SuperLawyers

What are SuperLawyers? SuperLawyers is a listing of the top 5% of lawyers in each state in more than 70 practice fields who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Super Lawyers is published as a special supplement in leading newspapers and city and regional magazines across the country. Super Lawyers magazine, featuring articles about attorneys named to the Super Lawyers list, is distributed to all attorneys in the state or region, the lead corporate counsel of Russell 3000 companies and the ABA-approved law school libraries. Brian C. Vertz has been listed as a Pennsylvania for SuperLawyer for family law every year since its inception.

Polling, research and selection are performed by Law & Politics, a publication of Key Professional Media, Inc. Law & Politics has been publishing legal magazines since 1990 and Super Lawyers since 1991.

In selecting attorneys for Super Lawyers, Law & Politics employs a rigorous, multiphase process. Peer nominations and evaluations are combined with third party research. Each candidate is evaluated on 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement. Selections are made on an annual, state-by-state basis.

The objective is to create a credible, comprehensive and diverse listing of outstanding attorneys that can be used as a resource for attorneys and consumers searching for legal counsel.

The Super Lawyers selection process involves three basic steps: creation of the candidate pool; evaluation of candidates by the research department; and peer evaluation by practice area.

Formal nominations

Once a year, we invite lawyers in each state to nominate the top attorneys they’ve personally observed in action. Lawyers may nominate attorneys in their own firm, but these nominations count only if each in-firm nomination is matched by at least one out-firm nomination.

Each nomination carries a point value. An out-firm nomination has substantially greater point value than an in-firm nomination. Lawyers cannot nominate themselves, and must limit their nominations to others who practice in the same state. While important, the nomination phase is simply the first step in the process.  

“Star Search” process

SuperLawyers’ attorney-led research staff searches for lawyers who have attained certain honors, results or credentials, which indicate a high degree of peer recognition or professional competence—what they call “Star Search Credentials.” For example, certification as a specialist in a particular area of practice, or admission to prestigious colleges or academies, e.g., The American College of Trial Lawyers. The staff identifies these Star Search Credentials by reviewing a proprietary listing of more than 150 database and online sources, as well as national and local legal trade publications.  Most of the lawyers who are identified in the Star Search process have also been nominated by their peers. 

Informal nominations

Throughout the year, readers, clients and atttorneys who are not eligible to formally nominate (that is, actively licensed to practice in the same state as the nominee) send in names of lawyers to consider for inclusion. Though no points are awarded, these lawyers are added to the candidate pool for further research and evaluation.

The SuperLawyers research department evaluates each candidate based on these 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement: verdicts and settlements; transactions; representative clients; experience; honors and awards; special licenses and certifications; position within law firm; bar and or other professional activity; pro bono and community service as a lawyer; scholarly lectures and writings; education and employment background; and other outstanding achievements. These indicators are not treated equally; some have a higher maximum point value than others.  

In this step, also known as the “blue ribbon review,” candidates are grouped according to their primary areas of practice. The candidates in each practice area with the highest point totals from steps one and two above are asked to serve on a blue ribbon panel. The panelists are then provided a list of candidates from their practice areas to review and rate on a scale of one to ten.

More information about the SuperLawyers selection process here