History

For more than four decades, Best Lawyers publications have earned the respect of the profession, the media and the public, as the most reliable, unbiased source of legal referrals anywhere.

Our lists of outstanding lawyers are compiled by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which tens of thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. If the votes for a lawyer are positive enough for recognition in Best Lawyers, that lawyer must maintain those votes in subsequent polls to remain in each edition. Lawyers are not permitted to pay any fee to participate in or be recognized by Best Lawyers.

Best Lawyers peer-reviewed listings are now published in 76 countries around the world, and our presence has grown substantially in the international legal community. The 28th edition of The Best Lawyers in America^® (2022) includes more than 66,000 lawyers in 147 practice areas, covering all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and inclusion in this year’s publication is based on 10.8 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers.

Because of Best Lawyers' known credibility, our awards reach a broader and more important audience than any other legal guide, boasting more than 17 million readers in city, regional and national publications across the globe. In addition to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and The Chicago Tribune, Best Lawyers partners with major business and general publications around the world, from the Australian Financial Review, to the Business Day in South Africa and Handelsblatt in Germany.

In 2009, Best Lawyers produced the inaugural Best Law Firms^® rankings. Now in its 14th edition, Best Law Firms uses quantitative data and client surveys to rank 16,307, resulting in the most comprehensive guide to legal representation of law firms. Best Lawyers and Best Law Firms accolades endure as definitive resources for top legal talent, building on our transparent, Purely Peer Review^® methodology founded more than four decades ago.

In 2020, Best Lawyers endeavored to expand our offerings to a new segment of lawyers. We released the inaugural Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch awards in the U.S. Using the same peer-review methodology that Best Lawyers has utilized for over four decades, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch recognized associates who have been in private practice for less than 10 years in the United States. To date, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch has expanded into nine regions with plans for further expansion.

Finally in 2018, Best Lawyers' co-founder Steven Naifeh retired from the organization and Best Lawyers partnered with Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. Three years later, we transitioned to a new partnership with Abry Partners.