WWL – Who’s Who Legal: Should lawyers participate in this ranking?

The significance of such a recommendation ranking is thus very limited. One can conclude very little about the quality of a lawyer’s work. An award in WWL does not mean much. It is only a measure of how well a lawyer is networking within the legal profession.

But, the reason for good networking is not a good performance as a lawyer. Rather, good networkers are often good communicators. They can build good networks based on their personality. Also, their personal background often helps them. This includes, for example, elite schools and alumni networks.

But, the degree of networking is not a statement of quality. The only finding here is that the lawyer mentioned is not a lunatic and the legal profession does not avoid him. But it is completely unclear how good e. g. the lawyer is at communicating with clients.

So, should one take part in WWL as a lawyer? In an industry where time is as scarce as it is in law, the clear answer is no. If you still want to take part, then only if you already have good results in top research rankings. But then WWL is at best only a nice-to-have for your own well-being. This is not at all decisive for acquisition.

Without results in research rankings, you should not take part in referral rankings. Because it then looks like your law firm does not have the quality to achieve a good ranking with the top research rankings. This is also how industry experts such as in-house counsels will perceive your law firm.

How to get on Who’s Who Legal – and what has changed since this article

Who’s Who Legal is now called Lexology Index. Lexology announced the change itself: “Last year, Who’s Who Legal (WWL) became part of Lexology”, and “we are excited to announce WWL will be rebranding and changing its name to Lexology Index” (Lexology, 23 August 2024). The same announcement says the transition “will be executed in phases over the coming weeks”.

Two sentences from that announcement matter for anyone asking how to get on Who’s Who Legal. Lexology states that “Research-based rankings remain the same, and the research reports and profiles remain available on Lexology”, and that “Most recently, we have introduced quantitative data to our research methodology, ensuring a rigorous evaluation framework”.

When this article was written, the route in was the questionnaire described above: pre-selected lawyer names per country and practice area, plus a free field for anyone not on the list. Nominations, not matters, were what the questionnaire asked for – and that is what made Who’s Who Legal a recommendation ranking rather than a research ranking such as Chambers and Partners or Legal 500. We have not verified whether that questionnaire still works the same way under the Lexology Index name, so we do not restate its current rules here; Lexology publishes them on its own Lexology Index pages.

Our advice has not changed by the change of name. If you want to take part in Who’s Who Legal, do it only once you already have good results in the top research rankings. Without those results, taking part in a recommendation ranking reads to in-house counsel as a law firm that could not get ranked where the work itself is examined.