The Best Lawyer's voting season is currently in session for Chile, Colombia and Peru and will be open until 13 August. Voting will begin later this month for Brazil, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa and Spain. Elite legal professionals are invited to vet and honor their peers for inclusion in our 40-year-old esteemed peer-review recognition. The invitation to cast votes is exclusively offered to lawyers recognized in the previous edition and presents an opportunity to recognize lawyers who stood out among their peers in a year filled with enormous obstacles and uncertainty.
The Best Lawyers research team reports that 2020 presented an extraordinary amount of change in the legal industry including a record number of employment shifts and movement among firms and locales—no doubt caused by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. Best Lawyers Senior Research Manager Kristen Greer expresses the importance of voting, stating: “It’s as vital as ever!” When asked what sets Best Lawyers apart from other legal publications, Kristen states that “We truly are peer review. One cannot purchase or persuade for an inclusion.”
Voting for the 2022 Editions of The Best Lawyers™ matters more now than ever before to capture the outstanding and commendable work of the top lawyers during the most challenging years in recent history.
Share your candid insight (which is confidential). Balanced and honest input is the best way to ensure our recognitions remain esteemed.” – Kristen Greer
Who Votes for Best Lawyers?
Beginning in June, we invite lawyers from these countries awarded by Best Lawyers from the previous year to offer their feedback on who deserves recognition in the upcoming edition. Lawyers cannot vote for themselves, and every lawyer (voter included) is re-evaluated for inclusion in the upcoming release.
How Does Voting Work?
Using an algorithm, our platform curates a selection of both nominated and recognized lawyers who practice in the same specialty and locale as the voter. Ballots are uniquely created for each voter based on a series of internal data points.
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?”
How to Access Your Ballot
Are you currently recognized by Best Lawyers and want to make an impact on the industry? Now’s the time to offer your expertise that will shape the reputation of firms and lawyers nationwide. You can access the Best Lawyers ballot by logging into our website, requesting a ballot by email or calling us directly.
Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch
Our newest list, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch, highlights lawyers earlier in their legal careers (in practice between five and nine years) who are already stand-outs among their peers in their fields of practice. Kristen explained that for this year, “we are welcoming input from existing recognized Best Lawyers for Ones to Watch candidates at their firm. Their unique perspective will give us so much more insight into which emerging talent should be recognized.”
Spain is currently in its first edition voting period for Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch. “We are excited to launch the first edition’s research for Ones to Watch in Spain! Ones to Watch provides a great opportunity to legal practitioners and their firms by highlighting the support their clients receive. A firm may have a single person recognized in our traditional list, but have many more talented, but perhaps less experienced, legal minds contributing to the work. Ones to Watch applies our traditional peer review methodology and inviting both fellow Ones to Watch candidates as well as traditional Best Lawyers recognized lawyers to participate, allowing us to recognize top emerging talent.”
We asked Kristen if we can expect Ones to Watch to expand to other countries in the coming years. “Absolutely! In addition to our traditional listing, Lawyer of the Year and Law Firm of the Year recognitions, Ones to Watch expands the view of a firm’s full talent.”
Stay in the Know
Stay abreast of all key deadlines by bookmarking our timelines (Chile, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa and Spain) or subscribing to All Rise, the newsletter by Best Lawyers.
