IFLR1000 China 2021 research guidelines

We are pleased to announce the research for the second edition of IFLR1000 China, our guide to nine regional legal markets in China, is now accepting submissions.

The submission deadline is FEBRUARY 26, 2021.

This research – which is used to inform the awards, firm rankings and lawyer ratings – is conducted in Mandarin and published in both Mandarin and English. Firms can submit in information written in Mandarin and research interviews with firms are conducted in Mandarin.

You can view all firm rankings, lawyer ratings and editorial content published in the first edition HERE.

If you are interested in participating in this year's research, please register through the link below if you have not previously.

  

 

IFLR1000 undertakes qualitative research into law firms and lawyers to inform the publication of annual rankings, ratings and awards, and editorial content.

The company has been producing legal market intelligence since 1990 and remains the only international legal market research brand focused exclusively on ranking law firms and lawyers on the basis of financial and corporate transactional work.

Currently IFLR1000 publishes more than 750 practice area law firm rankings and more than 19,000 lawyer ratings across more than 235 jurisdictions - national and regional - globally. We accept submissions from firms based anywhere in the world and will produce rankings and ratings for any jurisdiction which we have sufficient deal evidence and client feedback for. You can view a complete list of all rankings we are actively researching on our PRACTICE AREA RANKING CATEGORIES BY JURISDICTION GUIDE.

IFLR1000 China researches firms and rates lawyers in the nine provinces/municipalities listed below. Firms can submit work that falls into any of our core practice areas (see PRACTICE AREA DEFINITIONS)*.

• Beijing

• Chongqing

• Guangdong

• Jiangsu **NEW**

• Shandong

• Shanghai

• Sichuan

• Tianjin

• Zhejiang

*IFLR1000 China will be expanding its ranking tables for Beijing and Shanghai to include banking and finance, capital markets, private equity, M&A, restructuring and insolvency, and investment funds.

Alongside our firm rankings we also recognise the work of outstanding individuals at the regional level. Our recommendations are based on the same three factors as our law firm rankings and consist of the following categories:

Highly Regarded

Lawyers who are highly regarded by their peers and possess a strong transactional record and positive client feedback.

Rising Star

'Ones to watch' these are lawyers who are building their reputations in the market. 

The IFLR1000 China Awards are based on the research conducted by IFLR1000’s researchers during the annual research cycle and use as their primary source the IFLR1000 submissions. The awards research is also supported by a dedicated awards team, combining IFLR1000’s existing methodology, honed over 30 years of covering legal markets, with a resource to analyse unique transactions in detail.

The awards recognise and celebrate the best-performing law firms and lawyers as well as the most impressive deals of the year within a single market. They endeavour to reflect the depth of domestic legal markets, with categories recognising work at state or region level.

Please see our dedicated IFLR1000 China Awards research guidelines for a list of the awards categories and an explanation of the criteria. 

Each year we ask firms to provide annual submissions to inform our research. There is no fee to participate in the research or to be ranked. The research process culminates in the publication of law firm rankings, individual lawyer ratings and firm editorial reviews.

If you work for a law firm that advises on work relevant to our research (see PRACTICE AREA DEFINITIONS), you can participate by completing a research form and providing supporting referees for us to contact by the submission deadline: FEBRUARY 26, 2021. Firms can submit one research form and supporting referees per practice area and jurisdiction. You can view a complete list of all rankings we are actively researching on our PRACTICE AREA RANKING CATEGORIES BY JURISDICTION GUIDE.

The research form asks for basic information on the structure and focus of the practice, recent changes to the team, and 20 highlight deals per practice area - although there is no limit on how many deal examples firms submit.

We survey client referees for their opinion on the performance of firms and lawyers during the research cycle. Client referees must have worked with the firm in the 18 months prior to submission on work relevant to our research.

Firms can submit an unlimited number of referees - we guarantee all referees provided by the initial submission deadline will be contacted - and we encourage firms to at least provide referees for each deal example the firm submits.

From a ranking perspective, the most important section of the research form is the 'Deal highlights'. The reason for this is transactional experience on complex, innovative or significant deals is the key factor we use to determine a firm or lawyers' ranking.

Please note:

• We provide qualitative not quantitative rankings so you should focus on including complex work rather than on including a high number of deals.

• Please provide us with as much information about the firm’s deals as possible. The more information we have, the better able we are to make an accurate assessment of the firm. We will not disclose any information marked confidential.

• Always give a clear explanation of the firm’s roles on the deals and why the deals were complex, innovative or significant.

• Please only include work that is relevant to our research on the form (see ‘Practice area ranking categories’ section). We DO NOT research arbitration, disputes, employment, IP, litigation, or tax work. Any work submitted that falls into these practice areas will not be taken into account.

There is no fee to participate in the research or to be ranked.

There are three steps to the submission process: 

• DOWNLOAD RESEARCH FORM HERE and complete it fully

• UPLOAD RESEARCH FORM(S) HERE* (one for each practice area in a jurisdiction) by FEBRUARY 26, 2021

• UPLOAD CLIENT REFEREES HERE by FEBRUARY 26, 2021 

Please note:

• By submitting your firm and lawyers will be considered for all relevant research undertaken in calendar year 2021: 31st edition of IFLR1000's international research; IFLR1000's regional rankings and domestic awards for China; and, IFLR1000 Women Leaders.

• We DO NOT accept submissions by email.

• *Only referees uploaded through the designated online form by the deadline will be contacted. Client referee contact information SHOULD NOT be submitted on the research form.

• Providing you submit the information we request on our research form, we are happy to accept submissions in an alternative format, but we would prefer you DO NOT use the PDF format. 

Below you will find the key research deadlines and publication dates for all IFLR1000 research to be published in the calendar year 2021.

• Research interviews conducted: January – May 2021

• SUBMISSION DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 26, 2021

• Client Referee Feedback Survey: March – April 2021

• Lawyer Survey: March – April 2021

• Women Leaders 2020 published: April 2021

• China Awards shortlists announced: July 2021

• China regional firm rankings and Leading Lawyers published: July 21, 2021

• China Awards ceremony: August 19, 2021

Our law firm rankings and lawyer ratings are based on three key criteria:

In each research cycle we ask firms to provide transactional highlights from a designated period.

Transactional evidence is the decisive factor we use to determine a firm’s ranking. For a firm to be ranked, it must have a track record of advising on transactional work relevant to our ranking categories. The same applies to the ratings of individuals; lawyers must have been working on significant deals in some capacity to be rated.

We assess transactions for complexity or innovation through criteria which varies according to the practice area and jurisdiction. When making an assessment of firm’s work we take into account the volume of complex work a firm does in an area. Firms that consistently have a high market share of complex deals, relative to their jurisdiction and the practice area, are ranked highly, if we have sufficient supporting client feedback for the work.

Primarily firms submit deals to us via the research form. Our research team also monitors daily deal news and updates to complement this.

We also analyse statistical evidence of transaction values and volumes produced by external publications.

We use client feedback to help us asses the quality of advice and service lawyers and firms are providing. We survey tens of thousands of corporate and in-house contacts provided to us by participating firms annually to ask their opinions on the firms and lawyers they use.

Client feedback is used in support of transactional evidence when determining a firm’s ranking or lawyer’s rating. What this means is good feedback alone will not ensure a firm or lawyer is ranked or rated – a firm or individual must be experienced in advising on significant transactional work.

When you submit you should try and provide referees for all the lawyers at the firm you feel should be rated. A lawyer working on significant deals who receives a reasonable amount of good client feedback is more likely to be rated.

Increasing response rate of referees

Some ways we have found increase the number of referees who respond to our survey are:

• Confirm that your referees are happy for us to contact them before you provide their details to us.

• Only provide referees the firm has advised on work relevant our rankings tables.

• Only provide referees the firm has advised on relevant work in the 18 months prior to submitting.

• Notify your referees when we will be contacting them. We email all firms in advance of contacting their referees with details about the email referees receive.

During each research cycle we conduct an online Lawyer Survey of lawyers to get their thoughts and feedback on the firms and lawyers in their markets. All partners and senior lawyers active in work relevant research to our ranking categories are invited to participate.

We conduct a significant number of phone and face-to-face interviews with practitioners, where we ask for feedback on firms and discuss trends. By discussing market trends we are able to gain a better understanding of what the most significant deals in the market have been recently, which helps us assess work submitted to us.

Peer feedback can be particularly useful for individual ratings as lawyers are well placed to recognise the leaders in their own practice areas.

Peer feedback is secondary to client feedback and we only take feedback into account where it is supported by deal evidence.

Our annual Lawyer Survey is an opportunity for lawyers to provide evidence to support a Leading Lawyer rating and to provide feedback on our rankings and ratings.

Lawyers can provide us with recent examples of their work and details about their practice area and industry sector specialisms, which will be assessed when we evaluate our Leading Lawyer ratings.

Lawyers can also provide feedback on the rankings and the legal markets they work in. Relevant and reasoned feedback will be taken into consideration if we find supporting evidence.