Methodology

General Rules

• You are permitted to mention that you are recognized by Best Lawyers^® or recognized in The Best Lawyers in America^®, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch^® in America, Best Law Firms^®, The Best Lawyers in [Country Name]^™, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in [Country Name]^™, etc., but not that you are a "best lawyer" or “best law firm” or to suggest that an award by Best Lawyers guarantees a desired result nor imply an endorsement of any products or services.
• Do not include any language the viewer may misconstrue as the honored lawyer being more skilled than lawyers who are not included in the publication.

Use of Best Lawyers Mark

• Best Lawyers and Best Law Firms are always plural.
• When referring to Best Lawyers as an organization, domestic or internationally, use Best Lawyers^®.
• When referring to American publications and honors, use the registration symbol. When referring to international publications and awards, use the trademark symbol.
• The names of all publications, domestically and internationally, should be italicized. The company name is not italicized.
• All compliant Best Lawyers announcements contain the edition year, country and awarded practice area, because individual awards are released annually, based on specific jurisdictions and practice area based.
  • The only exception to this rule is a firm-wide announcement, which should contain the year, country and total number of lawyers included in the associated edition.
• "Ones to Watch" awards must be clearly differentiated from Best Lawyers recognitions.
  • The correct trademark symbols are as follows:
    • Domestic: Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch^® in America
    • International: Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in [Country Name]^™
• Any promotion of Best Law Firms awards must be accompanied by a prominently specified label of country, differentiation of if the ranking is a National or Metro designation, the specialty and tier.
  • The exception to this rule is a firm-wide announcement, which can contain the edition year, country and summation of awards.
  • For more information on the Best Law Firms rankings, please visit the Best Law Firms website.
• The registration or trademark symbols should be included in the first mention of Best Lawyers^® or the country's launch name. All following mentions of Best Lawyers and publications in the same document must be italicized, but do not need to include the registration or trademark symbols.
• When publicizing Best Lawyers awards online, a hyperlink to your Best Lawyers profile or https://www.bestlawyers.com/ is required. Similarly, when promoting Best Law Firms rankings online, a hyperlink to your Best Law Firms profile or https://www.bestlawfirms.com is required.
• When publicizing Best Lawyers awards on social media, tagging Best Lawyers in your posts is encouraged.
• Promotion of Best Lawyers "Lawyer of the Year" awards must include the appropriate practice area, metropolitan area and edition year in which the award was given.
• Promotion of Best Lawyers "Law Firm of the Year" awards must be accompanied by the appropriate practice area, country and edition year in which the award was given.
• Permission for use of any Best Lawyers logos or Best Law Firms begin on the date that your licensing agreement is fully signed and last either 12 months after or until the next edition of Best Lawyers or Best Law Firms releases in your country, whichever comes first.

Advertising Rules

• When publicizing Best Lawyers awards using a group photo from the firm, the specific lawyers recognized by Best Lawyers must be identified by name in a caption with the notation of at least one of the awarded practice areas per recognized lawyer.
• Advertisers should check their state or jurisdictional bar associations’ rules on specialty certification before including specialties and subspecialties in any advertisement.
• Under no circumstances may a firm use the logo of Best Lawyers or any other creative, including badges, from Best Lawyers without the express licensing by Best Lawyers.

Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers^® has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Best Lawyers recognitions are compiled based on an exhaustive Purely Peer Review^® evaluation. More than 184,000 industry leading lawyers are eligible to vote (from around the world), and we have received more than 25.8 million evaluations on the legal abilities of other lawyers based on their specific practice areas around the world.

For the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America^®, more than 23 million votes were analyzed, which resulted in more than 80,000 leading lawyers included in the milestone 31st edition.

For the 2025 edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch^® in America, more than 4 million votes were analyzed, which resulted in more than 27,000 lawyers honored in the new edition.

"Law Firm of the Year" awards recognize a single top firm for its work in a specific legal practice area nationwide. Awards are determined based on a handful of factors including lawyer feedback, the number of lawyers included in Best Lawyers^® for that firm and practice area, the number of office locations a firm has, historical analysis of the firm’s "Lawyer of the Year" awards, materials submitted by firms and the firm’s overall scope and areas of expertise.

"Lawyer of the Year" honors are awarded annually to only one lawyer per practice area in each region with extremely high overall feedback from their peers, making it an exceptional distinction.

Lawyers are not required nor allowed to pay a fee to be listed; therefore, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor.

For any questions about publicizing guidelines, please contact our Senior Public Relations Manager Alliccia Odeyemi, at aodeyemi@bestlawyers.com.

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