Europe Guide 2026 – Submission Process for the Netherlands

As in previous years, template documents can be found on our website and can be uploaded via the My Account page. If you need help with your login details, please email [email protected].

For information on what types of work to include in each submission, please refer to our practice area definitions.

If you have any further questions regarding our research into the Netherlands, please feel free to contact Christian Clare at [email protected].

For the following practice areas (Arbitration, Banking & Finance, Corporate/M&A and Litigation), please note that you can provide up to 30 referees in these areas. In the 2026 cycle, we have decided to remove the cap of 5 referees per lawyer. If a practice area has a subsection, i.e. Banking & Finance with Banking & Finance: Project Finance and Banking & Finance: Regulatory, please do not upload the same referee list multiple times. You should either upload one referee list with the 30 referees for all of a practice area’s subsections, or separate referee lists that divide the 30 referees across the subsections.

Arbitration requires only one submission, with a maximum of 20 work highlights.

Banking & Finance has the subsections of Banking & Finance: Project Finance and Banking & Finance: Regulatory. Firms can either upload one submission with a maximum of 20 work highlights to Banking & Finance, covering all the areas that are relevant to the practice, or to the specific subsection(s) in which they are interested, or separate submissions for each subsection, each with a maximum of 20 work highlights.

Corporate/M&A is split into Corporate/M&A: High-End Capability and Corporate/M&A: Mid-Market. Please only provide one submission to Corporate/M&A, with a maximum of 20 work highlights, and we will use this to decide whether a firm should be ranked in High-End or Mid-Market. Since we do not have a separate Private Equity section in the Netherlands, any private equity work should be included in the Corporate/M&A submission.

Litigation has the subsections of Supreme Court Litigation and Litigation: Mass Torts: Mainly Plaintiffs. Firms can either upload one submission with a maximum of 20 work highlights to Litigation, covering all the areas that are relevant to the practice, or to the specific subsection(s) in which they are interested, or separate submissions for each subsection, each with a maximum of 20 work highlights.

The following practice areas have subsections so firms can provide separate submissions, each with a maximum of 20 work highlights, but should only provide a maximum of 20 referees for the entire practice area. Please do not upload the same referee list for each subsection, instead either upload one referee list with all 20 referees for the section or separate referee lists for the subsections, dividing the referees across the subsections that are relevant to your practice:

Capital Markets is composed of Debt, Derivatives (not currently a ranking table), Equity and Securitisation subsections. Firms can either upload one submission with a maximum of 20 work highlights to Capital Markets, covering all areas or to the specific subsection(s) in which they are interested, or separate submissions for each subsection, each with a maximum of 20 work highlights.

Employment has the subsection of Employment: Pensions. Firms can provide separate submissions to both areas, each with a maximum of 20 work highlights.

Energy & Natural Resources is split into E&NR: Regulatory and E&NR: Transactional. Firms can either upload one submission with a maximum of 20 work highlights to Energy & Natural Resources, covering all the areas that are relevant to the practice, or separate submissions for each subsection, each with a maximum of 20 work highlights.

Intellectual Property is split into IP: General – Mostly Trade Mark/Copyright and IP: Patent. Firms can either upload one submission with a maximum of 20 work highlights to Intellectual Property, covering all the areas that are relevant to the practice, or to the specific subsection in which they are interested, or separate submissions for each subsection, each with a maximum of 20 work highlights.

Public Law has the subsection of Public Law: Planning & Environment. Firms can provide separate submissions to both areas, each with a maximum of 20 work highlights.

Real Estate has the subsections Real Estate: Finance and Real Estate: Leading Notaries. Construction is no longer a subsection of Real Estate and should be submitted to separately. Firms can either upload one submission with a maximum of 20 work highlights to Real Estate, covering all the areas that are relevant to the practice, or to the specific subsection(s) in which they are interested, or separate submissions for each subsection, each with a maximum of 20 work highlights. The Leading Notaries submission should focus on work done by notaries in the team.

Restructuring/Insolvency has the subsection of Restructuring/Insolvency: Administration. Firms can provide separate submissions to both areas, each with a maximum of 20 work highlights, with the Administration submission focusing on work where lawyers act as administrators for insolvent companies or as court-appointed bankruptcy trustees.

TMT is composed of Data Protection, IT & IT Outsourcing, Media and Telecommunications subsections. Firms can either upload one submission with a maximum of 20 work highlights to TMT, covering all areas of TMT, or to the specific subsection(s) in which they are interested, or separate submissions for each subsection, each with a maximum of 20 work highlights.

Transportation is composed of Transportation: Aviation, Transportation: Shipping and Transportation: Shipping: Finance. Firms can either upload one submission with a maximum of 20 work highlights to Transportation, covering all areas, or to the specific subsection(s) in which they are interested, or separate submissions for each subsection, each with a maximum of 20 work highlights.

White-Collar Crime & Corporate Investigations is split into separate White-Collar Crime and Corporate Investigations subsections. However, firms should only submit one submission, with a maximum of 20 work highlights, to the joint White-Collar Crime & Corporate Investigations section.

For the following practice areas, firms should only provide one submission (with a maximum of 20 work highlights) and one referee list (with a maximum of 20 referees):