Chambers USA 2022 D&I Highlights

Diversity and Inclusion is one of the core values that informs every aspect of our work at Chambers and Partners. Throughout our research for the Chambers USA 2022 guide, we have continued our efforts to accurately reflect the diversity of the US legal market. We’re pleased to share an insight into the work we’ve been doing, alongside some of our key results and findings.

The Chambers USA team have been working hard to expand our coverage of key jurisdictions and practice areas as the US market continues to evolve in response to client needs in the current market, as well as in the wake of the pandemic.

As the clients’ guide to the legal profession, our rankings are informed by thousands of interviews with general counsel and business professionals from companies of all sizes across the US. This year clients have continued to tell us in large numbers that the diversity of a law firm’s team has a significant impact on their legal-buying decisions.

In an initiative begun for our previous year’s USA research, Chambers has once again asked firms to confidentially share anonymised diversity statistics at a departmental level on their Chambers USA submissions.

We have used this information to ensure that areas where the diversity statistics provided don’t match up with our rankings receive extra research attention. The provided statistics help us to hold a mirror up to the diversity of the market, understanding the demographics of all our practice areas.

Our research team have continued to place diversity and inclusion at the heart of our outreach to law firms, targeting half of our research interview invitations at women lawyers and up and comers.

We have also encouraged firms to consider diversity when submitting referee lists; canvassing a wide variety of voices helps us improve the quality of our research, ensuring our outreach reflects the views of a diverse cross-section of the market.

Chambers USA remains committed to diversity and inclusion learning and development opportunities for our team. Our researchers all receive D&I training including instruction on the use of gendered and exclusory language in editorial.

As a result of these efforts, Chambers USA 2022 sees almost 700 new rankings awarded to women lawyers, a 14% increase on last year.

The total number of women ranked continues to increase year-on-year, with Chambers’ efforts to speak with ever-increasing numbers of women attorneys allowing us to both identify and investigate a wider pool of potential additions.

Another key focus for the Chambers team has been our coverage of younger attorneys, including more junior partners and associates. Over recent years, we have almost doubled the number of rankings awarded to these younger attorneys.

Among associates, 48% of rankings awarded went to women lawyers, while 44% of Up-and-Coming rankings were awarded to women.

We are looking forward to working with you again in our upcoming research for USA 2023. In an exciting development, we have increased the number of referees firms are able to submit to each practice area from 20 to 30.

We hope that this increased total offers firms an increased opportunity to list a diverse range of referees supporting partners, associates and up-and-coming attorneys who might not have had the chance to list referees previously.

Working together, we can ensure that Chambers USA accurately reflects the strength and diversity of the US market.