Q: Online Submissions: What is Online Submissions?

Online S ubmissions is a new enhanced digital experience which helps firms and barristers’ sets save time and easily manage all their content when creating and sending submissions and referees to Chambers. It comes complete with step-by-step guidance and a submission hub to edit, save and track progress across all submissions, referees and deadlines, all in one place.

Question 1

Online Submissions: What is Online Submissions?

Accepted Answer

Online Submissions is a new enhanced digital experience which helps firms and barristers’ sets save time and easily manage all their content when creating and sending submissions and referees to Chambers. It comes complete with step-by-step guidance and a submission hub to edit, save and track progress across all submissions, referees and deadlines, all in one place.

Question 2

Online Submissions: Do I have to use Online Submissions to submit?

Accepted Answer

No, the new platform is completely optional. We believe those participating in the Chambers research process will love using our new online submissions hub and enjoy the enhanced convenience and clarity in their experience. However, if you don’t feel ready to make a change, you can continue to submit using the traditional Chambers word and excel templates.

Question 3

Online Submissions: Will choosing One Submission method over another have any impact on the rankings?

Accepted Answer

No, your submissions and referees will be processed and used by Chambers in exactly the same way and your choice of submission route won’t impact our research process or our ranking decisions in any way. Any confidential information will also continue to be protected and separated from publishable information in accordance with our existing policies.

Question 4

Online Submissions: Will choosing One Submission method over another have any impact on the rankings?

Accepted Answer

No, your submissions and referees will be processed and used by Chambers in exactly the same way and your choice of submission route won’t impact our research process or our ranking decisions in any way. Any confidential information will also continue to be protected and separated from publishable information in accordance with our existing policies.

Question 5

Online Submissions: How can I access the new Online Submissions platform?

Accepted Answer

We are currently making our new Online Submissions experience available to limited numbers of law firms and barrister sets as part of a Beta program. This to make sure that all users who are interested in submitting in this new way are given the level of support they require to complete their Online Submission securely and confidently,

From 22 May 2023 anyone that wishes to request access to the Beta version of the new Online Submissions hub will be able to do so by signing up via the submissions information page on our website: https://chambers.com/info/submissions

After signing up, you will receive an email from Chambers confirming if you have been admitted onto the Beta scheme, along with access to the new platform and the dedicated help centre. 

If we cannot give you access to Online Submissions at this time, we encourage you to continue to submit using the traditional Chambers word and excel templates.

Question 6

Online Submissions: How was the online submissions platform tested?

Accepted Answer

Our online submissions platform was designed based on extensive user feedback collected from a wide variety of firms that have interest or experience in submitting to Chambers. The platform has been through several successful phases of internal tests. It has also been tested externally with a selection of users from firms and sets who volunteered to submit to Chambers using the online submissions platform as part of a pilot scheme.

We are now making the platform more widely available as part of a closed beta scheme. This means anyone interested may sign up to request access to the new platform, however, we will keep availability limited to begin with, to help us assess the demand and level of support our users may need to make this transition to a new way of submitting.

Question 7

Online Submissions: Will a submission created using the online submissions platform look different to the research team when compared to an old submission template document?

Accepted Answer

Any submission created and submitted through the online submissions hub will be accessible to the research team as a protected PDF document, which is very similar to the existing templates. Confidential and publishable matters continue to be clearly marked and separated, with confidential work highlights colour-coded in red. You can also download your submission into Word format and this document will be exactly the same as the one our research team sees for any submissions created using the online submissions hub.

Question 8

Online Submissions: I already started my submission, should I switch to the new online submissions platform?

Accepted Answer

If you are already part-way through preparing your submissions for an upcoming deadline with Chambers, we recommend that you continue to use the traditional Chambers templates to avoid having to manage two systems at once.

Question 9

Online Submissions: How do users find the new online submissions platform?

Accepted Answer

To access online submissions, you will first need to be granted access to the platform on Chambers MyAccount. To request access, please sign up via our submissions information

page: https://chambers.com/info/submissions

Once enabled, you will be able to access the online submissions hub via your Chambers MyAccount by logging in and clicking on the ‘Online Submissions: Beta’ link in the left-hand menu.

Question 10

Online Submissions: How do I create a submission in the online submissions platform?

Accepted Answer

To create a new submission, you can click ‘Create’ in the bottom-right corner of your home screen in the Submission Hub. This will open a ‘Submission setup’ screen, which will guide through some details Chambers will need to help you find the area of the Chambers research you would like to submit for. You must complete the fields shown and select ‘Create’ in order to save the new submission and once created, you cannot change the office, jurisdiction or practice area for a submission. If you want to submit to a different practice area or jurisdiction instead, you can do so by creating a new submission.

Question 11

Online Submissions: What if the department I am submitting for is spread across multiple offices? Which one should I select?

Accepted Answer

If your team is spread across multiple offices (for example, if you are submitting for one of our Nationwide or Global Multi-jurisdictional tables), we recommend selecting the one office which could be regarded as the ‘Head Office’ for the department. You can also tell us about other key office locations for the department in the practice area summary section to give our research team an overview of the other key office locations relevant to your submission.

Question 12

Online Submissions: Do I need to select both a jurisdiction and a region?

Accepted Answer

You will always need to select a jurisdiction for your online submission first. The jurisdiction will normally be the country in which your office is based. For example if you are creating a submission for an office in New York, the jurisdiction will be ‘USA’.

Region is only required for specific tables that relate to a segment of the market within the jurisdiction you have chosen, such as rankings by state, region or city in our USA and UK Guides. For example if you were submitting for our New York State rankings, the jurisdiction would be ‘USA’ and the region would be ‘New York’.

Please note, only jurisdictions and regions for which research is open and we are accepting new submissions will be available for selection. For a full list of guides, jurisdictions, regions and practice areas and when submissions will be open, you can visit our full Research Schedule for more information.

Question 13

Online Submissions: What should I do if I can’t find a practice area that looks right for me?

Accepted Answer

After selecting a jurisdiction and/or region, you will be able to choose from a selection of practice areas to submit for. Please note, only include practice areas for which research is open and we are accepting new submissions will be available for selection. For a full list of guides, jurisdictions, regions and practice areas when submissions will be open, you can visit our full Research Schedule for more information.

If you can’t find a practice area that looks like an exact fit for your practice, we recommend choosing the one that feels like the closest fit. If you need further guidance on what type of work Chambers considers within each practice area, you can refer to our practice area definitions here: https://chambers.com/faqs/practice-area-definitions-34040000000836001

Question 14

Online Submissions: Who should be the contact for arranging interviews on my submission?

Accepted Answer

We recommend providing a contact for arranging interviews. This person should be someone our research team can get in contact with if they would like to speak to some lawyers from the team to gather more information about your department and your team’s feedback on our rankings. You can add this contact person to your submission by entering their name, email and telephone number and then clicking the ‘+’ button.

Question 15

Online Submissions: What does the Current Submissions tab show?

Accepted Answer

The submissions hub is divided into two tabs for ‘Current Submissions’ and ‘Historic Submissions’. ‘Current Submissions’ will show you all your submissions which are in progress or submitted for sections of our research which have not yet started; you can continue to edit and amend any submissions which are displayed in this tab. Once we begin research on an area you have provided a submission for, that submission will move to the ‘Historic’ tab.

Question 16

Online Submissions: What do the different statuses mean in the Current Submissions tab?

Accepted Answer

New means this submission was created in the last 2 weeks;
In progress applies to submissions which are being worked on but which you have not yet submitted and cannot yet be seen by the research team;
Closing status will apply to any submission you have created but not submitted when the relevant deadline is within the next 2 weeks from today’s date. This is so you can easily see and focus on submissions for which the deadline is near;
Submitted means that your submissions for this area have been sent to Chambers, although they can still be edited and updated before the deadline shown.

Question 17

Online Submissions: How do I see the submission deadlines in the online submissions platform?

Accepted Answer

Once you have created a submission for a certain practice area, the submission deadline for each area you have created a submission for is displayed in a column on the right of your screen in the Current Submissions area of the submissions hub.

Question 18

Online Submissions: What does the Historic Submissions tab show?

Accepted Answer

‘Historic Submissions’ shows any submissions you have submitted for practice areas which are now being researched, for which research has completed, or submissions you uploaded for past Chambers guide rankings that have now launched.

Question 19

Online Submissions: What do the different statuses mean in the Historic Submissions tab?

Accepted Answer

Researching status means our team are currently carrying out their research on the area you submitted for. Our team will be actively reviewing the information in your submission and reaching out to referees during this time;
Research Completed means our team has finished their research on the area you submitted for and our team will be working on finalising the rankings and editorial in preparation for the launch of the guide;
Launched means this submission related to a Chambers guide that has already launched and the results and rankings related to this submission have been published on the Chambers website.

Question 20

Online Submissions: How far in the past will historic submissions show?

Accepted Answer

You will be able to see any submissions you have created in the online submission hub as recently as 2 years or less in the Historic Submissions tab.

Question 21

Online Submissions: I have been submitting to Chambers for the past 2 years – why can’t I see any historic submissions?

Accepted Answer

Historic submissions will only show submissions that have been created via the online submissions hub. Submissions sent in previous years via the old Chambers templates will not appear in online submissions.

Question 22

Online Submissions: What is a nominee?

Accepted Answer

A nominee is any person within your organization you would like to reference in your submission or that you would like Chambers to consider for a ranking.

Question 23

Online Submissions: Who can be a nominee (is it just partners?)

Accepted Answer

Lawyer: A nominee could be any team member within the department of your firm that you are submitting for. Typically this will be either a partner, associate or junior lawyer who has contributed to the work done by the department.

Bar: A nominee could be any team member within the department of your set that you are submitting for. Typically this will be either King’s Counsel or Junior Counsel.

Question 24

Online Submissions: What is a work highlight and why to provide them?

Accepted Answer

Work highlights allow you to add information about legal matters this department, firm or set has advised on over the review period. Work highlights include a description of the nature of the legal work, the team members from the relevant department(s) involved, and other organisations advising on the matter. The idea of work highlights is to communicate to Chambers what the relevant team did and why it was significant. Work highlights can be submitted as publishable or confidential.

Question 25

Online Submissions: What is the difference between publishable and confidential matters and how do I select the right option?

Accepted Answer

You must tell us whether a work highlight is Confidential, or Publishable. If your highlight is something which you do not want Chambers to write about or reference on our website once the rankings are published, you should select ‘Confidential’.

Alternatively, if the work done in this highlight is public knowledge, or can be discussed and referenced publicly on the Chambers website, you can select ‘Publishable’. This will tell our researchers that they can write about this work highlight when creating any commentary about your firm once the rankings are launched.

Please note that if the details of the work highlight are publishable, but you want to keep the value / financial aspects of the work confidential – you can select the ‘Confidential Value’ option. This will mean researchers may write about the work highlight on our website but will ensure the details of the value involved will never be referenced.

Question 26

What are matter type and primary industry on Online submissions? What should I do if I am unsure what matter type to select for my work highlight?

Accepted Answer

Selecting a matter type and primary industry for your work highlight simply helps provide context around the work highlight and helps us to clearly categorise your work. There is no right or wrong answer to this question and it will not impact our decision on the rankings, it simply helps our researchers to understand the key skills and knowledge your firm provided when doing this work.

Matter types are broad categories that help us distinguish between work that is primarily transactional or advisory in nature, or is more contentious or adversarial in nature so we can most accurately understand and describe your department’s range of work and core focus. Choosing a matter type for each work highlight is compulsory.

Primary industries are more specific categories that can help us to identify evidence of any industry specialism or experience in working with clients from certain industry groups that may be important for us to understand about your department. Choosing a primary industry for your work highlight is optional.

If you can’t find a type or industry that looks like an exact fit for your work highlight, we recommend choosing the one that feels like the closest fit.

Question 27

What does it mean when I am told there is a low chance of success for my referee on Online Submissions? What should I do about this or who can I ask for help?

Accepted Answer

When adding referees in the online submissions hub, on entering your referee’s email address, you may see a message appear to tell you that we have a low chance of contacting this referee.

If you see this message, it means the person you are putting forward has previously told Chambers they wish to opt out of receiving future communication from us. Our chances of making contact with a person who has opted out are lower.

If this should happen, you are welcome to put forward a different referee if you are able to. However, if you have asked this referee if they are happy to participate in our research on your behalf and they have confirmed that they are happy to do so, you can also forward the referee’s written confirmation to our customer success team at customersuccess@chambers.com, and they can update our records so your referee can be included in our referee emails.

Question 28

How do I link a referee to a nominee or work highlight on Online submissions? Why would I do this? Can one referee be linked to multiple nominees or work highlights?

Accepted Answer

You can also link referees to any associated work highlights or nominees you have added to your submission. We recommend adding associated work highlights and nominees to each referee, as this will help our research team know the context of your firm’s relationship to this referee and help us be more specific in our questions for the referee when we ask for their feedback.

If your referee has a relationship with several different nominees or you have worked with the referee on several different work highlights that are included in your submission, you can link the referee to multiple different nominees or work highlights as needed.

Question 29

What is market feedback on Online Submissions and how is it used? Why should I provide it?

Accepted Answer

Market feedback is a part of the submission that enables you to give your feedback on Chambers’ coverage of the area you are submitting for and any of the other firms or individuals which are or are not currently ranked in this area of the market. This could include specific feedback on how you believe our rankings should be changed, or information about trends or changes in the market and the work being done that could help shape our coverage.

Any feedback you share in this section is used by Chambers to inform our questions during research and serves as useful context to any decisions we make. We appreciate firms providing this information to help us understand the prevailing views of all the firms participating in our research process.

Question 30

When should I submit and what do I need to feel certain of before clicking submit the Online submissions? Can I save content to review later, before I submit?

Accepted Answer

While you can continue to edit your information after you have submitted your document up until the submission deadline, we recommend you submit once you are happy that your submission is ready to be viewed by our research team.

The information you upload to the submission hub can be saved as you go, downloaded, reviewed, and edited continually before you submit to enable you to submit with comfort and confidence.

Question 31

What happens after I submit? Can I still make edits and until when can I do this? Can I submit an incomplete submission and add more later?

Accepted Answer

After you have submitted, you can continue to edit, change or delete information in your submission if you need to up until the submission deadline date shown in your submission hub. Any changes you make after submitting and before the submission deadline date will need to be resubmitted to update your documents to ensure our research team is always using the correct up-to-date version of your submission.

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