‘It’s a s**t show’ – Legal 500 accidentally publishes damning barrister reviews
Legal 500 has been forced to take down its site after the firm mistakenly published negative reviews alongside its top lawyer rankings.
The publisher, which evaluates law firms, solicitors and barristers across 100 countries, pulled its site on Friday for “maintenance” after it had emerged bad reviews were accidentally accompanying the profiles of those who made their ranking.
The directory first went live on Thursday, but reviews posted online show lawyers who topped the rankings being handed zero star reviews and blistering critiques.
One high ranking barrister was criticised for being “disorganised and indecisive,” while another was scrutinised for “sloppy” written work, according to screenshots shared on social media, first reported by law site Roll on Friday.
A review of one lawyer simply read “nothing of note” while another was described as “impressive building and facilities.” The comment under another lawyer claimed “he is sexually attracted to fish.”
One lawyer told City AM that while “there’s a lot of fun on legal Whatsapp” there are also “a lot of very angry lawyers around.” They suggested “it’s hard to see how Legal 500 survives this.”
Not the usual industry rankings
The highly-anticipated annual rankings act as a global benchmark for law firms and attorneys, which the firm says it determines through months of rigorous independent research and client feedback.
The fiasco rounded out a brutal week for Legal 500, and its parent company Legalease. Dozens of its staff won an industrial dispute over pay this week after Legalease agreed demands to for a flat £2,000 pay increase, an increase in sick leave and a reduction in days per week demanded in the office.
It followed two and a half weeks of strike action, and the threat of more on the horizon.
A spokesperson for Legal 500 said: “During a recent website update, an error in the upload process resulted in a small amount of testimonial information being published incorrectly. As soon as we became aware of the issue, we removed the content from our website and began additional verification checks.
“We recognise the importance of ensuring that the information we publish is accurate and take this matter extremely seriously. We apologise to our customers for any concern or inconvenience caused and are taking immediate steps to strengthen our quality assurance processes and safeguards to prevent a recurrence.”