Frequently Asked Questions

No fees are required or allowed to nominate an attorney or to become listed in Best Lawyers.

Our international presence is continually growing, and our lists are now available in nearly 70 countries. Click here for a full list of countries in which we conduct the peer review process and publish a Best Lawyers list.

Best Lawyers produces custom publications that are made available to potential clients in targeted regions. In addition, various third-party publications around the globe feature Best Lawyers lists as part of their editorial content. For more information on where Best Lawyers lists are published, please click here.

Best Lawyers is a listing of individual attorneys based solely on the results of peer review by other lawyers; a process we have been conducting for nearly three decades.

“Best Law Firms” was first published in 2010 by Best Lawyers in partnership with U.S.News & World Report. “Best Law Firms” is based on multiple research components and ranks law firms that excel in particular practice areas. You can learn more about the “Best Law Firms” methodology and view the most recent law firm rankings by visiting http://bestlawfirms.usnews.com.

You must submit a completed nomination form, which you can download here (here for UK and AU). We only need one nomination for the attorney to be included on the ballot for voting. Please complete all information and submit via email to nominations@bestlawyers.com or via fax at 803-641-4794 (add “001” when faxing from outside the United States or Canada).

Anyone can nominate an attorney including clients, other lawyers, and marketing directors. We simply ask that lawyers not nominate themselves. Please note that the nominator, or number of nominations received, has no effect on an attorney’s listing.

For projected timelines for Best Lawyers initiatives, consult our online timeline. Please note that these schedules are subject to change.

Because our listings are based on peer-review, we suggest that nominators exercise prudence when choosing which lawyers to nominate. We suggest that nominees be in practice for at least ten years in order to give them time to build a legal presence in their community and practice area(s). Nominating under-qualified lawyers can cast a firm's best candidates in an unfavorable light.

Best Lawyers does not accept nominations for in-house attorneys. All nominees must be in private practice.

While there is no limit to the number of attorneys a firm may nominate, we recommend that the firm avoid nominating too many of their attorneys, as this can lead to a less-balanced ballot dominated by one firm.

You must choose a practice area from our designated list to ensure proper nomination of an attorney. The practice area ballot(s) a nominated attorney is present on are based on what is provided by a nominator, so it is important to submit the correct practice area(s). Note that attorneys can be nominated in multiple practice areas, if applicable. You may view a complete listing of our practice areas, along with definitions for many of them, by clicking here.

While currently listed lawyers must go through the voting process each year in order to be listed in a subsequent edition, it is not necessary to nominate them again. Currently listed lawyers are automatically nominated in their listed practice areas for the next edition. If a nominator feels that the attorney should be considered for a practice area they are not currently listed in, then we must receive a nomination for them to be included in the voting process for a new practice area.

Nominated attorneys remain in the nomination pool for two years. Therefore, if an attorney is nominated one year and doesn’t make the list, he or she will automatically be nominated again for the next edition. If the attorney is not listed a second time, a formal nomination will need to be submitted in order for the attorney to appear on the ballot for consideration in the next voting cycle.

Voting is completed for the next edition by the attorneys listed in the relevant practice area(s) and jurisdictions in the current edition of Best Lawyers.

We ask voting lawyers the same question, “If you were unable to take a case yourself, how likely would you be to refer it to this lawyer?” Our voting scale is a numbered scale as follows:

5 – Would definitely refer a case
4 – Very likely to refer a case
3 – Might refer a case
2 – Not likely to refer a case
1 – Definitely would not refer a case

Voters are also able to add a ‘.5’ to their votes to make them more specific, if they choose to do so, and can use the notation “DK” (Don’t Know) for attorneys whose work they are unfamiliar with. Our ballots also allow for any additional comments the voter may have regarding each nominee.

Yes; however, those votes do not weigh as heavily as a vote from outside the firm.

No. Attorneys are not allowed to vote on themselves. In order to avoid this altogether, we remove attorneys’ names from their own ballots.

Lawyers who receive enough votes to be listed are contacted, typically via email, with an inclusion letter. If we have a designated contact for a law firm, those contacts also receive a complete list of the attorneys included from their law firm.

Write to info@bestlawyers.com to designate a contact for your law firm. You can ask that multiple contacts receive the information for your firm, if you wish. We will confirm with you once we have added the contact(s) to our database.

Each firm has a personalized Administrative Link through which they can update lawyer contact information, update their firm profile (if they have purchased Global Links), find personalized Best Lawyers logos, run a variety of reports on the firm, and nominate new attorneys. You must be a listed lawyer or designated contact to receive your firm’s Administrative Link. You may contact your firm’s Legal Media Specialist or write to info@bestlawyers.com to obtain your firm’s personalized Administrative Link.

Please see the Lawyer of the Year page for further information regarding that accolade.

The Top Listed designation is given to the firm that has the most listed lawyers in a particular location and practice area. This award is based exclusively on number of listed attorneys and is in no way related to the Best Law Firms rankings. You can view your Top Listed awards through your firm’s Administrative Link.

Yes. Logos are available to listed lawyers and/or designated contacts via the firm’s Administrative Link.

Please consult our Guidelines for Publication page. Personalized logos are available through your firm admin link.

BestLawyers.com is a subscription-based website. Some attorneys choose to make their listings visible to all users of our search engine through our Global Links Program. For more information on this program, please write to your firm’s Legal Media Specialist or to sales@bestlawyers.com.