Chambers Europe Guide 2026 Research Schedule
We are delighted to announce that the research schedule and submission deadline dates for the Chambers Europe 2026 guide are now live and can be viewed on our research schedule page.
As in previous years, template documents can be found on our website and can be uploaded via My Account page. If you need help with your login details, please email [email protected].
Key Updates For 2026
We are pleased to reveal the following new tables, introduced for the first time in the upcoming research cycle:
- Austria – specialised Arbitration and Litigation tables;
- Belgium – Restructuring & Insolvency;
- Italy - dedicated Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) table;
- Italy – specialised TMT: IT & Data Protection table;
- Italy – new TMT: Media & Telecommunications table;
- Netherlands- specialised Construction table;
- Poland – dedicated Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) table;
- Poland – specialised Arbitration and Litigation tables;
- Poland – new White-Collar Crime & Corporate Investigations table;
- Spain – dedicated Arbitration table featuring sub-table with leading Arbitrators;
- Spain – Litigation table with Elite and Highly Regarded sub-tables;
- Spain – specialised Financial Services Regulations table;
- Spain – new Transportation table;
- Spain – dedicated Private Equity table;
- Spain – new Investment Funds table;
- Turkey – new Employment table;
We are also thrilled to announce changes to the following tables:
- Austria – new rankings under TMT: Data Protection;
- Italy – new ranking table for Dispute Resolution: Arbitration;
- Netherlands – a specialised Finance sub-table under Real Estate;
- Spain – a specialised Transaction sub-table under Life Sciences;
- Switzerland – focused Regulatory sub-table under Banking & Finance;
- Portugal – Corporate / M&A table now features Elite and Highly Regarded sub-tables;
- Turkey - Corporate / M&A table now features Elite and Highly Regarded sub-tables
As a general rule, we allow one submission document and one referee list per law firm per practice area. However, we may allow multiple submission documents with work highlights in sections with sub-tables. Please refer to the research comments on the schedule online for more information, or please get in touch with either Magdalena Parkitna at [email protected] or the relevant Research Manager.
Referee Rules
Following the success of the referee trials in the previous years, we will continue to uphold the referee rules in selected practice areas across selected countries in the European Guide 2026.
In those selected areas, firms can provide a maximum of 5 referees per lawyer and can submit a maximum of 30 referees total for the law firm.
If you have fewer than six lawyers in the team, please only provide 5 referees per lawyer rather than a total of 30, e.g. a firm with 5 lawyers should provide 25 referees rather than 30.
Please fill in column N “Referring Lawyer(s)” on the referee spreadsheet to indicate for whom that referee is providing feedback. If the required information is not provided, then we may not contact the referee/s.
Firms can only assign 1 lawyer to each referee on the spreadsheet (i.e. the referee’s main contact person in the department), bearing in mind that our researchers will always ask referees about every lawyer with whom they have worked during the review period.
Please find below the full list of sections now covered by the rules, grouped by country:
- Austria - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A, Litigation, Arbitration
- Belgium - Banking & Finance, Competition / European Law, Corporate / M&A, Dispute Resolution
- Czech Republic - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A, Dispute Resolution
- Denmark - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A, Dispute Resolution
- Finland - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A, Dispute Resolution
- Greece - Banking & Finance, Corporate / Commercial, Dispute Resolution
- Ireland - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A, Dispute, Resolution, Real Estate
- Italy - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A, Dispute Resolution, Employment, Tax
- Luxembourg - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A
- Malta – General Business Law
- Netherlands - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A, Litigation, Arbitration
- Norway - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A, Dispute Resolution
- Poland - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A, Litigation, Arbitration
- Portugal - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A, Dispute Resolution
- Romania - Corporate / M&A, Dispute Resolution
- Serbia - Corporate / Commercial, Dispute Resolution
- Slovakia - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A, Dispute Resolution
- Spain - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A, Litigation, Arbitration, Private Equity
- Sweden - Banking & Finance, Corporate / M&A, Dispute Resolution
- Switzerland - Corporate / M&A, Banking & Finance, Litigation, Arbitration
- Turkey - Corporate / M&A, Litigation, Arbitration
For all other sections, please continue to send 20 referees per law firm, unless research notes say otherwise.
Europe-wide and CEE-wide Referees
As in previous years, we do not accept referees for Europe-wide sections, except for International Trade/WTO and Regulatory & Public Affairs.
For the 2026 Guide, we will follow the same methodology in CEE-wide tables and firms are no longer required to send in referees for those sections. Instead, we will use referee feedback and information from the respective local practice areas as part of the CEE-wide research.
Ukraine Research Update
We are pleased to confirm that we will be able to accept submissions and referee lists for Corporate / M&A and Dispute Resolution practice areas.
Law firms are also welcome to send in submissions, showcasing their best work from the last 12-15 months, for the following practice areas:
- Competition / Antitrust
- Employment
- Intellectual Property
- Banking & Finance
- Restructuring & Insolvency
- Tax
We are currently looking at the possibility of also accepting referees in the aforementioned areas. We will continue to monitor the situation and we will let you know ahead of time if we will also open these sections for referees.
Should you have any questions, please get in touch with Magdalena Parkitna at [email protected].