Methodology
Publicizing Guidelines
Congratulations on your recognition by Best Lawyers. The guidelines below provide you with the tools you need to publicly showcase your honors.
Details to Include When Announcing Rankings
AWARD
Best Lawyers®
"Ones to Watch"
"Ones to Watch"
EDITION
1st edition or 2027 edition
PRACTICE AREA
Family Law
LOCATION
Best Lawyers® in Dallas, TX
The Best Lawyers in America®
Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Canada™
The Best Lawyers in America®
Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Canada™
OFFICIAL GUIDANCE:
Read carefully before publicizing any Best Lawyers recognition. Trademark and licensing rules apply.
How to Cite Awards and Recognitions
General Rules · Use of Best Lawyers Mark · Advertising Rules
Publicizing Guidelines for Best Law Firms Rankings 
General Rules
- You are permitted to mention that you are recognized by Best Lawyers® or recognized in The Best Lawyers in America®, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America, The Best Lawyers in [Country Name]™, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in [Country Name]™, etc.
- You are NOT permitted to say you are a "best lawyer" or to suggest that an award by Best Lawyers guarantees a desired result nor imply an endorsement of any products or services.
- All compliant Best Lawyers announcements contain the edition year, country and awarded practice area, because individual awards are released annually, based on specific jurisdictions and practice area based.
- Promotion of Best Lawyers "Lawyer of the Year" awards must include the appropriate practice area, metropolitan area and edition year in which the award was given.
The Best Lawyers Mark
- Best Lawyers® is always plural.
- When referring to Best Lawyers as an organization, domestic or internationally, use Best Lawyers®.
- When referring to American publications and honors, use the registration symbol. When referring to international publications and awards, use the trademark symbol.
- The names of all publications, domestically and internationally, should be italicized. The company name is not italicized.
- The only exception to this rule is a firm-wide announcement, which should contain the year, country and total number of lawyers included in the associated edition.
- The registration or trademark symbols should be included in the first mention of Best Lawyers® or the country’s launch name. All following mentions of Best Lawyers do not need to include the registration or trademark symbols.
Advertising Rules
- When publicizing Best Lawyers awards using a group photo from the firm, the specific lawyers recognized by Best Lawyers must be identified by name in a caption with the notation of at least one of the awarded practice areas per recognized lawyer.
- Advertisers should check their state or jurisdictional bar associations’ rules on specialty certification before including specialties and subspecialties in any advertisement.
- Under no circumstances may a firm use the logo of Best Lawyers or any other creative, including badges, from Best Lawyers without the express licensing by Best Lawyers.
- Firms must not publicly promote or disclose new Best Lawyers awards during the embargo period before the official public release date for their country, available on the timeline page.
- Do not include any language the viewer may misconstrue as the honored lawyer being more skilled than lawyers who are not included in the publication.
BRAND ASSETS
Logo and Badge Usage Guidelines
Logos and badges must be officially licensed for use. They may only be used in the form and colors indicated, accompanied by required verbiage.
Licensing Rules
- Permission for use of Best Lawyers logos and badges begins on the date of purchase and lasts either 12 months after such purchase or until the release of the next publication of rankings in your country.
- To be eligible to use Best Lawyers logos and badges, the lawyer and/or law firm must appear in the print or online versions of Best Lawyers rankings.
- Best Lawyers logos and badges shall only be used in the form and colors indicated, without modifications or alterations. Such logos and badges will not be used in a way that would reflect poorly on Best Lawyers.
- Any display of Best Lawyers logos or badges should be accompanied by the appropriate required verbiage.
The logo or badge may be used in the following ways
Lawyer or firm’s website
Display your recognition on profile or about pages.Footer of email messages
In email signatures and email templates.Print or online marketing brochures, materials or statements
Must first be provided to Best Lawyers for approval prior to production.Social media websites
Tagging Best Lawyers in your posts is encouraged.Best Lawyers logos may be used on billboards, outdoor advertisements and television ads only after the purchase of an additional license.
COPY-READY EXAMPLES
Example Announcement Formats
Verbatim examples from the Best Lawyers Publicizing Guidelines.
FIRM-WIDE
Firm-Wide Awards Announcement
"Hibbens & McKay, LLC is proud to have 14 lawyers recognized by Best Lawyers® in 2021 in America."
"Hibbens & McKay, LLC is proud to have 14 lawyers awarded in the 2025 editions of The Best Lawyers in America® and the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America."
"Hibbens & McKay, LLC is proud to have 10 lawyers recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® and four lawyers recognized in the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America 2023 editions."
INDIVIDUAL
Individual Lawyer Announcement
"Amelia June was recently included in the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for Family Law and Family Law Mediation."
"Julie Martin was recently selected by her peers for inclusion in the 14th edition of The Best Lawyers in France™ in the fields of Litigation and Tax Law."
"William Wright was included in the 5th edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America for Construction Law."
LAWYER OF THE YEAR
Individual Lawyer With "Lawyer of the Year" Award
"Robert Brown was named the Best Lawyers® 2019 Family Law "Lawyer of the Year" in Atlanta."
"Catherine Neal received the Best Lawyers® 2025 Real Estate "Lawyer of the Year" award in Winnipeg."
"David Potter was recognized by Best Lawyers® as the 2022 Superannuation Law "Lawyer of the Year" award winner in Sydney."
Download Publicizing Guidelines PDF
A printable copy of the full Best Lawyers publicizing guidelines.
Download PDF ADDITIONAL APPROVED MATERIAL
Additional Approved Material
Best Lawyers® is an elite global network of legal professionals recognized through trusted, peer-reviewed distinction. For over four decades, our Purely Peer Review® methodology has upheld the principle that recognition should be earned through the opinions of fellow attorneys, not marketing influence or paid listings.
Each year, more than 13 million confidential evaluations are collected worldwide, contributing to one of the legal industry’s most rigorous and trusted vetting processes. Only about 5% of lawyers in the United States and 3% globally are recognized, reflecting the selectivity and credibility of the results. Proprietary safeguards are in place to reduce bias and uphold the accuracy of the peer feedback.
For the 2026 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, more than 26 million evaluations were analyzed. The Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America recognitions were determined based on more than 5.4 million evaluations.
"Lawyer of the Year" accolades are reserved for one individual per practice area in each metropolitan region, based on the highest aggregate peer feedback. This designation represents a rare and distinguished honor.
No fees are accepted for consideration or inclusion, maintaining the integrity and independence of all recognitions.
13M+
Confidential evaluations collected worldwide each year
26M+
Evaluations analyzed for the 2026 edition
5.4M
Evaluations for “Ones to Watch” in America
COMPLIANCE & GOVERNANCE
Approval & Considerations
Advertisement Approval
Legal advertising is regulated by your state or jurisdiction. It is the sole responsibility of the advertiser to first comply with jurisdictional guidelines. Always refer to your state or local bar society’s rules if you have specific questions or concerns.
The Best Lawyers publicizing guidelines contain general recommendations but are not intended to be legal advice. Best Lawyers assumes no responsibility for advertiser compliance with jurisdictional guidelines.
After compliance with your state, provincial and national bar’s rules, any promotional material containing the Best Lawyers name must be emailed for approval before release in any public medium to ensure compliance with Best Lawyers' Guidelines. Please send drafts to admaterials@bestlawyers.com, and our team can provide feedback on any press release, announcement or advertisement.
Send drafts to the Best Lawyers team before public release of any press release, announcement, or advertisement.
Additional Considerations
Best Lawyers will monitor relevant advertising to ensure that any usage of its trademarked or copyrighted material complies with these guidelines. If any usage is found not to comply with the guidelines, Best Lawyers will inform the advertiser and request that the inappropriate advertising be brought into compliance. If timely and appropriate efforts are not made by the advertiser to bring the non-compliant advertising into compliance with the guidelines, Best Lawyers may temporarily suspend or permanently exclude the advertiser from any or all Best Lawyers databases and publications and take appropriate action to ensure that its trademarks and copyrights are not infringed.
- Best Lawyers does not assume, and hereby expressly disclaims, any liability to any person or entity for any loss or damage claimed to arise from the failure by any advertiser using Best Lawyers materials of any kind to comply with these guidelines.
- Best Lawyers rankings shall only be used for the purpose of identifying a lawyer as having been recognized by Best Lawyers and not to imply an endorsement of any product or services.
- Best Lawyers has the right to monitor mentions of the Best Lawyers rankings, and if a lawyers’ description of its recognition in the Best Lawyers list is inaccurate, or otherwise unacceptable, Best Lawyers will notify the lawyer and the lawyer agrees that it shall immediately remove or change such materials in accordance with Best Lawyers’ request.
- Under no circumstances may the logos of Best Lawyers, or any other creative from Best Lawyers, be used without the express written permission of Best Lawyers.
- These guidelines are subject to change without notice, and Best Lawyers may withdraw or change these guidelines at any time and for any reason.
PLEASE NOTE
In consideration for the limited use of the marks Best Lawyers®, Best Law Firms®, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® and Purely Peer Review® in connection with publicity or other advertising, all awarded lawyers and/or law firms expressly agree to abide by the terms and conditions of these guidelines AND ANY APPLICABLE STATE BAR LEGAL ADVERTISING LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS.
Best Lawyers®, Best Law Firms®, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® and Purely Peer Review® are registered trademarks of BL Rankings, LLC d/b/a Best Lawyers and Co., LLC. The names, logo and database are protected under the trademark, copyright and fair use laws of the United States of America. Any use of name, including in electronic form, must be made only by permission and under the guidelines of BL Rankings, LLC d/b/a Best Lawyers and Co., LLC.
BL Rankings, LLC d/b/a Best Lawyers and Co., LLC has used its best efforts in assembling material for inclusion in Best Lawyers but does not warrant that the information contained therein is complete or accurate, and does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any liability to any person for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in Best Lawyers whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident or any other cause.