Golden Rules for Client Referees

When the research cycle kicks off, it means the submission season is well and truly underway. It also means, no doubt, that lots of you are panicking. You may be wondering whether you’re ready, and if not, where you should be focusing your energy. The answer is very simple, and involves two words: client referees.

Feedback from your client referees is the single most important factor in your Chambers campaign. A strong written submission is necessary to achieve a ranking, yes, but it is never sufficient. Before ranking your firm, the researcher needs corroborative, positive third-party feedback and that feedback must come from clients.

The most important thing that you can do in any directory submission is to submit your spreadsheet of client referees by the deadline. Even if it looks like your written submission is going to be late (not recommended, but sometimes impossible to avoid), prioritise the identification of client referees and get those spreadsheets in on time. (The full submission, of course, should follow as soon as possible thereafter.)

This is not simply a matter of etiquette. Internally, Chambers has a huge database that logs all client referees and the various firms that have put those referees forward. Before calling a client, the researcher will search the client’s name on the data base. The list of referring law firms and their practice areas will come up so the researcher knows who to ask about: if you have not sent in your referee spreadsheet, your name will not come up.

Remember, also, that Chambers can only accept a maximum of 20 referees per practice area. This may not seem like much when you’re submitting on behalf of a large team, but remember that you are not the only firm submitting. The researchers try to speak to each referee on the phone, and with some practice areas having dozens of firms submitting 20 client referees each –an area such as Corporate London or New York is a good example – researchers can have more than 2,000 referees to contact.

With that overview as background, below are some key considerations to keep in mind in making the all-important selection of your client referees.

Selection criteria:

Can the client referees that you have identified speak about the members of your practice that you would like to be ranked? It is pointless to push forward a previously unranked attorney in your submission, and then fail to include any client referees who can speak to the quality of their work. Even if you include a small number of referees—one or two—familiar with a new attorney, they still will never receive the volume of feedback necessary to be ranked. Think three or more referees for any attorney hoping to achieve an initial ranking.
Have you included a healthy diversity of clients on your spreadsheet? Putting forward multiple contacts from the same organization makes your firm appear to have a limited client base, and will annoy the researcher who would prefer to speak to a broader mix of clients. Potentially worse, it may annoy a client suddenly bombarded with Chambers queries.
Have the clients used the firm recently? If not, their feedback be of negligible value, and the researcher may well assume that the practice group’s work has tailed off.
Can the referees speak about more than one lawyer in the practice group? If so, all the better—and make a note of it in the “referring lawyer” section of the spreadsheet. It helps get maximum feedback for the team.

Practical concerns:

Have the referees you’ve identified given their permission to be put forward? Asking clients ahead of time is not just the proper thing to do, it will also make it much more likely that they return the researcher’s call.
Are they guaranteed to be positive? If there is any element of doubt, leave them out.
Are they accessible? Lawyers are convinced that the higher up an organisation they go, the more the researcher will be impressed. What it actually means is that that client will be harder to get hold of, will have less time to speak to the researcher, and, more strategically, has probably been listed by about 10 other law firms (and believe me, this happens).

Bearing these golden rules in mind when selecting client referees will ensure that you put your best foot forward for your firm.