Dmytro Fedoruk, the founder of RankingCopilot, has nearly 20 years of legal experience, starting at Clifford Chance and later founding his own law firm in Ukraine. His challenges with legal directory submissions inspired him to create RankingCopilot, which automates administrative tasks. Linsay Leslie, a Partner at MD Communications, has a decade in legal practice followed by over 15 years in business development, including leading legal directory submissions for various law firms. Their collaboration combines technology with directory expertise, aiming to enhance submission efficiency while maintaining strategic effectiveness.

Overview

Legal directory rankings remain an important part of a law firm’s reputation and business development strategy, and Linsay discussed their increasing importance as AI changes how people search for legal expertise. AI tools increasingly draw on publicly available information, including directory editorial and law firm websites, when responding to questions about firms, lawyers and jurisdictions. This means firms need to think carefully about where they want to be recognised and whether their submissions accurately communicate the expertise they want the market to see.

The major opportunity in technology is to eliminate repetitive tasks in submissions, which Dmytro estimates to be 80–90% administrative. RankingCopilot automates information extraction, data organization, and deadline tracking. Some firms enhance this by uploading historical matters for a searchable database, facilitating faster identification of relevant transactions and lawyers. Additionally, AI aids in researching rankings and market trends, helping firms clarify their experience in submissions.

Both speakers emphasized that automation should enhance, not replace, human judgment. Linsay cautioned that over-reliance on AI tools can lead to generic submissions, especially when competing firms provide similar experiences. While technology can assist in drafting and organizing, skilled professionals are essential to choose the best content, understand researcher priorities, and create a unique narrative.

For firms implementing AI, Linsay suggested piloting tools before busy periods, providing proper training, and customizing processes to the firm’s needs. The aim is to speed up submissions while allowing BD and marketing teams to focus more on strategic positioning instead of document production.

Key Takeaways

• Automate administration, preserve judgement: repetitive data gathering and organisation are strong candidates for automation, while matter selection, messaging and positioning still require human expertise and judgement.
• Treat rankings as strategic BD: submissions should align with the firm’s wider business development priorities rather than being approached simply as an annual administrative exercise.
• Create a central source of experience: structured historical matter data can support directory submissions while also becoming a valuable resource for wider pitches and BD activity.
• Use AI to strengthen research: firms can analyse directory editorial, existing rankings and competitor positioning more efficiently before deciding how to position their submissions.
• Avoid generic AI output: AI can accelerate the first draft, but the final submission needs human refinement, nuance and a clear explanation of what differentiates the firm.
• Pilot before implementation: introduce new technology ahead of ranking season, test it with users and adapt processes to the firm rather than expecting technology alone to solve the problem.