We interviewed Mónica Tantaleán, editor of Chambers and Partners (Latin America)

Mónica Tantaleán answers questions we all ask ourselves when applying to Chambers and Partners

Chambers and Partners is the most prestigious international directory for the legal sector in the market, and everyone wants to be in its rankings of firms and lawyers, since obtaining a place gives an objective seal of quality, resulting in greater visibility to potential clients.

On this occasion, our Partner and Head of International Directories, María Sol Rubio, interviews Mónica Tantaleán about the new calendar for Chambers Latin America 2023, who gives us answers to questions that are often repeated when embarking on the nomination process, which this year begins on August 20 with a new research cycle.

Mónica is a lawyer from Pontifica Universidad Católica del Perú, and prior to joining the international board, she worked at the International Project Finance Association in London and was a senior associate at DLA Piper Peru. Since August 2020 she has been an editor for the Latin America guide at Chambers and Partners.

1. The new research calendar for Chambers Latin America 2023 has recently been published. How important is it to meet the deadlines and is it possible to ask for extensions?

Meeting the deadlines is super important because it basically guarantees two things: one, that we can take the interviewing department into account when planning the research of a certain practice area and, two, that we can have the information from their referees processed by our systems and available to the researchers on the start date of each research cycle.

As you can imagine, at Chambers Latin America, every month during our research cycle we receive thousands of lists of referrals. That information first needs to go through the data department to process the information, so while we can grant extensions, depending on the date they are requested, the delay in the delivery of the information may cause us not to contact your referees twice during the research cycle. And if it is too late, we may not contact your referees, which as you know is the most relevant source of information for Chambers.

2. What is new for this new research cycle? Have you opened new practice areas for the next cycle?

Among the novelties, we have changed the name of the “Latin America-wide” section. It is now called “International Counsel”. This is to avoid some confusion about the subject of our research. In some cases it was thought that these were rankings of firms in Latin America with presence in several countries in the region, when in fact they are rankings that seek to recognize those firms and individuals who, applying “non-Latin American” law, advise clients in cases originating in Latin America.

For this new Guide 2023, work originating in Brazil will no longer be taken into account, since Brazil now has its own guide, this type of work must be reported there.

Another novelty is that we have two new practice areas. In both Ecuador and Mexico, we are including Public Law. As always, for all practice areas, we have to review our definitions, so that we can include relevant work in the submissions.

To find out which definitions are used by Chambers Latin America, please visit: Chambers Latin America practice area definitions

3. The gathering of information and preparation of applications is often very tedious for firms. What should they focus on when preparing the submission? What do researchers look for in interviews with referrals?

In addition to using the Chambers formats, my recommendation is to analyze our definitions of research practice areas, so that the submission can be prepared on that basis. It is of little use to have a very interesting submission, where most of the cases reported are not relevant to the research practice area.

I would also recommend working together on both documents, i.e., the submission and the referee list. They should not be treated as separate documents.

Let me explain. The submission is the information that the firm gives us about its department. It tells us not only who makes up their department, but also gives us information about their most important clients and presents the most sophisticated and relevant work of the last 12 months. Through the referrals, the researchers seek to corroborate the information provided in the submission and to know their opinion about the service the department has provided them.

4. Firms can get quite frustrated when they apply and don’t get results in the first year. Why should they keep applying?

I would recommend that they continue to apply, because through the submission and referee list, we can learn more about their firms. Of course, sending these documents to Chambers does not guarantee that you will appear in our rankings, but it does allow us to learn about the work developed by the different departments, and to have direct access to interview clients who have worked with them in the last 12 months. These comments are what ultimately determine whether a department or individual makes it into our rankings.

I should mention that there is no rule in Chambers that a department cannot appear in our rankings the first year of application (in fact, there are firms that appear in our rankings and have never applied). What happens is that the rankings are very competitive and we, in order to recommend a department and/or a team member in our rankings, have to be certain that there is solid market recognition, which in most cases, can take a couple of years.

5. We have noticed that each year Chambers is more concerned about disseminating statistics on diversity and gender equality in each launch of the different guides. In the case of Latin America, it was last year, in your first launch as editor, the first time that this data was disseminated. Will we have that information this year as well?

Yes, for Chambers the issue of diversity and inclusion is central, and the issue of gender is particularly relevant. Last year, in fact, was my first launch as the Editor of the Latin America team, and we presented detailed information on gender for the first time. This information caused a lot of discussion in the market. Especially in those countries that had the lowest percentage of women lawyers in the rankings.

Personally, I found this type of discussion very positive because there was a lot of analysis and reflection on the presence of women in leadership positions in law firms. What we do at Chambers is to gather feedback from the market and reflect it in our rankings. The low presence of women partners is an (unfortunate) reality, which I hope will change very soon. I could spend a lot of time talking about these issues, but to answer your question: yes, for this new launch we will also present diversity data.

The Launch of the guide is the event that has the largest audience, and as such, we cannot fail to share such important and relevant data for the Latin American legal community. I hope we have better results than last year!

You can see all the deadlines for the new guide at the following link.

From Gericó Associates we can support you in your applications to international directories such as Chambers and Partners. For more information, please contact us at info@gericoassociates.com