Tactics for barristers to optimise referee feedback for legal directory rankings

Securing a strong recommendation, or an improved band ranking in legal directories is often a key marketing goal for an individual barrister..…and rightly so. Having these all-important professional endorsements not only helps clients to distinguish you from others working in your field, but they also play a significant role in helping your Chambers to improve its rankings too.

We are yet to meet a barrister (or Chambers) who doesn’t find the whole process a bit wearisome. Getting the submission completed and in on time, invariably feels like a race against the clock and a test of everyone’s patience. 

In this article we aim to make the whole process of deciding who to choose as your referee a little clearer and also offer some tips on communicating with your referees about the research process.

Why are your referees so important?

The significance that referee feedback plays in the process cannot be underestimated. The focus for barristers, quite understandably, tends to be on identifying and writing about the top-notch cases that they have been involved in over the past 18 months. Provided barristers keep their online website profile up to date, this should be fairly easy.

The truth is, that without strong referee responses, it’s hard to get ranked. Barristers with historical directory rankings are granted some slack if the referee responses aren’t totally on point, but for barristers looking to make the grade for the first time or improve their band ranking, it’s a critical component.

Here are our top tips on maximising referee feedback for the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners directories:

1. Identifying your referees

This part is critical. It’s a good idea to speak to your clerk about who to include on your list, as your submission is (most likely) going to be part of a wider Practice Area submission put forward by your chambers. 

Don’t automatically go for the most notable senior lawyer you know because chances are they also will be asked by other barristers to be their referee too. These individuals may also be very busy, so even with the best will in the world, responding in a substantive and timely way to the researcher’s email, could be difficult for them. 

Where possible, choose a referee from some of the cases that you’ve included in your submission. You want someone who can genuinely comment on recent experience, as well as be descriptive and thorough in their replies to the researcher’s questions (there are usually 3-5 questions). What a referee says about you is critical for editorial purposes. 

Referees don’t have to be instructing solicitors. They can be introducers, referrers and third parties. Consider Direct Access clients, or other barristers, but just avoid ones from your own Chambers. It’s useful to remember that Treasury Solicitors and the CPS don’t engage with directories, and you’re also less like to get feedback from judges or the Local Authority. 

2. How many referees?

The rules of Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500 differ. For Chambers & Partners you can only have a maximum of 5 referees, but for the Legal 500 there is no limit on the number of referees you can submit, so it’s worthwhile taking advantage of that. 

If you’re unranked, without outstanding feedback it’s unlikely that you will be included, therefore for your legal 500 submission we suggest including as many (quality) referees as possible…at least 10.

If you’re a more seasoned submitter, following all the guidelines in our article, we recommend a minimum of 5. 

3. Contact your referees beforehand

Once you've identified your referees, the next part of the process is really important.

Ensure that you email every referee personally – don’t leave this to your clerk. If anything, it’s a good opportunity to reconnect with a client, plus you can (more easily than your clerk) make the email personal. 

As well as asking if they are happy to be included as a referrer, mention some of the recent cases you’ve worked on together to help jog their memory; even include some tricky aspect of the case or how great the result was. If the client said something nice at the conclusion of the case, it’s worthwhile mentioning that too. 

It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway) explain why their testimonial is so important to helping you secure a ranking. Drop in that they will just receive one email from the researchers, along with a couple of scheduled reminders, but that timely responses from referees are what the directories are looking for. 

Don’t forget to offer to be a referee for them too! 

4. Referee spreadsheet

Make sure that you use the excel template to supply the information and that it’s all correct…especially the email address…we recommend triple checking them.

There are lots of different fields to complete, such as job title, address, email, phone number etc. If you don’t have time to populate these fields, give the person doing this on your behalf ample time to complete it for you.

5. Meet the referee deadline

Last but not least, remember that the deadline for referees is a hard deadline with no flexibility. This is because it’s the referee spreadsheet that kicks off the research process. So, don’t leave it too late to start thinking about your referees, and give yourself plenty of time to approach them. The later you leave it, the greater the chance that others will have contacted your prospective referee, increasing the risk of them being unable to help you.

Scala provides support and advice to individual barristers and chambers on their legal directory submissions. To talk to us about how we can help, please contact natalierodgers@scala.uk.com or call 0114 4070159.