FAQs
You can monitor our entire research schedule by referring to the submissions page. (Scroll down to view practice area, national, and thought leader research reports).
Please visit our submissions page to view the deadlines/ “research ends date” for each of the reports. (Scroll down to view practice area, national, and thought leader research reports).
You can monitor the launch dates of each report by referring to the research schedule available on our submissions page. (Scroll down to view practice area, national, and thought leader research reports).
Individuals who have been selected for inclusion in one of our reports will be contacted by email to inform them of their selection. Typically, this will be around four weeks after the conclusion of the research process.
If you have not heard from us confirming your listing, you can contact us to check.
By visiting the expert search, you can select your law firm via the firm dropdown menu to view everyone in your organisation who has been ranked in our reports.
You can verify the year of each report by consulting our research schedule.
We will also inform you of which year's guide you have been ranked in, in the email confirming your inclusion in the report.
Individuals who have been ranked as Global Elite Thought Leaders within practice area reports have been given the highest ranking within that report.
The Thought Leaders: Global Elite guide is a comprehensive compilation of all individuals who have achieved global elite thought leader rankings across various reports. This guide brings together the insight, expertise and wisdom of some of the world’s foremost lawyers and experts in a single report, featuring Q&As with dozens of eminent practitioners across multiple practice areas. These individuals obtained the highest number of nominations from peers, corporate counsel and other market sources in our most recent research cycle.
The number of individual listings (and in some cases, the number of rankings of Thought Leader or Global Elite Thought Leaders) are among the criteria that are used to determine rankings for the following surveys: GAR 100, GCR 100, GDR 100, GIR 100, GRR 100 (although the exact weighting and methodology varies between surveys).
Individual practitioners are not ranked in these surveys, only in the corresponding Lexology Index report. Therefore, it is not correct to say that an individual practitioner is e.g. ‘ranked in the GAR 100’ or ‘ranked by GAR’.
Lexology Index has access to submissions data from the GAR 100 and also the expertise of GAR journalists in helping with our decision making.
The number of listings in Lexology Index: Arbitration is one of the criteria that GAR uses in assessing its GAR 100 and GAR 30 rankings, so yes, it would positively impact GAR 100 rankings to have more people listed in Index.
For Lexology Index: Arbitration, GAR results are taken into account. However, the feedback and submission Lexology Index receives for our ranking is weighted more.
Click here to read more about the Global Arbitration Review methodology
The GAR 100 ranks law firms as a whole, whereas Lexology Index ranks individual practitioners and experts based on peer and market feedback.
We encourage the proposal of additional names in any of our areas. Individuals may put themselves forward or firm marketing / business development contacts may propose individuals at their firm for potential inclusion on those individuals' behalf.
If you are not currently under consideration in our research, you can put yourself forward by submitting either or both of the following:
- Details of referees, using the appropriate form. There is no limit to how many referees you can put forward.
- If submitting for Practice Area report(s): click here
- If submitting for National/Regional report(s): click here
- Details of work highlights, using this form
Once we have received either feedback from referees or details of your recent work, the research team will assess you for potential inclusion on our nomination longlist. Most nominees are accepted (provided we have the information needed) but we reserve the right to reject any individual, or to suggest a more appropriate category for consideration, as appropriate.
In the case of very late submissions (i.e. near the end of the research period, or after it), this may not be until the following year's research cycle.
To submit a correction to your profile, please email [email protected]
Ranking tiers
Anyone wishing to be considered in one of our reports should meet the appropriate broad definition below:
These practitioners are the best of the best across all of our practice areas according to our research.
Only those listed practitioners who obtained the highest number of nominations from peers, corporate counsel and other market sources in their practice area are selected. Entry into our guides, is, of itself, no easy feat, with fewer than half of those nominated obtaining a listing. The bar to be considered a Global Elite Thought Leader is even higher.
Around 5% of practitioners in any Index global practice area guide are selected as Global Elite Thought Leaders.
Thought Leaders are individuals who have performed especially well in their practice area or national research.
Although they may not have received quite as many recommendations as Global Elite Thought Leaders, they are nevertheless frequently mentioned in the first breath by respondents to our research as eminent names in their field.
Around 30-35% of practitioners selected for inclusion in a guide are selected as Thought Leaders.
Individuals who have performed very well in our research, comprising around 30-35% of listed practitioners. Highly Recommended is a new ranking. Only practice area reports released from November 2025 onwards feature this tier.
Anyone who is included in a Index guide is recommended by us and can deservedly be considered a leading name in their profession.
Fewer than half of those nominated for inclusion in Index guides are selected for inclusion, with our preliminary nomination list itself only making up a small proportion of all lawyers or experts in any given practice area.
Future Leaders are practitioners who are already doing outstanding work in their practice area or industry, despite their relatively young age, and are likely to be the pre-eminent names of the next generation. They need not be partners, or even counsel - each of our Future Leaders chapters has listings for both partners and non-partners.
The Future Leader designation is limited to practitioners aged 45 and under.
We designate Future Leaders in a proportion of our guides, including Arbitration, Competition and Litigation, as well as Consulting Experts.
The full list of our guides can be found on the Research Schedule.