Vol. 2 No. 5 (2022): Swiss Chinese Law Review

We search law firm rankings in a quest for clarity but come away from a bewildering array of lists and league tables more confused then we were to begin with. Everyone knows that no ranking table can reveal the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But at the same time everyone falls back on annual lists as a measure of status and achievement. What is actually going on when we read a law firm ranking table? What work went on behind the scenes to produce it? What ideals do we project onto it? What benefits or detriments do professionals and firms derive from where they end up on the list?

The fifth issue of the Swiss Chinese Law Review goes beyond interrogating who benefits from ranking tables or not. We want to understand how this institution affects the international legal industry. How have rankings evolved? What realities do they reflect? How are they gamed? How can they be trusted? How can they be improved? What are the alternatives to ranking tables? How do they differ in Europe and in Asia?