About

We believe the best lawyers know who the best lawyers are. It's our founding principle and remains unchanged, for more than 30 years.

Our History

See Best Lawyers Timeline

Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer review publication in the legal profession.

Recognition in Best Lawyers is widely regarded by both clients and legal professionals as a significant honor, conferred on a lawyer by his or her peers. For more than three decades, our publications have earned the respect of the profession, the media, and the public, as the most reliable, unbiased source of legal referrals anywhere.

Our lists of outstanding lawyers are compiled by conducting exhaustive peer review surveys in which tens of thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. If the votes for a lawyer are positive enough for recognition in Best Lawyers, that lawyer must maintain those votes in subsequent polls to remain in each edition. Lawyers are not permitted to pay any fee to participate in or be recognized by Best Lawyers.

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Highlights

78

countries around the world
113,027

lawyers
13+ m

evaluations of lawyers by their peers
148

practice areas

Founders

The founders and editors of Best Lawyers are Steven Naifeh and the late Gregory White Smith, both graduates of the Harvard Law School, class of 1977. Before turning to publishing and writing, Mr. Naifeh worked as an intern in the office of Congressman Charlie Wilson, as a docent at the... Read more about the founders

Image of Gregory White Smith — Gregory White Smith

Leadership

Meet the Leadership Team

Phillip Greer

CEO

Elizabeth Petit

Director of Research & Development and Managing Editor

Alysa Carmichael

Director of Finance

Advisory Board

Meet the Board

The Best Lawyers Board of Advisors is a group of distinguished legal professionals from the world's leading law firms and many of the General Counsel from Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies.

I use Best Lawyers because it has credibility. I have considered what you report about firms I know and it is true to my experience. Consequently, I have confidence in what you report when I need a firm or attorney in a venue where I don't have any existing relationship.