Methodology

Digital Shellcharts

The Lexpert bull’s-eye charts have been redesigned as an interactive offering in the form of shellcharts. The methodology remains the same, but this is now an optimized digital offering.

In 2022, we introduced a new category: Natural Resources. It uses scores of leading lawyers in five Practice Areas—Energy (Electricity), Energy (Oil & Gas), Environmental Law, Forestry Law, and Mining Law—to present leading firms in four cities: Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, and Calgary.

Canadian Legal Talent

Our digital shellcharts (a redesign of the Lexpert bull’s-eye charts) are a guide to identifying legal talent as recognized in peer surveys in support of The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory and its sister publication, The Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada. The survey work uses peer reviews to identify which counsel the Canadian legal profession regards as the top lawyers in various practice areas. Moreover, law firm positions in the charts depend on the cumulative recognition their individual lawyers have achieved in these surveys.

More particularly, the formula for the charts is as follows:

• 1.5 points for each lawyer in the “Most Frequently Recommended” tier in any of the relevant practice areas in the 2024 edition of The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory or The Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada;
• 0.75 points for each lawyer in the “Consistently Recommended” tier in any of the relevant practice areas in the 2024 edition of The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory;
• 0.5 points for each lawyer in the “Repeatedly Recommended” tier in any of the relevant practice areas in the 2024 edition of The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory;
• If one lawyer appears in multiple practice areas, the calculation is treated as if it were for more than one lawyer.

The Method behind the Rankings

The identification of leading practitioners and firms is based upon comprehensive survey work across the country, which has been ongoing since 1994. The process targets lawyers acknowledged as leaders in their respective fields, lawyers prominent in professional organizations, and lawyers otherwise enjoying significant recognition from their colleagues.

Certain surveys also canvass in-house counsel. Again this year, in-house counsel were formally surveyed in the following practice areas: Banking Law; Computer & IT Law; Corporate Commercial Law; Corporate Finance & Securities; Litigation – Corporate Commercial; Litigation – Intellectual Property; Mergers & Acquisitions; and Property Development.

On our surveys, Lexpert sets out a list of the lawyers represented in the previous year’s directories, with room for write-in votes. Lawyers on the list who garner insufficient votes are not named in the surveys in the following year, while write-ins who receive appropriate support do appear as named nominees on the following year’s surveys.

The surveying does not proceed by way of random, unsolicited mailings. Lexpert follows up on unanswered surveys and conducts personal interviews with senior members of the profession.

An Evolving Approach

In keeping with extensive consultations conducted with stakeholders over the past years, Lexpert revises certain of the practice groups embraced by its various rankings to accord with the realities of an evolving legal market. Accordingly, the text that goes with each chart has at its outset a listing of the practice groups included in the surveys for the particular ranking.

It is important to remember that these changes reflect the market as it is today. Our rankings do change and evolve, year after year.

Lexpert will continue with its consultations on an ongoing basis in 2022 and beyond, to ensure that the charts continue to reflect an accurate picture of the legal marketplace.

There are also elements of editorial discretion applied to the rankings and the charts. This is applied in a principled approach, with tested market knowledge. So, for example:

If there have been several lawyers who have made lateral moves from a firm, notwithstanding that they were individually ranked at the time of the surveys, we have updated the overall firm results in the charts to reflect the new situation. Also, if we have been informed that someone has retired, we remove their name from the relevant rankings.

Discretion is applied in determining the levels of ranking among Most Frequently, Consistently, and Repeatedly Recommended—we attempt to draw the lines between identifiable clusters within the vote numbers. Every year there seem to be new competitors who are in some cases tied with individual lawyers at established firms.

Category Definitions