Beyond bands and tiers: turning directory submissions into strategic return on investment

Helen Foord

ELE, London^[1]

helen@eleglobal.me

Preparing legal directory submissions takes time. A lot of it. Partners are interviewed, matters are carefully drafted and marketing teams spend weeks refining the messaging. Yet once the rankings are published, success is often judged by a single metric: the band or tier achieved.

Rankings matter. They provide independent validation, visibility and credibility in a competitive market. But if rankings are the only way firms evaluate the value of directories, they are missing a far bigger opportunity.

For many firms, directories remain one of the most resource-intensive marketing exercises they undertake, yet also one of the least strategically considered. When approached differently, the process can generate significant return on investment across business development, client relationships, competitive intelligence and talent strategy.

The key is to start viewing directories as a year-round strategic process.

From annual exercise to strategic process

Most directory activity still revolves around deadlines. Matters are gathered a few weeks before submission. Referees are added to spreadsheets. The document is finalised just in time. It goes in. And then everyone waits.

The most successful firms, however, take a more continuous approach.

Referee relationships are managed throughout the year rather than just at submission time. Marketing teams keep track of significant matters as they happen rather than trying to reconstruct them months later. They send regular updates to researchers, strengthening submissions and supporting related awards shortlists. Feedback from researchers is reviewed carefully and used to refine category strategy and market positioning.

Seen this way, the submission document is not the end of the process but simply one milestone in a wider programme of market positioning and client engagement.

This mindset is particularly important for international firms. Their reputation is often built across multiple jurisdictions and referral networks, where clients and other law firms may have limited knowledge of the local market. Directories therefore act as a shared reference point for credibility. Each research cycle produces engagement, insight and content that can support a firm’s broader strategy long after the submission itself has been uploaded.

The hidden content bank

One of the simplest ways to unlock more value from directories is to make better use of the content they already produce.

Each submission (usually) contains carefully drafted matter summaries, practice descriptions and lawyer biographies. These are often written with input from multiple partners and refined by the marketing team to ensure they reflect the firm’s positioning and strategic priorities.

With a little planning, this same material can support a wide range of marketing and business development activities. Matter descriptions can become website case studies or representative matters for pitch documents. Practice overviews can feed directly into sector or service page updates on the firm’s website. Submission biographies can be adapted into short pitch profiles or more detailed CVs.

The point is not simply to reuse content for the sake of efficiency. It is that the directories process already forces firms to capture and articulate their most significant work each year. Used properly, that content becomes a structured and reliable source of marketing material.

Directories as a form of client insight

Directories can also play a useful role in understanding how clients view the firm.

Client feedback sits at the heart of the research process. And that feedback carries considerable weight in determining the final rankings.

But too often referee management is treated as an administrative task rather than an opportunity to strengthen client relationships.

Firms that take a more structured approach integrate the referee process into their wider client engagement strategy. They manage it centrally and coordinate shared referees across offices and groups. This strengthens relationships and provides a clearer understanding of how their services are perceived outside of silos.

Some directories now provide tools that support this process. For example, Chambers offers a referee management tool that allows firms to monitor response rates and engagement. Legal 500 provides Net Promoter Score reports that offer insight into how clients evaluate a firm’s service. Used thoughtfully, they can complement client listening programmes and provide another lens on client relationships and service delivery.

Competitive intelligence hiding in plain sight

Rankings, editorial commentary and researcher feedback provide insight into how firms and individual lawyers are positioned in the market. When reviewed over time, they can show where competitors are gaining momentum, where new teams are emerging and where the market itself may be shifting.

Tools such as the Legal 500 firm comparison feature allow firms to look closer at competitors. Combined with the narrative commentary in the rankings, this can provide valuable context when firms are considering expansion into new sectors or geographic markets.

The submission process itself can also support strategic thinking. Preparing the document requires firms to decide which matters best demonstrate their strengths, which sectors they wish to emphasise and which lawyers should be highlighted.

In practice, this is often where marketing and business development teams discover how siloed information can be. Submissions are frequently managed within a single practice group, with little visibility of work being completed elsewhere in the firm. As a result, relevant matters from other teams or jurisdictions can easily be missed. This is particularly true for sector-focused submissions, where significant work may sit across multiple practices.

When the process is approached more strategically, it can prompt a broader conversation across the firm. It forces teams to articulate their market position consistently and to think carefully about how they wish to be perceived by clients, competitors and the directories themselves.

Directories matter for talent and recruitment

When directories are treated as a once-a-year submission exercise, the impact is largely limited to the rankings themselves. The results are shared on LinkedIn. Then nothing.

When they are approached as a year-round programme, however, they can contribute much more. In particular, with recruitment and talent strategy.

Tracking significant matters throughout the year helps firms identify which lawyers are building strong practices and where emerging talent should be highlighted. Decisions about which individuals to feature in submissions often prompt valuable internal discussions about career progression and market positioning.

Representative matters, practice descriptions and editorial commentary help demonstrate the quality of work a team is doing. It all adds up.

Seen in this way, directories contribute not only to how clients perceive a firm, but also to how the wider profession and potential recruits understand its strengths.

Measuring the real return

Of course, what we have been talking about here is really return on investment from a really expensive process. If directories support marketing, client relationships, competitive intelligence and recruitment, the obvious question then becomes how to demonstrate that return.

When submissions are treated as part of a broader programme rather than a once-a-year task, it becomes much easier to see how that investment supports other parts of the firm’s strategy.

For example, how many representative matters used in pitches or panel tenders originate in the directory submissions? How often does submission content feed into website case studies, award entries or thought leadership? How much time is saved by repurposing directories content rather than starting from scratch?

What insights emerge from the referee process when it is run alongside the firm’s wider client listening programme? Do researcher interviews highlight themes about service, responsiveness or sector expertise that can inform client strategy?

What patterns appear when competitor rankings are reviewed across successive editions? Are particular firms gaining visibility in new sectors or jurisdictions? Are we?

How often are directory rankings referenced in lateral hiring conversations? Which teams are building the strongest profile in the market, and how does that map to the firm’s growth priorities?

The goal is not to reduce directories to a purely numerical exercise. But taken together they help ensure that the many hours invested in submissions translate into benefits that extend well beyond the rankings themselves.

Looking ahead

The firms gaining the most value today are not those that simply produce the most polished submission documents. They are the firms that treat the entire process as a structured source of insight and content. Matters are tracked throughout the year. Discussions around using customer relationship management (CRM) better are evolving into internal tool development and artificial intelligence (AI) innovation. Referee engagement is aligned with client listening programmes. Submission content feeds directly into pitches, recruitment messaging and marketing materials. Rankings are analysed alongside competitor activity to inform strategic decisions.

In other words, for those firms the submission deadline has become just one moment in a much longer cycle.

Rankings will always matter. We love a ranking. But the real transformation comes from everything the directories process helps a firm understand, capture and communicate throughout the year. That is the real strategic return on investment.