The Growth of Department Rankings in Key Markets in Asia-Pacific 2023 Guide
The Asia Pacific Legal Guide 2023 is live and readers will see how much our coverage has developed. Chambers and Partners is seeing an evolution in the departments it covers, including a shift to more in-depth specialisations.
Lawyers and firms across the region are provided with the opportunity to showcase their excellence and capabilities by submitting themselves as candidates for ranking. From there, analysis and investigation of every submission is carried out — including telephone interviews with clients and other sources — to provide the most in-depth representation of expertise across a variety of practice areas.
Rankings are informed by factors such as legal ability, commercial awareness and cost-effectiveness which allow Chambers to develop a highly accurate list of the top lawyers and firms in each industry and location. All in all, every Chambers legal guide becomes an expansive and invaluable resource for any individual seeking legal representation.
Where are we seeing growth and why?
We are seeing a natural growth in legal departments due to the evolving complexity of legal issues and the need for specialised knowledge. Rapid regulatory change and increased practice area and sector specialism are helping to drive this trend.
Chambers and Partners in-depth research methodology allows it to keep up-to-date with developments regarding Asia-Pacific’s leading law firms and individual lawyers. As new law firms enter the market and newer practice areas see significant proportional growth, our coverage develops in line with this. With so much organic growth, Chambers has introduced new coverage areas and expanded its reach even further for the 2023 release.
In our research for the 2023 guide, we saw certain trends and areas of growth in the region. Some notable areas of interest this year include significant growth in private equity and venture capital (notably in South-East Asia), data protection and renewable energy – including a growth in work in the climate change area. With so much regulatory change happening in the market, advice regarding environmental, social and governance (ESG) is evolving all over the region.
Department rankings based on coverage growth.
Based on Chambers and Partners' research, the chart below showcases the countries with the largest percentage of growth in department rankings within the Chambers Asia-Pacific guide 2023. To maintain the most accurate and in-depth independent legal rankings worldwide, as these markets continue to evolve, so too will our coverage.
Insight
In recent years, key markets such as South East Asia have experienced rapid development. The region has expanded into many specialised areas, which may be in part to the enormous investment in tech development in recent years. In fact, the eDiscovery market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.7%, reaching 17.1 billion USD by 2027 – and much of this growth is coming out of Asia Pacific.
Sri Lanka’s private sector continues to evolve and mature. Being strategically positioned in close proximity to major shipping and travel routes (including its closeness to India), the country has embraced international business opportunities and inward investment. Countries such as Australia have also stated their intention to strengthen relations.
Elsewhere the relatively small legal market in Bangladesh has also seen significant proportional growth in its rankings. An increase in cross-border work in the Projects and Energy sectors has been one factor driving this growth through the introduction of more specialised coverage.
Future legal coverage in Asia Pacific
Chambers and Partners is now accepting submissions for the 2024 Asia Pacific guide with submission deadlines in January, March and May 2023. Department categories that will be researched include Corporate/M&A, Environment & Planning, Intellectual Property, Sports Law and Shipping.
Chambers and Partners continuously evaluates new coverage in response to feedback from the market, including law firms and partners, as well as from in-house counsel. We conduct careful background research to determine the right time to expand coverage in a particular market or practice area. New trends and innovation will also contribute to decision-making, such as new technology-driven areas of law like cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, which are likely to become increasingly in high demand in the future.
Watch the 2023 Guide Launch Video, which aired in December 2022, where we discuss some of our key findings from this year’s research.