Chambers’ Revenue Model Tests Law Firms’ Appetite for Exposure

Once a modest directory in London, Chambers & Partners sits atop a vast, and increasingly lucrative, legal rankings industry.

Just how lucrative became clear in November, when Chambers sold for five times the price it fetched in 2018. Abry Partners, a mid-market private equity firm based in Boston, bought Chambers from London’s Inflexion Partners in a deal valuing the legal directory at £400 million ($492.4 million US).

A Chambers badge today is widely viewed in the industry as a legitimate proxy for a lawyer’s bona fides. Now, CEO Tim Noble’s challenge is to deliver revenue growth while maintaining the brand.

“You’ve got a business here that is entrenched effectively in the legal profession,” he said in an interview. “We have to make sure that we, you know, we maintain that and keep our leading position.”

Chambers’ strategy largely revolves around selling advertising and research products to the same lawyers it reviews. As it’s gotten larger, critics say the practice has increasingly toed the line between independent research and profit motive.

“In the early days of Chambers, the sales function was a small minor thing,” said Lloyd Pearson, a former Chambers global editor who advises firms on legal rankings submissions. “Clearly that’s not true anymore. Private equity investors don’t do this for fun.”

The rankings firm is known for a submissions process so rigorous that some law firms have dedicated staff to assemble information for it and other rankings. Firms must share lists of cases and clients across different jurisdictions and practices—up to 20 cases and 30 clients for a specific practice. Chambers each year rates firms in “bands” 1 through 6, in markets ranging from New York mergers and acquisitions—led by Wall Street heavyweights such as Sullivan & Cromwell and Cravath, Swaine & Moore—to the greater China and Africa regions.

“You can be ranked by Chambers whether or not you have a commercial relationship with us,” Noble said, calling that a distinction from some pay-to-play competitors.

Still, in a marketing proposal for 2024 sent to one international firm, Chambers called the purchase of a firm profile on its website a way to “secure the best possible ranking for the firm and for your individuals.” The profile—which is priced by region and serves as a firm homepage on the website—was £8,795 ($10,800) in the US, roughly double the price of that firm’s profile in 2018, according to the documents seen by Bloomberg Law.

Another Big Law firm was quoted a price of more than $30,000 for a 2024 US website profile, according to a source inside the firm.

Asked about the language on paying to “secure the best possible ranking,” and whether firms can expect better rankings if they pay for Chambers products, Noble said “the answer is a categorical no.”

A website profile, he said, allows firms to “basically enhance” and differentiate themselves from competitors to buyers of legal services.

If two law firms are ranked “band one” in a specific practice, they “would all be listed on chambers.com, right? But you may choose to differentiate effectively your profile by talking about the cases you’ve worked on, how long you’ve done this, why that can pay. You can effectively pay for that privilege.”

Chambers also markets client and market intelligence reports, which include tailored guides on how to improve a firm or practice’s rankings. Features that also come with buying a website profile include a “referee management tool,” which give firms an ability to see which clients have responded to Chambers researchers’ outreach, who use client calls as part of their assessments.

Silvia Van den Bruel, a marketing director at global plaintiffs firm Hausfeld, criticized Chambers’ business model in a January article under the title, “Private equity and directories—are lawyers paying the price?” She contended the line between independent research and payment had faded, with law firms losing visibility on the Chambers website if they elected not to pay for its products.

“Today, if you do not pay, you can’t play, underscored by the different layout and website page presentation,” she wrote. “How far will they be able to push law firms in their quest for self-validation?”

Abry Partners didn’t return requests for comment on its interest in Chambers. The PE firm in 2021 also bought Best Lawyers, a peer-review publication that ranks lawyers, suggesting it’s building a portfolio of companies in legal information services.

Cottage Industry

In the pre-internet days, legal directories such as Martindale Hubbell were key resources for businesses and law firms in need of counsel in unfamiliar locales. Today, there are nearly 1,000 rankings sites just in the US, according to the public relations firm Jaffe PR, demonstrating how vast of a cottage industry ranking lawyers has become.

Chambers says on its website that 85% of law firms say a Chambers ranking helps them win and retain business. Internal research shows 75% of the Fortune 500 used the Chambers website since August, Noble said.

“We have statistical proof that law firms find it helps them,” said Noble, who came to Chambers in 2019 with a background in financial data analytics. “I mean, this is what they tell us.”

Research from BTI Consulting published in 2022 found few corporate counsel use directories for law firm hiring, but do use them to “validate or help them understand attorney behavior.”

“The predominant way in-house counsel find law firms to work with is through word-of-mouth,” said Susanna McDonald, the vice president of the Association for Corporate Counsel, a trade group representing in-house counsel. It is “hard to gauge how many are using legal rankings.”

Noble agreed that corporate counsel lean on their own networks. “But they will also ensure” their law firm selection by using Chambers, he said.

Under new ownership, Noble said, Chambers plans to redouble its investments in the US, meaning more rankings across states such as Texas and Florida. He said its core business remains the same: large-scale research of law practices and sharing with the market who the top lawyers in a particular field are.

Chambers employs roughly 250 researchers in offices in London and New York. Those heavy investments in research and data have made Chambers “the ranking that people really care about,” he said.

There’s no sign of any brewing revolt. More firms participate in Chambers’ submissions process every year, Noble said.

The alternative to being in Chambers, or any other legal rankings platform, is not being in there. And for many firms, not devoting the time and resources to appear alongside their competitors isn’t a real alternative.

“There’s a degree of FOMO here,” said Jocelyn Brumbaugh, the head of Builden Partners, a law firm marketing consultancy. “FOMO wins the day a lot.”