Law firms are still submitting to legal directories year after year without measuring what they get back, according to new research from ELE, the legal directories and copywriting agency.
The Directory Dilemma 2026 draws on in-depth interviews at ten law firms, a survey of professionals at eight further law firms, and the views of members of the ELE team, two of whom previously worked at Chambers and Partners. It is the first dedicated study of the return on directory submissions since 2016, when research by the Legal Marketing Association and Law Firm Media Professionals, mainly among US firms, found that 83% of respondents believed their return on submissions was below 10%. Despite that, 80% planned to maintain or increase their submissions.
A decade on, the research finds much of that pattern intact.
– No firm we spoke to has stopped submitting, and only one interviewee described ever measuring what they got back.
– 88% of surveyed firms named the time and administrative burden as a frustration.
– 75% of surveyed firms said rankings influence client decisions only “occasionally”. Interviewees said rankings carry most weight in tenders, panel appointments, international work and large corporate instructions, and little or none in private client and word-of-mouth work.
– 50% of surveyed firms describe directories as a legacy or tradition-led activity.
– 88% of surveyed firms expect AI to bring “significant change” or “fundamental transformation” to directories.Â
– 62% of surveyed firms expect directories to be less relevant in five years.
Trust under strain
The research also records growing tension between the directories’ editorial and commercial roles. Since 2016, Chambers and Partners has been bought by UK private equity firm Inflexion, in 2018, and agreed a sale to US private equity firm Abry Partners in late 2023 in a deal valuing the business at more than £400m.
Firms described sales teams approaching partners directly after being asked to go through marketing, and one interviewee cited a 40% price increase with no change to the product. The issue came up unprompted, and more often than any other frustration with the directories themselves. Chambers has said its price changes reflect business conditions such as inflation, and new features in its products.
Léa Sarfati, Senior Directories Consultant at ELE and formerly of Chambers and Partners, told The Professionals: “Client scepticism isn’t the threat, it’s directories potentially becoming their own worst enemy through over-commercialisation.”
AI enters the picture
AI did not feature in the 2016 study. In 2026, one founder interviewed described winning a new client who had found the firm through ChatGPT, a first for the practice. Others described AI tools drawing on directory websites for information about firms, which, if correct, gives an accurate and detailed directory profile value beyond human readers.
Using more of what the process produces
The report argues that firms test directories against the wrong measure. Interviewees who had tracked web referrals and new instructions traced to a ranking, at previous firms, found very little of either. A fairer test, the report suggests, looks at how submission content is reused in pitches, bids and panel applications, whether client feedback is acted on, and whether rankings support recruitment and visibility in AI tools.
Helen Foord, Founder of ELE, said: “Firms ask whether the ranking is worth it. On its own, that’s the wrong question. One submission cycle produces matter descriptions for pitches, client feedback partners rarely hear any other way, insight into your competition and content that AI tools now draw on. Yet few firms take advantage of this. The return is far easier to measure than it was ten years ago, but only once a firm has decided the strategic purpose directories have within the wider marketing and business development portfolio.”
The report sets out six dilemmas firms face, ELE’s view of the next decade, a to-do list for the directories themselves, and twelve recommendations for firms.
The Directory Dilemma 2026 is available to download free at https://www.ele.rocks/the-directory-dilemma-report-2026/ .