Rankings are the result of intensive research

Chambers is respected — and even a little feared — in the legal community because it is not what they call a “pay-to-play” guide.

The rankings are the result of independent research conducted out of the firm’s London headquarters. The lawyers and firms have no control over the results.

“No one can buy their way in as far as research rankings are concerned,” says Edward Shum of Chambers and Partners, editor for the Africa, Canada, Middle East, Caribbean and Global-wide sections of the guide. “Our rankings come as a result of our research.”

Researchers from Chambers review some basic material submitted by law firms, interview clients and consult public filings on transactions that the firms have worked on.

The feedback collected from clients must be direct, not second-hand. This year’s Canadian research was conducted between April and mid-October of 2012, with the analysis and editorial prepared thereafter in time for the March 15 launch of the guide.

“That research process is open to all firms and lawyers,” Mr. Shum says. “There’s no secret approach. The methodology — how to take part, what to do, when to take part — that’s all on our website. Nobody gets any kind of inside track.”

The directory ranks lawyers and firms in several practice areas. The highest rated counsel receive a grade of Band 1, though there are two special über categories for extremely respected lawyers, Star Individual and Senior Statesman.

The Canadian ranks move from Band 1 down to Band 5, and there is a junior category from lawyers on the cusp of achieving one of those coveted band rankings, Up-andcoming Individual.

This year’s edition of the Canada section of Chambers Global names 79 different firms and 1,115 different law- yers. Given that there are more than 100,000 lawyers in Canada, any mention in Chambers — even one that comes in one of the lower band levels — is an incredible achievement.

We should note something about the numbers we report in our main story on page LP1.

Crunching the numbers proved a little trickier this year because several Canadian firms and lawyers now appear as “foreign experts” in other jurisdictional sections of the Chambers Global guide. Chambers helped us with the numbers by providing us its own firm and lawyer tallies in advance of publication.