Welcome to the Chambers UK Guide 2026. Search the legal market's best law firms and lawyers using the search functionality above.  

Search for the top ranked lawyers and law firms in the UK and read analysis that you can trust. Our rankings are the most thoroughly researched and independent on the market. Each one is assessed by our dedicated team of experienced researchers using our unrivalled research methodology, which includes tens of thousands of one-to-one interviews every year.     

If you are buying legal services in the UK and need reliable recommendations on the best law firms and solicitors, our rankings, editorial and analysis will provide you with the information you need to make the most well-informed decision when it matters. 

Submissions for the Chambers UK 2027 guide are open, you can view the full schedule here.

Keep up to date with all of your relevant submission deadlines throughout the year and get personalised submission reminders in your calendar here. 

The Chambers UK guide’s legal market coverage and analysis for 2026 covers 85 broad areas of UK law, such as tax, banking and finance, employment, personal injury and family/matrimonial. It is grouped by regions, such as South West, Midlands and London, so you can easily compare firms across a geographic area to find the best talent for your needs, wherever it exists.     
     
We also cover specialist areas of law on a UK-wide basis, such as asset finance, energy, defamation and product liability.         

To learn about how we conduct our unrivalled research and how you can take part, please visit our methodology page.  

Chambers UK 2026 is now available online, covering dozens of regions throughout England, as well as Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands. London, being the UK’s largest legal market, has the most in-depth legal coverage and insights.       

Chambers and Partners has been the leading source of independent legal market intelligence for over 30 years. The UK team alone has more than 70 experienced, dedicated researchers ranking the best law firms and solicitors. Chambers as a whole has around 200 dedicated researchers. This contributes to a wealth of local knowledge and market insight that you can trust to base your legal-buying decisions on.     

We have taken a cautious approach to this initial recognition of individual lawyers’ AI work. We expect it to give rise to productive suggestions as to how we can better recognise the leading legal practitioners working at the coal face of a fast-moving and protean technological revolution.  

For the next cycle of Chambers UK research, we are not opening the table to submissions and referees. Rather, we will build on our research by interviewing leading practitioners known to us and leads from dynamic AI companies. We expect the table to grow significantly from one year to the next and will endeavour to open the table to submissions once it is better established. 

For now, we recommend that firms seeking to highlight individual lawyers with growing AI specialisms promote their work front and centre in submissions for categories such as Data Protection & Information Law, IP, IT & Outsourcing, Media & Entertainment and Telecommunications. 

To better reflect the market, we will now separate our rankings based on the type of financing a team is working on. More precisely, we will rank firms and lawyers separately for their Leveraged Finance work and for their Corporate Finance work.  

These tables will then be further broken down by the type of client. Firms will be ranked in one, some, or all the following areas:  

Each table above will be further segmented by deal value with firms either being ranked in Big Ticket or Mid-market tables, based on the value of deals they tend to work on.  

Firms will be able to submit to each of the four areas listed above for the 2027 UK guide. Submissions for these new areas are due on 26th November.  

Corporate Finance recognises the leading lawyers and law firms who advise on corporate or investment grade lending. Firms are ranked based on whether they work with borrower or lender clients, and whether their work is big-ticket or mid-market. The deal values that fall into those categories will depend on the state of the market in a given year but as a guide, deals above £500 million will usually be considered Big-Ticket.  

Leveraged Finance recognises the leading lawyers and law firms who advise on leveraged or sub-investment grade lending. Firms are ranked based on whether they work with financial sponsors/borrower or lender clients, and whether their work is big-ticket or mid-market. The deal values that fall into those categories will depend on the state of the market in a given year but as a guide, deals above £500 million will usually be considered Big-Ticket.  

There is also a new table focused on Asset-Based Lending, which will compare firms across the UK (excluding Scotland and Northern Ireland). This will also be open for submissions in the future.  

We will continue to rank firms for their Fund Finance expertise and firms will be able to submit to that section as they normally would.  

While generally our coverage of the UK is increasing and more tables are being added to the guide than removed, occasionally we do have to discontinue tables that no longer reflect the market in the way that was intended when the table was first devised. In this instance, the AIM market in the UK has unfortunately been in decline for some time. High-end ECM work is already captured in our Capital Markets: Equity table. We will consider this year if there is scope to introduce a Mid-Market ECM table that could feature some of the lawyers previously included in AIM. 

This year there will be one overarching UK-wide table covering England and Wales, rather than rankings in every region. This reflects the fact that in house counsel are less likely to seek local firms for pensions advice than they are in, say, real estate or general litigation. The new UK-wide table is now a large one, as it includes leading pensions lawyers from around the country.  

The research for Chambers UK 2026 took place between January and July 2025. 

Change to Capital Markets Research in Chambers UK 2027
Chambers UK is making adjustments to its research to reflect evolving trends in the market. Learn more.

Changes to Banking & Finance coverage in Chambers UK
Chambers is pleased to announce significant changes to our Banking & Finance coverage in London. 

Increase to the maximum number of referees permitted in Chambers UK
In this article, Alex Marsh, UK Research Director, explains the increase in the number of referees to the upcoming Chambers UK guide research.

Changes to Submissions for Chambers UK 2027
Discover the changes to the submissions for the Chambers UK 2027 guide.

The 2025 Gambling Act Overhaul: All Bets are Off for UK Gaming and Licensing Law
The UK's gambling laws just got their biggest makeover in decades.
But beneath the headlines lies a slow-burning regulatory wave with wide-reaching legal implications.

Submit to two new areas in Chambers UK
Two new areas are open for UK submissions for the first time: Dispute Resolution Specialist Firms and Shareholder Activism: Activist Representation. 

Scotland’s legal year in review 2024
Chambers UK Research Director Alex Marsh recently wrote an article in the Scotsman, discussing the latest research cycle of the legal market 

Changes to Projects, Energy and Planning & Environment in UK 2025
Read about the key changes to the Projects, Energy, Planning and Environment sections.  

Changes to Projects in Chambers UK 2025
Discover the changes to the Projects coverage in the Chambers UK 2025 guide.

The State of UK Family Law in 2024
The Chambers UK team discusses the developments within family law discovered in the research into the Chamber UK 2025 guide.

Changes to submissions for Projects, Construction, Planning, Environment and Commodities
The Chambers UK team explains submission changes to the real assets research in the upcoming Chambers UK 2026 guide.

Changes to submissions for Inquests, Public Inquiries, Public Procurement and Employment
The Chambers UK team explains submission changes to the administrative, public law and employment research in the 2026 guide.

Changes to submissions for Family, Court of Protection, Travel, Healthcare and Crime 
The Chambers UK team explains submission changes to consumer law & health research in the upcoming Chambers UK 2026 guide.

Changes to submissions for Media & Entertainment
The Chambers UK team explains submission changes to the media and entertainment research in the upcoming Chambers UK 2026 guide.

Change to Capital Markets, Financial Services, Pensions, Restructuring/Insolvency and Tax 
Learn about the changes to submissions for Capital Markets, Financial Services, Pensions, Restructuring/Insolvency and Tax  in the 2026 UK guide.

For information about any practice area you can’t see above, please contact Al Marsh.

Rankings are assessed by our dedicated team of experienced analysts and are updated every year.  Every quote you see in our editorial was obtained in the most recent research period. 

Our unrivalled research process involves interviewing both lawyers and their clients to obtain a view of each submitting law firm and understanding the level of service and work offered.   

To learn about how we conduct research into the guide, please visit our  methodology page.   

Discover the value of being a ranked firm and tips on how to successfully submit for rankings in the UK guide.  View now