Much ado about nothing over legal directories

Much ado about nothing over legal directories

The latest Global Legal Post snapshot survey reveals lawyers are split over value of legal directories

Are legal directories really worth anything? The answer to this vexed question is bound to leave a layman even more confused with the latest snapshot survey conducted by the Global Legal Post revealing that the legal professionals were split over it.

The survey found out that lawyers were almost evenly split between those who believed that legal directories improved transparency and those who disputed this.

Similarly, opinions were also divided over accuracy of rankings by the directories.

The survey was conducted based on response of 109 legal professionals, 70 of whom were law firm partners, associates or those who work in other capacities in law firms, while the reminder worked in different roles in the legal market.

Majority of respondents felt that directory rankings are at least 'somewhat accurate' and nearly two-thirds said that clients do refer to directories to choose advisers at least sometimes.

Just four per cent respondents felt that the rankings were 'very accurate', while 50 per cent said that the rankings were 'somewhat accurate'. Of the remaining 46 per cent, 28 per cent turned out to be cynics as they felt that the rankings were 'hit and miss' while the rest 18 per cent felt that the rankings were not accurate at all.

Likewise, respondents had different views on whether clients refer to the directors to select their advisers. A miniscule two per cent among the respondents were convinced that clients use the directories to choose advisers 'all the time', while 13 per cent were of the opinion that felt clients refer to the directories 'often'.

The majority 48 per cent said they believed clients 'sometimes' referred to the directories. 33 per cent felt it 'rarely' happens and just five per cent insisted that clients never refer to such directories while selecting their advisors.

Some 43 per cent agreed that the legal directories 'perform a valuable function by improving the legal market's transparency', against 40 per cent disagreed and the remaining 17 per cent were not sure about it.

The respondents were evenly split on whether the directories could be doing more to promote diversity in the profession with 48 per cent amongst the respondents responding in the affirmative, against 52 per cent who felt this wasn't the case.

Some 77 per cent respondents ranked Chambers and Partners at the top in their preference of directories while with 19 per cent respondents by its side, Legal 500fionsihed a poor second as preferred directory. S