United States Lawyer Rankings       
  The Nation's Top Lawyers - 2010 Edition   







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                                            Lawyers are nominated for inclusion in the United States Lawyer Rankings by members of
                                            the Bar, Judiciary and by the senior management of large corporate and institutional clients. Only
                                            attorneys engaged in the private practice of law are eligible to be included in the United States
                                            Lawyer Rankings.  Lawyers are not allowed to nominate themselves, nor any members of their
                                            own firm.  Likewise, employees of a firm, including members of their marketing departments,
                                            are not allowed to nominate any members of their firm.  The names and opinions of those
                                            nominating and reviewing are held completely confidential.  The United States Lawyer Rankings
                                            was established by a consortium of United States corporations in order to recognize those lawyers
                                            who have consistently provided the highest degree of legal representation, so that their members, as
                                            well as other businesses and individual clients, can have a degree of guidance when choosing to
                                            retain a law firm.

                                            Lawyers are ranked based on confidential questionnaires which are graded out of 100 points. 
                                            Only attorneys with a minimum of 90 points or higher are eligible to be included in a “Top 10 List”.
                                            For that reason, a “Top 10 List” may include only 9 or 8 attorneys, rather than include the names
                                            of attorneys who do not meet a certain minimum criteria. The questionnaires begin with broad 
                                            inquiries as to an attorney’s general legal ability, and then go into specifics, including questions as
                                            to: the level of an attorney’s negotiating skills; the level of an attorney’s drafting skills; an attorney’s
                                            oral advocacy skills; an attorney’s ability to develope creative solutions when faced with a new
                                            issue; does the attorney get personally involved to the appropriate level in his/her cases; how well
                                            does the attorney staff a case or matter; how much does the attorney add to the body of knowledge
                                            in his/her practice area; would you retain this attorney to handle a matter for yourself or a close family
                                            member.  In addition, our staff performs a review as to an attorney’s ethical standing, those who
                                            have been subject to disciplinary action are automatically disqualified from inclusion in one of the
                                            “Top 10 Lists”. 

                                            Like any industry, the legal field engenders competition among its members, and lawyers are not 
                                            immune to this conflict.  If opinions regarding an individual attorney vary widely among different 
                                            reviewers, interviews may be held in order to ascertain the reasons behind any such discrepancies.  
                                            The United States Lawyer Rankings makes no bias regarding law firm size.  Although lawyers 
                                            from large firms dominate the “Top 10 Lists”, those lawyers are included solely based upon the number
                                            of points they receive, attorneys from all size law firms are eligible to be included in a “Top 10 List”.

                                            Although the United States Lawyer Rankings does wish to recognizes those lawyers who have 
                                            provided the finest level of legal representation, the main purpose of the "Top 10 Lists" is to provide
                                            guidance for those businesses and individuals seeking legal counsel, not to benefit the lawyers. 
                                            Therefore U.S. Lawyer Rankings does not distribute marketing materials, and has no contact with law
                                            firm marketing departments.

                                            United States Lawyer Rankings does not accept payments from lawyers, law firms, or third
                                            parties for advertisements, professional listings, bound volumes, subscriptions, webpage linking,
                                            or payments of any kind.



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