If you are a member of the public looking for information
on a solicitors or law firm in the UK what are the best resources to use and
which resources can be trusted in terms of reviews and rankings that they give
to a law firm.
There are three main legal directories in the UK that
have long a distinguished history of rating and reviewing law firms. The three
main players are The Legal 500, Chambers and The Lawyer. I will examine each one of these sites in
more detail.
The
Legal 500
The Legal 500 website and matching printed directory are
the flagship products of Legalese Publishing who were formed in 1987. The Legal
500 was the first was the first UK website that provided reviews of large firms
and it is currently the largest site of its type.
Legalese was founded by John Pritchard and he still edits
and publishes the directory. Although it initial started as a directory of UK
legal services the Legal 500 series now covers most regions in the world.
A firms listing in the directory covers areas of
specialism and their position in their region or location. The Legal 500
listing also includes information on key individuals and a firm profile. The Legal 500 is seen as the most
authoritative of the legal directories in the UK due to the in depth nature of
the research it carries out and the length of time it has been established.
The legal 500 can be viewed on the internet, in a
hardback book form an as an ebook.
An example of a Legal 500 company profile – LesterAldridge LLP Bournemouth
Chambers
Chambers was established in 1990 and currently employs 140 highly qualified full-time
researchers who conduct thousands of interviews with lawyers and their clients
worldwide. The legal directory covers a wide range of practice areas and
locations within the UK and abroad. They also publish the UK Bar Guide for
barristers and barrister chambers and a UK Student Guide that looks at law firms
from the view point of those what a career in law.
Lawyers and law firms are
ranked in Bands from 1-6 and these rankings are based on a number of criteria
including technical legal ability, professional conduct and client service.
Chambers and Partners is
avalible as a hardback book, via their website and as an e-book.
An example of a Chamber company Profile – Lester Aldridge LLP
The Lawyer
The Lawyer is the leading magazine
in the UK for solicitors, lawyers and other members of the legal profession. It
has first published in 1981 and is owned by Centaur Media who also own Marketing Week and The Creative Review. The
magazine and website cover a wide range of legal news stories, briefings and
legal jobs. Unlike both The Legal 500 and Chambers the law firm reviews are not
the primary function of the lawyer. That is not to say that the reviews do not
carry weight and value. The reviews in the lawyer tend to focus on the profit
and turnover of the firm with less in depth analysis of the type carried out by
The Legal 500 and Chambers. There is a neat little tool that allows you to
compare law firm turnovers and plots them against each other on a graph.
The
Lawyer
There are also a number of
other ways to check law firm feedback including checking local forums, Google+
pages, sites such as Trip Advisor and Qype. The issue with these sites is that
the information is not always verifiable and the identity of the reviewers
cannot be checked.
If you are a member of the
public looking for information on a law firm then Chambers and The Legal 500
provide the best information in terms of reputation and areas of expertise. If
you are a student thinking about working for a firm then the tools on the
lawyer can be useful as well.
Tony Heywood ©
