For lawyers seeking to boost their online reputation and rankings, the Best Lawyers ranking process can be a make-or-break scenario. But how can they best ‘work’ those rankings to achieve the necessary profile?
Best Lawyers serve as powerful endorsements, often influencing potential clients who are deciding among multiple law firms.
As with any law firm ranking service, building relationships with legal guide researchers and editors to ensure the firm is top of mind when rankings are being determined is a core strategy that should be used to obtain decent rankings.
Developing a strong submission strategy that highlights the firm’s strengths and unique qualities is something that should be used to build law firm credibility and to help achieve buy-in from the firm attorneys also.
Best Lawyers thrives on the foundation of peer reviews. It starts with nominations and progresses to a meticulous balloting process, taking into account an attorney’s practice area and market.
What sets Best Lawyers apart is its commitment to ensuring that voters are familiar with the attorney’s work and areas of expertise.
The question posed to voters is straightforward but effective: “If you couldn’t handle a case, how likely are you to recommend this attorney?” This is designed to authentic feedback from peers who truly understand the attorney’s caliber.
It’s essential to evaluate candidates from outside your firm first, followed by competitors, and lastly colleagues. The weight of votes varies for internal and external candidates, with internal feedback holding particular significance for borderline candidates.
Engaging your attorneys in the voting process is crucial. Their active participation improves the accuracy of awards and enhances your firm’s chances of recognition.
Why Legal Rankings Matter Accolades like . Once your firm is ranked, effectively and ethically promoting this recognition becomes pivotal.
The Significance of Data Quality and a Strong Email List Maintaining accurate data is the cornerstone of a successful legal recognition campaign. This is especially true for peer-review-based rankings like Best Lawyers. Having an up-to-date and comprehensive list of contacts is vital. This list should include colleagues, clients, and other professionals who can vouch for an attorney’s expertise. An outdated or irrelevant contact list can skew the voting process, diminishing your firm’s chances of recognition.
How Law Firms Can Secure Best Lawyers Rankings
- Self-Nomination: Law firms have the option to nominate themselves. While you can nominate multiple attorneys, it’s advisable to focus on three practice areas to maintain a concentrated pool.
- Peer Review: Ensure you maintain a well-maintained list of peers who are familiar with your firm’s work and can vouch for your attorneys’ expertise, which means continuing your discourse with clients in an effective, ongoing manner. The peer review process is what this ranking process is all about.
- Encourage Voting: Actively engage your attorneys in the voting process. More feedback leads to better outcomes.
- Communication with Best Lawyers: Remaining – or opening – contact with Best Lawyers is important and will ensure that you can keep up-to-date with what is required of them as well as discussing any issues and obtaining insights into the ranking processes they use.
- Maintain top-of-mind thought leadership: Participating in thought leadership activities to increase your law firm’s visibility and credibility in the legal community is something that can ensure your firm builds profile and authority in specific areas and assists with ranking success.
- Smart Promotion: Recognition by Best Lawyers should ensure you also adhere to the best practice and ethical guidelines they use to ‘market’ your firm’s success, which will help both with law firm marketing and law firm SEO efforts, as well as overall reputation enhancement.
- Continuous Engagement: Stay engaged with Best Lawyers throughout the year. Familiarize yourself with the submission and response timelines to ensure your nominations are considered for the ballot.
By following these steps and gaining a deeper understanding of the nuances of the Best Lawyers rankings process, law firms can enhance their performance and increase their visibility within the legal community. Best Lawyers remains a highly esteemed platform for recognizing legal excellence, and with the right approach, your firm can proudly join its ranks.
