide feedback to Chambers on this occasion.

Once Chambers is in direct contact with your referee there is no need for you to take any further action. As above, this does not guarantee an interview. We respect the privacy of all referees and their right to opt out of our research if they respond to our email to that effect.

Question 9

How do the Action Required statuses work in the Referee Management Tool?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes a situation arises which is making it difficult for us to reach a referee. The RMT is designed to notify you of when this happens via the ‘Action required’ status, so you can help us to progress in our attempts to contact them.

The ‘Action required’ status also has a sub-heading to tell you what is causing our team difficulty in reaching your referees, so you can act accordingly. There are three scenarios in which the tool may prompt you to take action:

Action required: Unsubscribed

Action required: Invalid Email
Action required: No reply

Question 10

Where can I find the recommended action column in the Referee Management Tool?

Accepted Answer

Recommended actions are now enclosed within each status. If you want to see a detailed explanation of the status of any one of your referees, or find out any action we recommend that you take for the referee, you can click on the referee’s status and a pop-up window with an explanation on the best course of action will appear.

Question 11

Can I replace or substitute referees if I want to do so?

Accepted Answer

Law firms can make unlimited changes to their referee spreadsheets up until the point the section is set to “In Progress” (this is the first day of research for that section in particular). After this time, we do not allow any changes except for in extreme circumstances (referees move to another company at the last minute or pass away).

Please note that if we do allow changes to the referee spreadsheet in line with the above exceptions, new referees may not appear immediately in the RMT.

Question 12

What is the 3-month rule and how is it displayed in the Referee Management Tool?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes the same person is put forward to Chambers as a referee for multiple firms, or for multiple different practice areas and departments within the same firm. If that is the case, the referee will appear on RMT as either Contacted: 3-month ruling or In Progress: 3-month ruling.

This rule prevents us from contacting referees in the following three months when we have already attempted or made contact with them for a different practice area. This rule has been in place at Chambers for many years and aims to avoid “referee fatigue”, where a referee gets request after request and eventually stops responding.

In Progress: 3-month ruling

In this case the referee has been emailed in the previous three months but hasn’t provided feedback yet. Please note that where a referee has a lot of referrals, the first researcher to get to them will give the referee the chance to discuss as many firms and practice areas as they wish. The spreadsheets you send us are data-scraped into a centralised interview management system, so all researchers can see all referrals and will know they need to ask beyond their own assignment when a referee has been put forward for several different practice areas, firms and jurisdictions.

Contacted: 3-month ruling

In this case the referee has been in touch with us in the previous three months and we won’t attempt to contact them again. This referee has received and considered our request for feedback and this person should now be left in peace.

Question 13

In the Referee Management Tool my referee is on Action Required: No Reply but they are saying they didn’t receive your email

Accepted Answer

If you believe any of your referees are not receiving the emails from our research team, our recommendation in these situations is always to share the email address of the researcher responsible for the section with the referee, and ask the referee to contact them directly. You can find the contact details of the researcher responsible via our Research Schedule. Here you can click on any area of our research which is currently set to ‘Researching’ and see the email address and telephone number of the person responsible. The reason we suggest the referee contact the researcher directly is that in some cases where we have sent multiple emails to the same person who apparently hasn’t received them, it is perhaps unlikely that sending another email will elicit a response. It may be the case that the email isn’t getting through for technical reasons such as spam filters.

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