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I'm interested in a relatively niche practice group in which my current firm is Band 2 on chambers. I'm not in that group, but could try to make inroads. I'm also looking at another firm that is band 1 in the same area.

How much weight does chambers really hold? Is there that much of a difference between the two bands in reality?

Bands make em dance.

nearly 0. It's just firm marketing material. No one cares or knows.

arisboddle wrote:nearly 0. It's just firm marketing material. No one cares or knows.

Hmm, perhaps it's different for niche practice groups and I'm unaware, but I disagree with your assessment. I generally find Chambers bands to be one of the best gauges of the relative strength of practice groups within a market. While that doesn't necessarily mean that one should automatically go to a Band 1 firm over a Band 2 if someone prefers the latter firm for other reasons, there is likely to be an increasingly meaningful difference in reputation between a Band 1 and a Band 4 (or unranked) firm, for instance.

All firm "rankings" are ridiculous to some extent. But some lists might be accurate-enough if taken as an aggregation of several lists and firms - e.g., firms in the Chambers "M&A: The Elite" and firms who lead in League Tables are probably firms that are good at handling big-deal m&a. But transactional legal work is way more of a commodity than firms would like to admit (especially to clients), and really high-level litigation is probably more lawyer-dependent than firm dependent.

That said, Chambers is probably better for figuring out which practice groups large firms feel are their most important practices, whereas Vault might as well be composed by law students, because it's all about outside reputation.

Probably not a big difference between band 1 and band 2 for many practice areas. Maybe a difference if you are looking at band 1 vs band 4. Chambers should be a secondary consideration in view of the firm culture and your impression of your future colleagues when choosing employment.

From your vantage point as an associate, the band 1 vs. band 2 difference doesn't matter. You might be able to say that if a firm is listed in Chambers at all in a niche area, they have enough work in that niche area of practice for you to get your hours, but otherwise, who cares?

FlightoftheEarls wrote:

arisboddle wrote:nearly 0. It's just firm marketing material. No one cares or knows.

Hmm, perhaps it's different for niche practice groups and I'm unaware, but I disagree with your assessment. I generally find Chambers bands to be one of the best gauges of the relative strength of practice groups within a market. While that doesn't necessarily mean that one should automatically go to a Band 1 firm over a Band 2 if someone prefers the latter firm for other reasons, there is likely to be an increasingly meaningful difference in reputation between a Band 1 and a Band 4 (or unranked) firm, for instance.

arisboddle probably meant chambers associate, which I would agree is just firm marketing material.