Super Lawyers is a nationally recognized rating service for exceptional lawyers. In existence since 1991, the service has a rich history of rating the best lawyers in each state and Washington, D.C. Its rankings are a valuable resource for both US residents and those outside the country, providing them with a way to find top lawyers in each state.
Super Lawyers publishes two rankings for attorneys annually: Super Lawyers and Rising Stars. The lists include attorneys from firms of all sizes and practices in over 70 fields. It follows a patented selection process to come up with its prestigious state-by-state lists.
The process starts with a call for nominations. Practicing lawyers can nominate their peers through the Super Lawyers website. They can nominate up to 21 attorneys. Of these, only seven can be colleagues from their own firm. Each nomination carries a point value.
Non-practicing attorneys can also nominate attorneys through an email to Super Lawyers. However, Super Lawyers treats these as informal nominations that carry no point value. Super Lawyers restricts attorneys from nominating people practicing in different states. They can only suggest out-of-state attorneys for consideration, but again, Super Lawyers will not assign point values to these attorneys. Lawyers are also prohibited from campaigning for nominations.
Besides lawyer nominations, Super Lawyers’ own research team also carries out research on lawyers to consider in its rankings. The staff, led by attorneys, looks for lawyers who have achieved certain awards, results, or credentials that set them apart from their peers. For example, the staff look for lawyers who have gained admission into prestigious academic institutions or won highly coveted honors. This enables Super Lawyers to identify deserving candidates who were not nominated.
Super Lawyers also accepts nominations from people who are not attorneys. These can be clients or readers of Super Lawyers publications. It treats these nominations as informal, however, apportioning no point value to them.
Following the nomination stage, the Super Lawyers team evaluates all nominees based on 12 indicators, assigning points on their performance in each. These indicators include verdicts and settlements, transactions, experience, representative clients, honors and awards, and special certifications. Others are positions within law firms, scholarly work, educational background, national and state bar activities, and community and pro bono service. The indicators are not equally weighted, meaning some carry more points than others.
After evaluating candidates on the 12 criteria, Super Lawyers staff calculate their total points from the nomination and evaluation stages. They then request the attorneys with the highest points in each state to serve on a “blue ribbon review” panel. Attorneys on this panel will then receive a list of candidates to review. These are attorneys practicing in the same fields as them. They will have to review and rate them on a one-to-five scale.
The last step is grouping candidates by firm size. Super Lawyers takes the names of the top rated candidates and groups them by the size of their firms. This way, lawyers from small firms are only compared with those from small firms, and those in large firms are compared with peers in similarly sized firms.
Candidates in the top 5 percent based on total points in each firm category make it to the Super Lawyers list. Those who do not make the Super Lawyers list but are 40 years or younger or have been practicing for 10 years or less are considered for the Rising Stars list. The top 2.5 percent from this pool join the list of the Rising Stars.
Before publishing the final list, Super Lawyers staff check each attorney’s standing with their local bar to make sure they are in good standing. They will also ask honorees to aver that they are not subject to any criminal proceedings. The staff will also check external sources to ensure the honorees do not have ongoing matters that might reflect poorly on them. Once these final steps are completed, Super Lawyers publishes the list of Super Lawyers and Rising Stars in each state.
