Chambers vs Legal 500 submissions: a field-by-field comparison
Chambers and The Legal 500 ask for the same work — and they ask for it differently. This is a field-by-field comparison of the two submission templates, taken from the blank forms themselves, not from memory.
The short answer
Both forms want a firm profile, a client list, the people you want ranked, and up to twenty work highlights from the last twelve months. Both separate what may be published from what may not. Beyond that they diverge in ways that decide how much rework a firm has to do when it files with both — and most of that rework is caused by five fields.
Firm and department level
| Chambers Europe | Legal 500 EMEA | |
|---|---|---|
| Identification | A1 Firm name · A2 Practice Area · A3 Location (Jurisdiction) | Firm Name · Country · Practice Area (drop-down list, one per submission) |
| Interview contact | A4 Contact person to arrange interviews about this practice area — name, email, telephone | Contact details to arrange interviews — name, job title, email, phone |
| Department name | B1 Department name (used by firm) | What is the Team or Department Name (as used by your firm) |
| Head of department | B7 Head or Heads of department — name, email, telephone | Head(s) of Team — name, location |
| Headcount | B2 Number of partners · B3 Number of other qualified lawyers — each with male/female ratio as a percentage | Number of PARTNERS · Number of NON-PARTNERS, counted as those who spend at least 50% of their time in the department |
| Narrative questions | — | What sets your practice apart from other firms? · Initiatives and innovation over the last year · What do you think of our existing rankings and commentary? |
| Feedback on rivals | C2 Feedback on our coverage of other firms in this practice area (optional) | Covered by the rankings/commentary question |
| Barristers | C1 Barristers / advocates used in the UK, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, New Zealand or Sri Lanka | — |
| Diversity data | Male/female ratio per headcount field (statistics not mandatory) | — |
Rows shaded in beige exist on one side only.
People you want ranked
| Chambers Europe | Legal 500 EMEA | |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | One lawyer table for the department | Three separate groups: leading partners, next generation partners, leading associates |
| Joiners and leavers | B8 Hires / Departures of partners in the last 12 months — name, joined or departed, other firm | Name (English) · Position/role · Joined, Departed or Promoted · Firm · Month and year |
Two practical consequences. Legal 500 wants a month and year for every significant partner-level arrival, departure or promotion; a Chambers submission does not record either, so a firm that has only ever filed with Chambers has to go back to its HR records. And Legal 500 sorts individuals into three named tiers before you write a word — a decision Chambers leaves to the researcher.
Clients
| Chambers Europe | Legal 500 EMEA | |
|---|---|---|
| List | Name of Client · New Client (Yes/No) — ten rows | Active key clients over the last 12 months · New client (yes/no), extendable |
| Publication | Two lists: publishable (D0) and confidential (E0) | Two lists: publishable clients (published in full) and non-publishable clients |
Work highlights — where the real work sits
Both directories accept up to twenty matters from the last twelve months. Chambers leaves the split to you: the form provides ten prepared blocks in section D and ten in section E, but the only rule is that the total must not exceed twenty. Two publishable and eighteen confidential matters are as valid as ten and ten. Legal 500 asks for up to twenty highlight matters and separates each one into a publishable or a non-publishable block.
| Information | Chambers Europe | Legal 500 EMEA |
|---|---|---|
| Client | D1 Name of client — publishable; a general description is allowed if the name cannot be revealed | Name of client plus industry sector |
| The narrative | D2 Summary of matter and your department’s role — why the matter was important and exactly what role the department played | Matter description — the team’s role, what made it important, and any relevant press coverage in the same field |
| One-line summary | — | A separate publishable matter summary, e.g. “Advised [company] on acquisition of [company]” |
| Value | D3 Matter value — currency and amount in figures | Deal value |
| Cross-border | D4 Is this a cross-border matter? If yes, the jurisdictions involved | Was it cross-border? · Jurisdictions involved |
| Lead lawyer | D5 Lead lawyer | Lead partner(s) — name, office, practice area |
| Team | D6 Other team members | Other key team members — name, office, practice area |
| Other firms | D7 Other firms advising on the matter and their role(s) | Firm name · role details · and whom they advised |
| Timing | D8 Date of completion or current status | Start date and end date as separate fields |
| Press coverage | D9 Other information about this matter — e.g. link to press coverage | Inside the matter description |
| Length | “Please do not exceed one page per deal.” | No page limit stated |
| Editing the form | “Please do not alter this submission template.” | Rows inside a matter are added by right-clicking and inserting; additional matter blocks are copied onto a new page |
What this means when you file with both
A Chambers submission does not contain everything a Legal 500 submission needs. Copying one into the other leaves five gaps that no amount of reformatting fixes: the industry sector per client, the office and practice area for each named lawyer, the start date of each matter, whom each other firm advised, and the one-line summary per matter. None of these can be inferred from the Chambers text. They have to come from the firm.
The reverse direction is easier but not free. Chambers wants press coverage in its own field, a single completion status rather than two dates, headcount split by gender, and — if the firm instructs counsel in the relevant jurisdictions — the barristers used. It also enforces a one-page limit per matter, which a Legal 500 description written without a length constraint will usually exceed.
This is why a firm that files with both should capture the superset once, at the point the matter is recorded, rather than writing one submission and then trying to reconstruct the other from it. The fields that get lost are always the ones the current directory did not ask for.
Questions firms ask
Can a Chambers submission be converted into a Legal 500 submission?
How many matters can I submit to each?
Are the confidentiality rules the same?
Can I change the layout of the forms?
Which fields does Legal 500 ask for that Chambers does not?
Which fields does Chambers ask for that Legal 500 does not?
Capture the superset once
RanXactly® catalogues a submission into records — matter, client, industry, lawyers with office and practice area, dates, confidentiality — and writes those records into whichever form you need next. Chambers to Legal 500, Legal 500 to Chambers, and eleven further ranking forms.
Law Business has prepared ranking submissions for law firms since 2004, from offices in Germany, Austria and Italy. Template details in this article were taken from the blank Chambers Europe Submission Form and the Legal 500 EMEA submission template (version 20/5/2025, EMEA 2026), both downloaded on 19 March 2026.