The Next Target For Legal AI: Directory Submissions

Legal AI adoption has so far focused primarily on front-office tools used directly by lawyers, including drafting copilots and research assistants.

But new AI platforms are now targeting operational workflows such as directory submissions, pitches and fee proposals.

Rankings submissions are commercially critical for law firms. Strong placements in directories such as Chambers and Legal 500 influence reputation, client perception and sometimes hiring.

Yet the process behind those submissions is often surprisingly fragile.

Each year, firms gather deal lists, matter summaries and client references across dozens of practice groups and offices. Teams then assemble them into long tables and narrative sections inside Word documents before circulating multiple versions internally.

Much of the information already exists inside the firm, but it is rarely structured in a way that makes it easy to reuse, meaning retrieving, formatting and coordinating it takes significant time.

The matters collected for rankings submissions are often the exact deals later used in pitch decks, client proposals and marketing materials. Yet because the information sits in documents rather than structured systems, it frequently has to be recreated or reformatted for each use.

That duplication has made the process an obvious candidate for automation.

A new type of legal AI

A number of platforms are now being built to address this operational layer, including Ranking Copilot.

The London-based company was founded by Dmytro Fedoruk, a former Clifford Chance lawyer, who built the product around his experience of how large firms handle directory submissions.

The product aims to systematise directory submissions by centralising matters, credentials and submission data inside a structured platform. The company says it can cut submission preparation time by 90%.

Crucially, the same structured matter database can also feed pitch decks, proposals and marketing materials across the firm.

Chambers backing

The category is also starting to receive recognition from the directories themselves.

Earlier this year, Ranking Copilot struck an official partnership with Chambers and Partners, signalling a shift toward more technology-enabled submission processes.

The partnership allows firms to provide submissions directly through Ranking Copilot, helping them produce high-quality content more quickly and consistently.

The company is also expanding into the US market, with a number of American law firms set to onboard later this year.

From documents to systems

For firms adopting these tools, the shift is less about AI writing text and more about organising information.

Tees Law, a top-200 UK law firm with six offices across the East of England, has used the platform to coordinate its directory entries.

Tees business development manager Nigel Higgins said: “We found [Ranking Copilot] extremely useful in helping to create, manage and track multiple entries for the Legal 500 directory. The platform was used by both our lawyers and the BD team, and feedback was extremely positive.”

At Dentons Jiménez de Aréchaga - a leading full-service law firm in Uruguay and part of Dentons, the world's largest law firm - communications and marketing director Lucía Romero said: “Using Ranking Copilot has helped me simplify and standardise the submissions process, effectively optimising my time.”

The second wave of legal AI

As law firms expand internationally, the complexity of managing submissions, credentials and deal data increases. Without structured systems, those processes often become more fragmented each year.

Firms are shifting how they think about these workflows. Rankings, pitches and proposals are no longer treated purely as administrative exercises, but as connected processes built on the same underlying data.

See how Ranking Copilot can turn your submissions process into a system that powers pitches, proposals and growth.

Sponsored by Ranking Copilot