Líder Legal interviews Patricio Espinoza: “Chambers and Partners is rewarding sophistication versus quantity”

Patricio Espinoza, partner and leader of the legal rankings area of our consultancy firm, has extensive experience in the legal sector. In order to get to know him better, Líder Legal has conducted an interesting interview with him, in which he discusses both professional and personal issues.

Born and raised in Chile, he started his career in London five years ago. He moved to do a master’s degree in social sciences at the London School of Economics, in addition to the training he already had in constitutional law, public law, human rights, public policy in the area of education and the environment, macroeconomics and public finance.

Between 2019 and 2022 he worked at Chambers and Partners. This allows him to speak with knowledge of this prestigious directory, which he is asked about in depth during the interview.

When asked about the changes he lived through and experienced from the inside in the rankings that today allow him to offer firms an updated and accurate criterion, he answers that “there are many! The main one is the growing specialisation that Chambers and Partners is promoting in different markets. This phenomenon has materialised in Spain, for example, in the separation between Corporate High-end and Corporate mid-market. The same trend can be seen in some Latin American jurisdictions, such as Chile, which has moved towards the same specificity as Spain; or in Peru, in dispute resolution where three very competitive categories stand out: arbitration, litigation and white-collar crime”.

He adds a second change to his answer: “the incorporation of quantitative metrics, in addition to its classic and reputed qualitative methodology. This trend is manifested in the introduction of special platforms to receive feedback from referees. Finally, Chambers and Partners is currently undergoing a major internal transformation, in which the specialisation and reinforcement of its research teams has been the main focus”.

The importance for firms to participate and to be recognised in legal rankings

Espinoza is certain that it is not equally important for a small, medium or large law firm to participate and be recognised by an international ranking.

“In the case of a large firm, participating in these rankings is critical to be able to offset the reputation of firms with international networks such as Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, Baker McKenzie, White & Case or Linklaters, which have their own network of clients that are shared globally. Secondly, these transnational firms are among those that have most developed legal marketing, so they allocate a significant portion of their budget to manage internally and for their global network the issue of international directories. In this sense, for large and national firms there is no doubt that being present in the rankings is not only a matter of reputation, but also a necessity“.

He goes on to explain that “moving to the mid-market, it’s a bit similar. In order to belong to this select group of elite national firms and compete with international firms, being in the rankings is vital. Without rankings in Chambers and Partners, these firms cannot enter the top client circuit“.

“Finally, in developing firms the international director strategy should be built on the basis of the firm’s growth projections. In that sense, I would suggest choosing directories that are more adapted to the markets in which they participate, and this will depend on a case-by-case analysis,” he advises.

Chambers and Partners´ criteria for ranking firms

In his experience, Patricio’s first conclusion is that “Chambers and Partners is rewarding sophistication versus quantity. In the TTR report, for example, firms present in transactions with more value and those with more transaction volume are highlighted. The firms that are ranked in the Corporate: High-end, for the most part, are those that are present in higher value transactions, and which are not very high in relation to the number of transactions in which they participated. In this sense, Chambers and Partners rewards being present in highly complex or sophisticated M&A transactions. On the other hand, firms with a high volume of transactions, although they are also in the high-end table, many of them are not in Band 1 or Band 2 of the ranking.

Regarding the change in the ranking of the Corporate / M&A area in Spain, Espinoza considers that “definitely this ranking is, nowadays, ‘up for grabs’ in the sense that it is the opportunity for Mid-market firms to make aggressive, audacious applications and show their cards and be able to enter. The main thing is not to limit yourself when analysing the subjects to be presented, but rather to take risks and present sophisticated work, even if it may not seem so in terms of value“.

What do you expect from this year’s research at Chambers and Partners in terms of strong law firms in areas such as energy, real estate, technology and telecoms, which are all strong sectors for M&A transactions in 2022?

“I would expect that, for this year, there will be movement in these rankings. However, what I would do would be to take the opportunity and a lot of these sectoral M&A transactions, report them in both sector-specific and Corporate M&A, both Mid-market and High-end,” he explains.

Start of the next Chambers and Partners research period: February 22nd

This period is expected to be an expectant one, as Espinoza makes clear, and he believes that, in general, for Corporate / M&A: High-end, no major changes are expected in Band 1, “considering the performance that all the firms in the band have had in the Spanish transaction market. Given the size of Band 1, Band 2 firms would need to perform extraordinarily well in terms of presenting ultra-sophisticated matters and getting a lot of feedback from clients.

Keys to reflecting a good year in M&A transactions in an application to Chambers and Partners, according to Patricio Espinoza

He concludes the more professional part of the interview by suggesting three key points for firms to keep in mind. “Firstly, emphasise sophistication in the choice of transactions to present; secondly, take advantage of the positions you have in metrics of quantity or value of transactions by making that clear in the submission; and thirdly, show that the firm (through client feedback and the presentation of matters in the submission) is in tune with market trends, presenting M&A deals in the most dynamic areas of this year, such as TMT, technology and renewable energy”.

In a nutshell…

Líder Legal always adds to its interviews some questions to get to know more in depth the most human side of the interviewee. Espinoza’s answers are as follows:

What’s the smartest thing anyone has ever said to you (and who said it)?

You should not let good opportunities pass you by to keep quiet. I was told this by a former director of budgets at the Ministry of Finance in Chile about difficult political negotiations.

Who (for better or worse) has been the person who has most influenced your career? Why?

Pablo Ruiz-Tagle Vial, current Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Chile, PhD in Law from Yale, taught me the importance of academic rigor, intellectual honesty and motivated my passion for fundamental rights.

A must-have AI tool for your work?

I have done AI research for an excellent English startup in the UK, Holistic. For the same reason, in my work I leave nothing to AI, for the moment interaction with my clients, the human touch, understanding and empathy are indispensable to work with them.

A sport?

Football. In Chile, Colo-Colo; in the UK, Manchester United; in Spain, Athletic Bilbao.

A song?

Changes, David Bowie. Life is constant change.

Are you good in the kitchen? What is your favourite dish?

I think I’m pretty good with mushroom or shrimp risotto, Chilean corn pie and, I’ll go out on a limb here, paella.

A childhood memory?

When democracy returned to Chile in 1989, with the victory of the No vote. For the first time I saw a happy people.

A key to success?

I don’t think there is a recipe for success, nor do I believe, philosophically, in the concept of success. I think it is Western society that invites us to think of success as an end in itself. I believe more in honesty, a job well done, trust in one’s team and empathy for those one has the possibility to work with. Moreover, I firmly believe that, as Heraclitus said, as above so below; that is, we will always be at the top of the wave, or at the bottom of a cellar. What I’ve learned is that you shouldn’t think you’re the best or the worst because you’re in either of those positions.

What inspires you?

Julieta, my daughter. Besides the sunsets in front of the sea.

What lesson has the pandemic taught you?

During the pandemic, with some friends from different countries that we met at the LSE, we did a series of webinars. One of them was called “Lockdown is a Luxury”; I felt so lucky to have to be locked up in a flat in central London, thinking of all those who had nowhere to lock themselves up in the rest of the world.

If you want to read the full interview in Líder Legal, click here.