Legal 500 EMEA 2018: Deadlines, Guidelines Now Available + Editor Insights

Attention all European, Middle East and Africa law firms: The Legal 500 has just published its 2018 edition submission deadlines, which can be accessed here. The key dates for your diary are as follows:

  • Referee spreadsheet deadline: 4 August 2017
  • Editorial submission deadline: 14 August 2017
  • Law firm interview period begins: 4 September 2017
  • Contacting referees: during September (precise date to be determined by number of referees received to contact – law firms will be informed one week before we contact referees)

There are big changes afoot editorially at The Legal 500, which we reported earlier today (please see here). We caught up with EMEA Editor Ella Marshall to discuss changes affecting the upcoming EMEA edition.

Are the changes to the editorial coverage of the UK guide being replicated in EMEA also?

We’re expanding content in the same way as the UK. Increases will be dictated by the availability of data, but we expect to deliver around three times the content for the largest and/or more sophisticated markets and will provide editorial content for every single firm that is ranked.

ella_marshallThe content will be online only, so the EMEA 2017 edition is, in fact, a collector’s edition!

In terms of new practice areas etc, what should firms look out for this year?

We are continuing our ongoing expansion of our Africa coverage to reflect demand from website users: this year, we’re adding Botswana, Senegal and Uganda to our coverage.

There are no Regional Summary sections this year (i.e. none for CEE, Africa or Middle East) because we’re now covering more markets and more practice areas in those markets than we were 3 years ago when we introduced the summaries as a catch-all.

We have also added English Bar: DIFC (Dubai International Finance Center) to the coverage this year as part of the UAE coverage to reflect the growing trend of work arising in the free zone.

The expansion of the word count has also enabled us to add practice areas to cover gaps in other markets, particularly with the introduction of more coverage of competition law, employment law and corporate/white-collar criminal law and compliance.

Law firms are strongly advised to check the list of practice areas carefully and not assume that the practice areas are the same as last year – there may have been additions or other amendments. We change the coverage every year to cater to market demand. New practice areas are marked as “NEW” or “RENAMED” or other appropriate indicators.