Meet the Lexpert directories team
For queries related to The Lexpert®/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada and The Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory please contact any of the below team members:
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Meet the Editorial Team
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Lexpert® directories selection process: Methods & Rankings
Introduction
Lexpert® sends a comprehensive annual Survey (which has been ongoing since 1994) to all law firm lawyers named therein, or their voting. The lawyers named on the Lexpert® Survey have been recommended by their law firm leaders to be so named. They are acknowledged as leaders in their respective fields, lawyers prominent in their practice areas and professional organizations, and lawyers otherwise enjoying significant recognition from their colleagues.
Survey Candidate Criteria
Lawyers listed in the Lexpert® Directories and Special Editions are determined by the annual Lexpert® Survey, a peer vote conducted across 65 practice areas that takes place each spring. To be added to a Survey practice area ballot, a lawyer must be nominated by a managing partner of their own firm or by a Lexpert-ranked lawyer in their same practice area, as a leading lawyer in a practice area(s) that Lexpert® Surveys. Nominations should include a brief note that supports the nominee is a leading lawyer in the area for which they are being nominated. Nominees should be partners at their firms (or similarly senior lawyers).
Nominations Review
Nominations are reviewed for eligibility by the Directories Team and Global Managing Editor. They may be sent to the Directories Team at [email protected] by Dec. 31st for the upcoming year’s Survey. Additional nominations are generated through an annual pre-vetting process, which happens in January and February prior to the spring Survey. Lexpert® reviews the nominations, conducts necessary research, and in its sole discretion determines whether a nominee’s name is added to the Survey. On each practice area ballot, Lexpert® also provides room for write-in nominees. Names of lawyers who receive write-in nominations, determined in Lexpert’s sole discretion, will appear on the following year’s Survey.
Voting Process
The annual voting on the Survey occurs in the spring, at which time the lawyers whose names appear on the Survey are invited to vote online. The results populate the rankings-based Directories and Special Editions for the following year.
Rankings
Rankings (Most Frequently Recommended, Consistently Recommended, and Repeatedly Recommended) are determined based on the results of extensive peer voting in the annual Lexpert® Survey.
The Survey results feed the Lexpert® Directories and Special Editions. Editorial discretion is added to the Survey and tabulation processes in several ways. These include advice from senior members of the Bar, market research, and considering the votes received by lawyers in more than one practice area. The names of those lawyers who do not receive a minimum number of votes in their respective Survey are removed from the following year’s Survey.
Ranked Lawyers’ Advance Notification
Firms are notified by email of their selected lawyers before each Directory or Special Edition. We ask that you not publish this news, online or in print, before each of these publications have launched. Please inform us at your earliest convenience if any of your firm’s selected listees for the Directories retire or otherwise leave your firm. This will help us ensure that the information we publish about your firm will be accurate. For the timing of these notifications, please see the annual schedule section below.
Notes
We maintain strict separation between editorial (which includes the Survey and Rankings) and advertising. The names of all lawyers, which result from the Survey conducted by Lexpert®, are published at no charge whether or not they or their firms purchase advertising in any of our publications. Lawyers advertising and communicating regarding Lexpert® rankings and awards should follow their governing law societies’ rules and regulations concerning advertising, communications, and third party rankings and awards. Compliance with these rules and regulations is the sole responsibility of lawyer and entity members of their governing law societies. Being ranked in a Lexpert® publication one year does not guarantee that a lawyer or firm will be ranked the following year. We conduct an annual Survey and there is significant change, from one year to the next, in the subsequent Rankings.
An Evolving Approach
In keeping with extensive consultations conducted with stakeholders, Lexpert® revises certain of the practice groups to accord with the realities of an evolving legal market. These changes reflect the market as it is today.
Shellcharts
The shellcharts have been redesigned for 2022 using a new digital publishing platform, for a more vibrant, dynamic appearance.
Law firm positions in the shellcharts depend on the cumulative recognition their individual lawyers have achieved in the Lexpert® Survey. More particularly, the formula for the shellcharts 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 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 Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory;
- 0.5 points for each lawyer in the “Repeatedly Recommended” tier in any of the relevant practice areas in 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.
Annual Schedule
Dates and deadlines for the Lexpert® Survey, The Lexpert® /American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada (ALM 500) and The Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory (CLLD):
January
ALM 500 website launch and digital publication – embargo lifted
Annual Lexpert® Survey pre-vetting period (review lists of Survey candidates)
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: biographies, photos, articles, and firm profiles for upcoming CLLD.
February
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: requested pre-vetting changes to Survey candidates; authorized pre-vetting changes to the Survey communicated back to firms
March
CLLD website launch – embargo lifted
SURVEY LAUNCH: notification to firm marketing contacts and vote invitations to all Survey candidates; regular Survey response reports sent to firms
July
ALM 500 notifications go out to firms (lists under embargo)
September
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: biographies, photos, articles, and ads for the ALM 500
October
CLLD notifications go out to firms (lists under embargo)
Portfolio of Products
Lexpert® Special Editions
Lexpert® produces several themed Special Editions each year featuring firm- and journalist-written articles and information on leading Lexpert®-ranked lawyers in specific practice areas or industries. The Lexpert® newswire offers the legal profession a detailed look at trends and the most recent deals and cases that law firms and lawyers are acting on and other news in the area of focus for each Special Edition. The publications are distributed to a select circulation including through The Globe and Mail. They are:
2023
- Finance and M&A
- Infrastructure
- Technology & Health Sciences
- Energy
- Mining
- Litigation
Special Editions — [email protected]
Awards
Central to the Lexpert® brand is a commitment to acknowledging and celebrating excellence in the legal profession. In addition to the renowned peer rankings, a suite of industry events includes the following annual awards:
- Canadian Law Awards, presented by Lexpert® and supported by Canadian Lawyer and InHouse magazines (May)
- Lexpert® Rising Stars Awards: Leading Lawyers under 40 (November)
Directories
The Directories are based on an extensive peer survey process and recognized as an excellent resource on Canadian counsel. They include profiles of leading practitioners and law firms and articles on current, relevant legal issues.
- The Lexpert®/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada (ALM) ― published annually online during the second week of January
- The Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory (CLLD) ― published annually online during the first week of March
ALM ― [email protected]
CLLD ― [email protected]
New Lexpert.ca Website
Lexpert.ca was relaunched in May 2021 with a brand-new design. As part of The Canadian Legal Lexpert® Directory, it features enhanced, easy-to-navigate firm and lawyer profiles. These microsites mean all ranked lawyers, office locations, related articles and links are available in one place. The new site amalgamates very well with the Client Tool and facilitates social media integration. It maximizes SEO value and includes expanded multimedia content. Compared with the former website, the new website receives 27% more visits, 23% more users, and 12% more pageviews.
Lexpert® Survey
Interest in the annual Survey of leading Canadian lawyers is reflected in increased response rates in recent years.
2023:
• Requests for surveys from law firm practitioners: 21,739
• Completed forms received: 16,815
• Practitioner response rate: 77.35%
• Requests for surveys from corporate counsel: 5,541
• Corporate counsel response rate: 2.31%
2022:
• Requests for surveys from law firm practitioners: 20,094
• Completed forms received: 15,328
• Practitioner response rate: 76.28%
• Requests for surveys from corporate counsel: 5,682
• Corporate counsel response rate: 2.39%
Lexpert® Survey — [email protected]
Canadian Lawyer and Law Times Statistics
The www.lawtimesnews.com and www.canadianlawyermag.com websites now have over 3.5 million pageviews per year, with over 1.2 million pageviews per year on the Law Times site and 2.3 million pageviews per year on the Canadian Lawyer site.
Key Media General Information
- Has significant experience in the legal market (since 2002) and is the founding publisher of Australasian Lawyer and NZLawyer and associated events.
- Organizes annual Awards globally across multiple verticals, including Legal, as well as professional development events covering different aspects of the law. With hundreds of attendees, either in person or virtually, these are the best-attended events in their respective markets.
- Combines audience interest with commercial objectives, creating products that are leaders in their respective markets. Key Media uses its international footprint to offer clients unrivalled access to target audiences, maximizing engagement through breadth of content, access to global industry leaders and market reach. This approach means deeper relationships with audiences and unique opportunities for clients to run more sophisticated and measurable cross-platform campaigns.
- Holds over 80 events annually, and has 15 magazine titles, around 40 websites and a world-wide annual reach of more than 700,000 professionals.
- Has held over 69 virtual events, including webinars, masterclasses and virtual summits, with in excess of 15,000 attendees.
KEY MEDIA and the KEY MEDIA logo are trademarks of Key Media IP Limited, and are used under license by KM Business Information Canada Ltd. LEXPERT is a trademark of KM Business Information Canada Ltd.