It’s not admin, it’s strategy
While directories can feel like a massive administrative task that rolls around each year, their impact goes much further than that.
Directory submissions shape how you’re positioned in the market. They influence which work you win, how your teams are perceived, and whether your firm’s reputation matches the quality of its practice. That’s not admin. That’s strategy.
The question isn’t whether to invest in them. It’s whether the people handling them know how to make them count.
What a Legal Directory specialist actually does
There’s a common misconception that outsourcing directory support means tidying up what a firm has already written. That may be what some agencies offer, but it’s only a fraction of what a good legal directory consultancy provides.
A specialist works with you to shape the strategy before touching a word. That means:
Identifying the right matters to include, and what to leave out. One of the biggest mistakes firms make is including too much, or the wrong type of work. Not everything belongs in a submission. A specialist knows how to balance technical detail with client relevance, and how to focus on evidence that supports your ranking rather than padding it with a long list of deals or cases.
Building the narrative. This is about more than polishing wording. It’s about connecting your work, your strengths, and your market position into a clear, credible story that researchers can quickly understand and trust. What do you want to be known for? Where do you genuinely add value? A good submission answers both.
Positioning teams and individuals against competitors. Directories are competitive. It’s not enough to show good work. You need to show why your team or individual stands out in that specific market, in that specific category. A specialist understands how rankings are determined, how researchers assess entries under time pressure, and what separates a strong submission from one that gets lost in a pile of hundreds.
This is the difference between submitting and competing. Put simply, the effort is the same. The outcome is not.
We’ve sat on both sides of the table
Many generalist legal marketing agencies manage directory submissions as part of a broader offering. It’s often treated as a seasonal exercise, picked up for a few months of the year and put down again.
For us, its core work. We live in this process all year round.
Our team includes former editors and researchers at Chambers UK, Chambers Global, Chambers USA, and The Legal 500, alongside former in-house directories managers at global law firms and experienced legal writers. Because we’ve worked inside the rankings process, we know how decisions get made.
That means we can help you understand what’s actually persuasive and what’s just noise. We know what gets ignored: overly long submissions, vague case summaries, and technical detail without client relevance. We know how to balance publishable and confidential content. And we know how researchers read and assess submissions when they’re working through hundreds of entries under real time pressure.
We’re not guessing. We’ve been there.
Referees: often overlooked, always important
Referee selection is one of the most important parts of the directory process, and one of the most mismanaged. Without strong referee engagement, even the best-written submission can fall flat.
We support clients at every stage: helping you choose a balanced and credible list, avoiding referee fatigue and repetition, providing guidance on how to brief referees properly, and tracking response rates year on year. We also understand the nuances that trip firms up, including who directories will accept, when to reuse names, how the Chambers “rule of three” works, and how referee feedback fits into the wider research and ranking system.
For busy in-house teams, referee chasing is often the task that falls to the bottom of the list. It shouldn’t. Referees count for a significant proportion of your results. Getting this right is not optional.
The work goes further than the submission
The value of an outsourced directory specialist doesn’t stop at the submission itself.
The material created through the submissions process (partner profiles, matter descriptions, practice area narratives) is valuable content that can be used across your website, pitches, and reports. But it often gets neglected or left unchanged for years because teams are busy and focused elsewhere.
At ELE, we focus on three things: legal directories, website rewrites, and report writing. There’s a reason for that. These three areas grow out of the same core insight. Directories give us an in-depth view of what a firm is doing, how it presents itself, and where it adds value. That same insight feeds directly into client-facing content.
We don’t dilute our work across broader marketing campaigns, PR strategies, or social media. This singular focus is what sets us apart. It means the work goes further, supports multiple parts of the business, and makes the time and effort invested far more worthwhile.
You don’t have to hand over everything
Outsourcing directory submissions doesn’t mean giving up control of the entire process.
Some clients want full management, from drafting through to referee chasing and deadline tracking. Others want support in the areas where their submissions need to make the most impact, or help with the parts that always fall to the bottom of the pile for stretched in-house teams.
That flexibility matters. The right level of support depends on your firm, your team, and where your submissions need the most attention. A good specialist adapts to that, not the other way round.
The work still needs to be done. The difference is how well it’s done, and what it delivers.
Without specialist input, you’re submitting. With it, you’re competing.
If you’re looking for outsourced directories support that goes beyond admin, get in touch. Or take a look at our legal directories services to find out more about how we work.
