The Founders

The founders and editors of Best Lawyers are Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, both graduates of the Harvard Law School, class of 1977. Before turning to publishing and writing, Mr. Naifeh worked briefly at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York and Mr. Smith at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco.

Together, they have written twelve nonfiction books including four national bestsellers. Their book Jackson Pollock: An American Saga won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1991 and was a finalist for the National Book Award. It was also the basis of the Academy-Award winning film “Pollock” starring Ed Harris. In addition to founding and editing Best Lawyers, Smith and Naifeh founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Best Doctors, Inc., from 1994 until 2000.

Naifeh and Smith have been profiled in many publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, USA Today, Harvard Magazine, and People, as well as on CBS's “60 Minutes.” They have appeared on many television programs, including “Oprah,” “Larry King Live,” “The Today Show,” and “Charlie Rose.”

Their most recent work is Van Gogh: The Life, published by Random House in October 2011. A segment on their biography was featured on “60 Minutes” just prior to the release. The book has also been published in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, and Spain, and will be published in China, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, and South Korea.