Legal marketing trends and rankings best practices for 2021: An interview with Arjun Sajip of Leaders League

LETS Americas speaks with Arjun Sajip, Managing Editor for the USA & Canada at Leaders League, to discuss key legal marketing trends, what makes Leaders League different, and how you can get your firm ranked in 2021.

LETS: As Leaders League is based in France and was designed to cover the European market, how do you adapt your approach and solutions for the Americas market?

AS: Leaders League is headquartered in France but “based” all over the Western hemisphere. In addition to our head office in Paris, we have senior staff in London, Lisbon, Madrid, Lima, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Those last three offices are key to our Americas strategy.

For one thing, we adapt our rankings to each country, which explains why we don’t have the same ranking titles across all countries. Our US coverage, for example, includes rankings of proxy solicitation firms and activist investor funds; we are the only legal directory to do this, because we focus on accurately mapping law-adjacent markets as well as legal ones. Our Latin American team was the first of any directory to cover areas such as plant breeders’ rights, wealth management and fintech. We pride ourselves on being more dynamic and responsive to market trends on a country-by-country basis than our competitors are. We even have a Brazil-specific publication, Brazil’s Best Counsel, that we publish annually.

On-the-ground presence is also key to our Americas approach. In Brazil, our editorial and research team consists of five professionals native in Portuguese and fluent in English. Unlike other international directories, we welcome research documents in either language. The fact that we have two offices in the country, plus the fact that our entire research team is composed of Brazilian nationals, means we conduct 100% of our Brazil research in Portuguese.

In Peru, our office head, Jandira Salgado, is a former lawyer who knows and understands the local and legal context. She worked at Leaders League’s Paris HQ for seven years before opening the Lima office.

Ultimately, our ranking methodology in the Americas is the same as that in Europe. We believe research should be done by people familiar with the culture and the subtleties of each market; they conduct interviews in the language of the relevant market. When there aren’t deadly viruses floating around, our teams undertake research trips all year round, visiting the different countries we cover – including the US – and meeting with key partners and firms. This continual contact with market players allows our respective teams to know exactly who is who and conduct in-depth research, ranking not only the full-service law firms in each country but also key boutiques.

LETS: How long have you been working with Leaders League, and what are your specific goals for better coverage of the North American market?

AS: I’ve been with Leaders League for over two years; previously I was an editor at The Legal 500, a widely recognized legal directory where I learned a lot about legal markets, the nature of legal work in various contexts, and what clients want from lawyers. Thanks to my time there, I am well versed in analyzing reams of editorial submissions from law firms and grilling senior lawyers on their work.

As for covering the North American market, our research ethos is the same as our company ethos: to be a true bridge between clients, law firms, service providers to law firms, and the finance sector. We rank not just law firms but private equity firms, venture capital firms, investment banks, litigation funders and consulting firms, across a range of practice areas. All of these rankings are based on months of in-depth research.

This breadth, which is reflected in our intelligence reports, comes alive at Leaders League events, where we strategically invite professionals from different kinds of institution – law firms, investment firms, corporates, banks – to foster client relationships and partnerships. Our bespoke event websites have repeatedly proved popular among those seeking clients, business partners and experts.

LETS: What are the main legal marketing trends you are anticipating for 2021? Do you think the pandemic has brought new trends to the legal marketing area?

AS: Over the last decade, legal marketing agencies have proliferated, creating a competitive market. This development has meant that law firms have increasingly been handing marketing duties – including but not exclusively directories and awards – to consultancies, while firms’ in-house marketing teams focus more on internal marketing and targeted business development. Consultancies are both agile and dedicated, with strong links to directories and legal media, so they are an increasingly popular option.

As for trends brought by the pandemic, well, it’s been a tough time for legal marketing internally and externally – which is why it’s so impressive that LETS Americas has actually grown since the pandemic began! Marketing does not cease to become important in times of crisis; if anything, times of crisis can yield new opportunities and long-term strategies. Consultancies can play an active role in this by bringing their own expertise and perspectives.

One key trend affecting legal marketing is ESG (environmental, social, governance): firms are increasingly keen to present themselves as hot on those topics to both internal and external stakeholders. Consumers demand it, so companies want it, so they expect their advisors to be au fait with it. This applies to all kinds of firms, from proxy solicitation firms to law firms to investment banks.

LETS: Which countries and practice areas will you be watching more carefully in 2021?

AS: In terms of countries, I can honestly speak only for the US and Canada. But as for practice areas, well, we launched several new rankings last year, including best activist investor funds, best litigation funders and best arbitration funders. This year, for the US, I oversaw two entirely new rankings in line with post-COVID legal market developments: best consulting firms for restructuring and best investment banks for restructuring. We’ll be keeping an eye on these areas, as well as labour and employment law, in 2021 as corona-chaos hopefully subsides and begins to translate into legal work.

Litigation/arbitration funding is another area of coverage we’re proud of: we were early to the game, and the third-party disputes funding market has responded positively to our rankings. It’s a sector that is only getting larger and more targeted; our coverage will reflect this.

LETS: What makes Leaders League stand out in comparison to other legal directories?

AS: To avoid repeating myself at length, I’ll briefly recap some of the key differences made so far.

We map entire business ecosystems in our rankings, from law to consulting to finance, acting as a bridge between professions and professionals through our intelligence reports and our flagship international events.

We proudly emphasize on-the-ground reporting, be it through permanent offices in the countries we cover or via regular research trips to those countries. Our rankings are published in five different languages, to make them more searchable by five different demographics: anglophone, francophone, germanophone, hispanophone and lusophone.

We field experienced staff, often former lawyers or former editors at other major legal directories and other trade publications. We also keep a beady eye on the legal media, so we’re always able to apply our critical eye to new market developments.

Each of our rankings is researched annually, but we don’t necessarily wait a whole year to update them: we react swiftly to major market developments, even if those developments occur soon after a ranking is launched. (We do the necessary due diligence first, of course.)

LETS: What golden tips could you give to law firms that want to be ranked? Could you give us some do’s and don’ts?

AS: Absolutely! We have plenty of advice for firms who’d like to get ranked by sending us submissions.

Do:

• Participate fully in our research process – send us submissions, set up interviews with practice heads, ask us any questions you have.
• Feel free to trust us with sensitive information. We are a team of experienced editors and researchers who take confidentiality very seriously; everything you send us is stored securely and does not go beyond our research team. That said, always mark confidential information in red.
• Emphasize, in 150 words or less, how each matter you include best showcases your firm’s expertise, skill and reliability for matters crucial to your client. We place a premium on matters of strategic importance, rather than ongoing advisory work.
• Include work handled for your most impressive clients, but only when the work you’ve done for them is actually impressive.
• Emphasize in precise terms what makes you different. Avoid clichés like “partner-led”, “service-driven”, “multi-jurisdictional” or “expertise” – all firms claim these attributes. Instead focus on market niches and genuine differentiators – the kind of facets you could lord over your best competitors.
• Select referees that are actually likely to engage with us. These are worth more than impressive names that don’t respond to our requests for feedback.

Don’t:

• Assume that referees are the single most important part of the process. Editorial submissions are just as important; interviews with practice heads are also crucial in giving us a fuller sense of a practice’s capabilities.
• Try to mislead us by including out-of-date matters (i.e. matters that closed over a year ago) or ambiguously phrased matter values. If you handled a corporate acquisition worth $13bn to create a combined company worth $40 billion, put the $13bn value in the “Matter value” box, not the $40bn. We’re more eagle-eyed than you might think, and use sources other than submissions!
• Be too long-winded or caught up in legal jargon when discussing your matters in submissions.
• Waste time on marketing-speak or generic puffery. We look at the matter highlights and the best work you do for your best clients, and expect the work to speak for itself (though interviews with practice heads are very helpful in clarifying points about the practice and its work).
• Be afraid to approach us for any clarification on our research process, ranking criteria or ranking decisions.

Arjun can be reached at asajip@leadersleague.com