The results of the referee trials for Chambers Europe 2024

As the research for Europe 2024 comes to an end, we had a closer look at the results of the referee trials that have been underway in selected practice areas throughout this research cycle. We are very pleased with the results; the trial allowed us to delve deeper into the selected practice areas and collect feedback on a number of lawyers we have not heard previously about.

The rules of the trial were simple: firms were asked to send a maximum of five referees per lawyer with a maximum of thirty referees as a total per law firm (an increase from twenty referees total per firm per practice area). We the limited the number of referees each lawyer can submit as we wanted to make sure that the process is fair and inclusive to as many as possible, in addition to also delving deeper into the respective markets. A significant theme in feedback we have received in the previous years from individuals suggests that some lawyers found it harder to put forward their clients as referees.

As a result, we were able to gather feedback on a significant number of lawyers, including more junior partners, counsels and associates, which in turn put them on our radar for the research cycle next year. In Corporate / M&A in Italy, we have added 10 lawyers into the existing ranking tables. In Corporate / M&A in Spain, we added 15 new lawyers and in Switzerland Corporate / M&A, we added 5. As the number of referees has gone up, so did the number of interviews in each of the practice areas covered by the trial, allowing for more in-depth interviews and further enhancing our research processes.

The main obstacle that we had to face was some initial confusion amongst law firms. We are very grateful to the firms that followed the guidelines and also amended their referee spreadsheets as necessary. We do understand that this is a significant change from the more standard approach, and we hope that the law firms will continue to support our more in-depth research and follow the guidelines going forward.

Our referee trial in Ireland started two years ago, with the introduction of a trial in Real Estate. The trial was further extended to Corporate / M&A and Banking & Finance for the Europe 2024 research cycle. The trial rules in Ireland allowed law firms to upload a maximum of 5 referees per ranked lawyer, and a maximum of 10 additional referees in total for unranked lawyers.

In the first year of the trial running in Real Estate, we were able to identify 9 lawyers and added them onto our radar to be asked around in the next research cycle. In the second year, we converted five of these into rankings. We are also seeing very positive results in Corporate / M&A and Banking & Finance, and we plan to continue with the trial in these three practice areas for Europe 2025.

We are extending the referee trials for the Europe 2025 research cycle. For more information and a list of jurisdictions, please click here.

Should you have any questions, please get in touch with Magdalena Parkitna on [email protected]