Legal 500 has issued a revised EMEA submission form and an updated referee sheet for the 2027 research cycle. The changes look technical at first glance, but they have a direct impact on firms that reuse content across rankings – for example when carrying data over from a Chambers submission or from last year's form. Above all, existing automated workflows and established copy-paste processes may require adjustment under the new format.

The key differences at a glance

1. New input mechanism: content controls instead of free tables

The most visible difference is how the form is filled in. The 2026 form consisted of classic Word tables; additional rows were inserted via right-click → “Insert row below”. The 2027 form uses genuine Word content controls – every input field now shows “Click or tap here to enter text” or “Enter text here”, and new rows are added via a “+ button” on the right-hand side. The former “please copy this page” for additional partners and associates has likewise been replaced by the “+ button”.

In practice this means: anyone used to simply pasting text into table cells or populating the form via script needs to rethink their approach. Content controls behave differently from free cells when content is pasted.

2. Updated country and practice-area lists

The 2027 referee sheet has reshuffled its dropdown of jurisdictions: Botswana and Zimbabwe were added, while Afghanistan and Andorra were dropped (80 jurisdictions in each edition). In addition, practice areas were expanded or re-cut in numerous countries (such as high-end / mid-market splits). Anyone carrying over the exact label of a practice area from last year should check whether it still exists unchanged in the 2027 dropdown.

3. Linguistic and structural refinements

Throughout, the new form refers to “The Legal 500” rather than “Legal 500”. The note “(This will be published in full)” next to the list of publishable clients has been removed. The 2027 form also no longer carries the previous template version stamp (formerly: “Template Version: 20/5/2025 – EMEA 2026”).

Why this matters specifically for data transfer between rankings

Many firms work efficiently by reusing content across multiple rankings: a matter description written for Chambers is carried into the Legal 500 submission; a referee list is maintained once and used several times. This is exactly where the new form creates friction: anyone who copies entire tables or cell blocks 1:1 from a Chambers Word document, or who has built scripts or macros around the previous table structure, must review and where necessary adapt them – simply typing or pasting text into the fields still works; last year's content is not directly transferable; and referee data must be checked against the new dropdown values before resubmission. In addition, existing referee databases may contain jurisdictions (such as Afghanistan or Andorra) or practice areas that are no longer offered in the new dropdown. And AI- or script-based Chambers-to-Legal-500 transfer processes configured around the previous table structure should be tested before the next submission cycle.

Practical recommendation

For the 2027 cycle, use only the current form and the current referee sheet. Carry content over from prior-year or Chambers documents deliberately and field by field – not by wholesale copying of entire tables. Check every practice-area label and every country value against the new dropdowns. This prevents a strong submission from failing on a formatting error.