Curated to guide new submitters and enhance existing firms’ submissions, the Chambers FinTech Submissions Kit is an excellent resource which includes insightful and actionable recommendations on what the Chambers FinTech team consider in successful submissions. The kit also provides details on the best practices for building a submission.
Chambers and Partners is independently recognised as the leading resource for clients seeking to engage new law firms or benchmark their existing relationships, known for both the independence and the thoroughness of its research and analysis.
Achieving a ranking in the Chambers FinTech Guide serves as an independent recognition of a firm or lawyer’s credentials in this new and fast-developing market. FinTech clients, Private Equity/Venture Capital funds, financial institutions and BigTech businesses use our rankings as a guide when choosing law firms.
It is free to send to apply for a ranking in Chambers and firms of all sizes are eligible. Firms wishing to apply for a ranking can send us a submission with examples of their recent FinTech work and a list of referees who our researchers can interview.
You can download the submission and referee spreadsheet templates here.
Our research is structured by jurisdiction. We research each country for between one and three months, depending on the size and sophistication of its FinTech legal market and the number of submissions we receive.
The relevant practice area for the FinTech guide in each country we research is FinTech Legal.
In larger legal markets like the UK and US, this category is divided into four sub-tables: Payments & Lending, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency, Data Protection & Cyber Security, and Corporate Securities & Financing. Firms in these markets may provide one consolidated FinTech Legal submission or separate submissions for some or all of the sub-tables.
This year, we are researching FinTech Legal in the following jurisdictions for the first time:
Submission documents and referee spreadsheets can be uploaded online, via chambers.com.To create an account on the website, please contact enquiries@chambers.com
Our ranking decisions are based on the submission document and feedback from clients and other market sources.
Referee feedback and evidence of sophisticated FinTech work are the key factors.. We also take feedback from other sources, including fellow lawyers. This commentary can be useful where we do not have enough information about a firm from its submission and referees, or when a firm does not provide a submission, but the referee feedback and work on the submission are paramount.
Firms can be ranked without sending in a submission or references. Our rankings are a survey of the entire FinTech legal market in each jurisdiction we cover, not just of the firms that sent us a submission, and our researchers use wider market interviews and publicly available data to make ranking decisions where we do not have a submission.
However, we would always recommend sending a submission and references. Sending a submission and referees is the best way to help us understand your practice. This information allows us to analyse the firm’s practice and compare it with its competitors, which puts the firm in the best possible position to be considered for a ranking.
A submission document allows a firm to describe its practice group and give information on key members of the team, as well as listing key clients and providing feedback on our existing coverage.
Most importantly, firms can provide up to 20 recent work highlights. These matter descriptions can be provided either on a publishable basis for use in our editorial commentary on the firm, or confidentially, in which case they will only be used for our internal review purposes.
The work highlights are the most important part of the submission document. We look for firms’ ability to handle the most important and complex mandates for sophisticated FinTech clients. This can include high-value, cross-border transactions and financings, bet-the-company litigation and significant regulatory matters.
Work highlights should be simple and concise. A well-written work highlight is like a newspaper article; a short, two or three sentence introduction which explains the work, followed by a more detailed explanation of its significance. Concision is key.
Our documents have dedicated spaces for confidential work highlights and client lists, and these are clearly marked.
The submission template provides space for ten publishable and ten confidential matters. You are welcome to amend it, so long as the total number of work highlights per submission does not exceed 20.
We generally prefer to have the name of the client on each write-up, but we understand that this may not be possible for certain sensitive matters. In these cases, please provide enough contextual information about the client for us to understand the work without identifying them.
Referees should generally be clients with recent experience of working with the law firm and who are willing to speak with a researcher about their experience.
Ideally, most referees should be clients of your firm. However, fellow lawyers and other professional advisers can also act as referees if you are unable to provide client sources.
TIP Make sure referees know that they are being put forward for the research process and check that they are happy to participate.
Completing a Chambers Submission is the most effective way to pursue or maintain a Chambers Ranking.
The most valuable referee is one who can offer an informed opinion about the firm and its lawyers, as well as having the time to speak in detail. General Counsels of FinTech clients, VC funds and financial institutions are good choices. When selecting referees, consider who at each client organisation can provide the most useful responses. Senior C-suite executives at large businesses can be too busy to take part and may only know the lead lawyer on an engagement; other, less senior staff can often provide a more comprehensive view of the team, including its associates, and may have more time to provide our researcher with a detailed assessment.
TIP Prioritise clients with direct, recent experience of working with the team on matters relevant to the FinTech industry.
We will review your FinTech submission during the research period for the relevant market or jurisdiction, as well as contacting your referees and conducting wider market research. We may ask to set up a call with one of the firm’s lawyers to discuss the market in more depth, but this isn’t a guaranteed or essential part of the research process.
We email referees at the start of research and will then send out periodic reminders. We may offer either a phone call or the opportunity to fill in a written survey.
We generally ask the client:
We typically see better engagement from clients when they know that they have been put forward as referees before research begins and know to look for an ‘@chambers.com’ email. If clients report that they haven’t heard from Chambers when they were expecting to, then please feel free to report this to the assigned researcher.
TIP Check in with the researcher at the beginning of the research period for an estimate of when initial emails will be sent out.
Diversity and inclusion is at the core of our research process. Our researchers aim to interview an even number of male and female lawyers in each market they cover.
Research runs from July to October. Ranked firms are typically notified of their inclusion shortly after the end of research, and the full rankings are published in December.
All ranked firms can benefit from a Chambers Profile, which showcases their rankings to an engaged global audience of legal professionals, allowing in-house counsel, legal teams, and clients to learn about their work, services, and client feedback, to aid buying decisions.
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Firms have complete control of the content across these profile pages which include firm profile, department profile and lawyer profile pages.
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The best referees will have worked closely with you in the 12 months immediately preceding the submission deadline – ideally, with several members of your team including partners and more junior staff – and be willing and able to respond to Chambers’ request when it comes.
Your referees need not all be fee-paying clients of the firm: you can also choose international co-counsel or other professional advisers with whom you have worked in the past year.
Choose referees who will have the time and ability to respond to our request for feedback. Sometimes, the most senior person at a client organisation will not be the best referee; they might be too busy to respond and might only know the lead or relationship partner. Someone with greater day-to-day involvement on your matters, even if they are less senior, might be better able to find the time to respond and could provide a fuller picture of your team’s work.
Make sure to get your referees’ permission before including them on the Chambers referee spreadsheet. It also helps to send them a reminder shortly before research begins, so they know to expect an email from Chambers.
Our initial contact will always be by email and will come from the assigned researcher’s email address. Referees will either be invited to fill out a short online survey or to book a time in the researcher’s calendar for a telephone interview. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete, and our telephone interviews with referees typically last around 15-20 minutes.
There is space on the submission template for up to 20 work highlights. These matter write-ups should demonstrate your standout recent work in the practice area for which you are applying.
The form gives space both for Publishable and Confidential matters. Anything in the confidential section will only be used for Chambers’ internal analysis and ranking purposes and will never be published.
Chambers researchers will not draw any negative inference from the fact that work is listed in the Confidential section of the form, and there is no minimum required number of Publishable matters. We would always prefer to receive more relevant and useful information about your work, even if this is on a confidential basis, rather than receiving a bland, less-detailed write-up in the Publishable section with only the information that can be publicly disclosed.
Concision and clarity are key when describing your team’s work highlights. Keep each matter description to one page on the form. Make sure the key points about the matter are described clearly and be sure to explain what makes this work stand out and why it is significant.
Remember that, while our researchers are intelligent and highly educated, they may not be specialists in your practice area or the legal system of your jurisdiction. Some legal and technical jargon will be unavoidable but work highlight write-ups should avoid these wherever possible.
Bench strength is a key factor in our analysis, so don’t allow your submission to be dominated by one lawyer; make sure to highlight up-and-coming junior partners and associates, as well. Give them the opportunity to provide client referees and include their matters among your work highlights.
