Year Received: 2010

The methodology for the U.S. News - Best Lawyers "Best Law Firms" involved surveying thousands of law firm clients; leading lawyers and law firm managers; partners and associates; and marketing officers and recruiting officers. Each were asked what factors they considered vital for clients hiring law firms, for lawyers choosing a firm to refer a legal matter to, and for lawyers seeking employment.

Based on that feedback, six key surveys instruments were created: A client survey was sent to 52,480 clients; a lawyer survey was sent to 43,900 lawyers, including every U.S. lawyer listed in Best Lawyers; surveys were sent to 2,314 marketing officers and 2,322 recruiting officers as well as to 8,597 firms without marketing- or recruiting-office contacts; and associate surveys were sent to 2,322 firm associates and 1,775 summer associates. The marketing-officer, recruiting-officer, associate, and summer-associate surveys included a total of 724 questions.

The level of response from this vast group exceeded our most optimistic expectations: 1,859 firms participated in the marketing-officer and recruiting-officer surveys; 9,514 clients – including every Fortune 100 company and 587 of the Fortune 1000 companies – provided 194,370 firm practice-area evaluations; 6,190 clients provided 11,181 comments about law firm practice areas and individual lawyers; and 8,842 lawyers provided 594,012 firm practice-area evaluations.

Client and lawyer surveys collected mostly reputational data. Using a scale of 1 (weakest) to 5 (strongest), clients voted on expertise, responsiveness, understanding of a business and its needs, cost-effectiveness, civility, and whether they would refer another client to a firm. Lawyers voted on expertise, responsiveness, integrity, cost-effectiveness, and whether they would refer a matter to a firm and whether they consider a firm a worthy competitor. 

Years Received: Last 13 years

Inclusion in Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. For 28 years, the top lawyers in the U.S. have helped make The Best Lawyers In America the leading legal referral guide by candidly evaluating the work of other top lawyers in the same practice areas and geographic areas.

Lawyers are nominated to Best Lawyers in three ways. First, all of the lawyers in the previous edition of Best Lawyers are automatically nominated into the next edition. Second, during the voting process, voting lawyers are asked to nominate any outstanding lawyers who have not yet been nominated. These lawyer nominations are generally for lawyers at other firms and register as votes as well as nominations.

Best Lawyers is published annually. Each year, lawyers in half the states (by population) are called and asked to vote by phone; lawyers in the other half are asked to vote by e-mail or fax. The next year, the process is reversed, so that every voter has an opportunity to vote “in person” every two years.

Whether by telephone, e-mail, or fax, we ask voting lawyers the same question, “If you could not handle a case yourself, to whom would you refer it?” Lawyers are asked to give nominees 5-1 numerical grades – 5 for a lawyer the voter would certainly refer a case to, 4 for a lawyer the voter would probably refer a case to, and 3 for a lawyer the voter might hesitate to refer a case to. Lawyers are allowed to give pluses or minuses in order to make their votes more precise. 

Years Received: Since 2007

Super Lawyers selects attorneys using a rigorous, multiphase rating 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. Since Super Lawyers is intended to be used as an aid in selecting a lawyer, we limit the lawyer ratings to those who can be hired and retained by the public, i.e., lawyers in private practice and Legal Aid attorneys.

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.

Received: 8 times

Received Readers' Choice Award for best law firm in Fayetteville Observer.

Received: 1 time

Voted 2010's best law firm in Up & Coming Weekly's "Best of Fayetteville."