Separating the aces from the also-rans can be a struggle in a profession whose members love awarding each other, and themselves, superlatives.
By SCOTT BARANCIK
Published February 16, 2004
[Times art: Teresanne Cossetta]
Tom Scarritt of Tampa has won million-dollar settlements for clients, argued before the state Supreme Court and chaired a group of more than 7,000 Florida trial lawyers.
He is not listed in Leading American Attorneys, a catalog of lawyers "selected by their peers as America's very best."
Allyson Hughes is the only family law attorney in New Port Richey who has met the Florida Bar's grueling requirements for board certification. She has held Bar leadership positions and hones her legal skills during off-hours with a local mock-trial group.
Her name does not appear in the publication Best Lawyers in America.
Steve Yerrid of Tampa helped Florida get a $13.6-billion settlement from the cigarette industry. He belongs to an invitation-only group of 100 U.S. trial lawyers whose members include celebrity lawyer Johnnie Cochran and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards.
Yerrid is not recognized by the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, which describes its members as "the most prestigious group of trial lawyers in the United States."
It's easy to find a lawyer. Just open up the Yellow Pages, turn on the TV or look up at the billboards looming above area highways. There are 73,931 lawyers to choose from in Florida.
But separating the aces from the also-rans is another story in a profession whose members love awarding each other, and themselves, superlatives. It helps to know how to read between the lines of lawyer resumes.
There's a big difference, for example, between simply being a member of the Florida Bar (everybody belongs) and being board-certified in a specialty by the Florida Bar (a big deal).
And not all "top lawyer" lists are created alike. Some are akin to old-boy networks. Others are more objective. None is a complete guide for consumers or for fellow lawyers who use the guides to seek an expert in a different field or a co-counsel in another state.
Bar membership
To practice law in Florida, a lawyer must graduate from law school and pass a difficult exam administered by the Florida Bar. To remain a member, a lawyer must pay dues, take ongoing law classes and avoid unethical behavior. That's all.
So how can a member of the Florida Bar distinguish himself from 73,930 peers? One way is to become a leader in the state Bar, joining the executive council of a section (such as criminal law or international law) or getting on a committee that deals with professional issues (such as advertising rules or consumer protection).
"These are sort of the movers and shakers who are on the cutting edge of changes in the law," said New Port Richey lawyer Hughes, a sole practitioner.
Similar opportunities to shine can be pursued with voluntary groups, including the American Bar Association or local groups such as the St. Petersburg Bar Association. There also are organizations for specific practice areas (such as the Tampa Bay Bankruptcy Bar Association) or populations (such as the National Bar Association, which primarily comprises African-American lawyers).
Board certification
It's not as catchy as being listed in Who's Who in American Law or pictured in a slick ad. But being "board-certified" by the Florida Bar is among the best credentials around.
The Florida Bar offers members the chance to be certified in any of 19 practice areas, from admiralty law to workers' compensation. It's a demanding process.
To become board-certified in family and marital law, for example, a lawyer must practice law at least five years; prove that he or she has been involved in at least 25 complex family law cases, including at least 10 that went to a judge or jury for a verdict; take and pass an all-day examination in Tampa; and receive favorable ratings from a sampling of judges and opposing counsel who have observed that lawyer's work. Each application is reviewed by a nine-member certification committee, then forwarded for final decision to a 16-member Board of Legal Specialization.
"What we're ultimately representing to the public is that the lawyer has received something analogous to a Good Housekeeping seal of approval," said Dawna Bicknell, the Florida Bar's director of legal specialization and education.
It's not an easy seal to get. Only 3,800 of the state's lawyers are board-certified by the Florida Bar, including 134 who were certified in 2003.
"I've had several friends, quite frankly, who are judges now who failed," said Scarritt, the Tampa lawyer.
Florida lawyers also can receive board certification from the American Board of Certification, the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys, the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils, the National Board of Trial Advocacy and the National Elder Law Foundation, each with its own standards.
Lawyers certified by any of these groups or the Florida Bar are allowed to hold themselves out as "specialists" in a given legal field; other Florida lawyers may not.
Nevertheless, the Florida Bar contends that the national certifications are not as meaningful.
"There's concern about the absence of a Florida component in (their) examinations," the Bar's Bicknell said.
Ratings services
Ratings services, based on peer review, may be the most popular source of lawyer referrals.
The ratings by publisher Martindale-Hubbell are among the best known. Five to 10 years after a lawyer has been admitted to a state Bar, the publisher sends questionnaires about him to local judges and lawyers, who then anonymously rate his legal skills and ethics. The consensus rating is published online and in print. Martindale re-rates each lawyer roughly every five years.
Like many of its competitors, Martindale markets its service to lawyers, not consumers. Lawyers are forbidden from using their ratings in Yellow Pages ads. "The general public doesn't understand the rating," said Michael Gibeault, the company's vice president of associations and relations.
In fact, Martindale's rating system isn't hard to fathom. Legal ability is rated "A" (very high to pre-eminent), "B" (high to very high), "C" (good to high) or below. Ethics are rated "V" (very high) or below.
Every lawyer listed in Martindale is rated "AV," "BV" or "CV." Anyone who falls below either the ability or ethics threshold is left out. Because there are other reasons a lawyer might not be listed, however, Martindale's Web site says, "The absence of a rating should not be construed as unfavorable."
It's not an exclusive club. About half of all U.S. lawyers are rated.
Martindale says 21 percent of U.S. lawyers have an AV rating; 21 percent are rated BV; 3 percent are CV.
Opinions on its system vary. Yerrid, the Tampa lawyer, called it "objective" and "a very good tool." Bicknell of the Florida Bar said the system was based on "opinion" and is less demanding than the Bar's board-certification process.
The book Best Lawyers in America tries to identify the "best" 4 or 5 percent of lawyers.
Its origins are the epitome of an old boys' network. Co-founders Mark Naifeh and Greg Smith began 20 years ago by contacting about 100 graduates of their 1977 Harvard Law School class and asking them to name the most talented partners in their law firms.
They ended up with 300 nominees, who then were asked to choose the top lawyers from among their ranks. That core group in turn nominated people from the broader legal population, leading to the first edition of Best Lawyers, which named 2,800 lawyers. The latest addition lists 16,500 and costs $200, or $100 for a one-year Internet subscription.
Today's system remains selective. Only about 10 percent of new nominees are admitted annually. But Naifeh was forthcoming about what he considers his methodology's "principal weakness." To get in, he said, "other lawyers have to know your work. A lawyer can practice quietly and brilliantly but just not come to the attention of their colleagues."
Which may explain why New Port Richey lawyer Hughes, a sole practitioner, does not appear in the book.
Leading American Attorneys had a similarly unscientific genesis.
In the mid 1990s, its founders sent questionnaires to random members of the Florida Bar, asking which lawyers they would recommend to a friend or family member. "Any name that popped up more than once we flagged, presented to the (Florida) advisory board, and they had the final say and confirmation," regional marketing director Gary Miller said.
How was the "advisory board" assembled? Some of the company's founders approached lawyers of "longstanding reputation," Miller said. "Very informal." The same methodology was used in several other states.
The list of Leading American Attorneys hasn't been updated in seven years.
$1-million clubs
At least two groups limit their membership to trial lawyers who have won at least one $1-million case.
The groups couldn't be more different.
With a fixed membership of 100, the Inner Circle of Advocates is one of the nation's most exclusive legal societies. To qualify, a lawyer must have taken at least 50 personal-injury or wrongful-death cases to a jury verdict as lead counsel. At least one case must have yielded a jury award, not a settlement, of $1-million or more. The initiation fee is $5,000.
Not just any $1-million lawyer can get by the group's board of directors. Think O.J. Simpson lawyer Johnnie Cochran, or Sen. John Edwards.
Tampa lawyer Yerrid, who said he has won roughly two dozen jury verdicts of $1-million or more, is the group's only Tampa Bay area member and one of eight from Florida. "Their accomplishments as a group are second to none," he said of the company he keeps, calling them "the best lawyers on the planet."
One perk is the networking opportunities. The Inner Circle has regular roundtable meetings and an annual convention. "Public recognition is a by-product, and not the purpose," president John Norman said.
But as a resource for consumers, it's probably not too helpful. Imagine calling Johnnie Cochran for help finding a divorce lawyer in Thonotosassa.
The Million Dollar Advocates Forum is much more accessible and much less exclusive.
Its only requirements for membership are a $1-million court victory and a one-time membership fee of $425. It's not necessary to have been the "lead" attorney in the case or to have obtained the $1-million from a jury; a $1-million settlement while serving as co-principal counsel will do fine.
Two of the Florida members listed on the Forum's Web site have, in fact, been suspended from practice by the Florida Supreme Court.
The perks of membership are fewer, too. There are no seminars or conventions to attend, no newsletter to peruse. Members get a form-letter news release they can issue to local media when they are inducted, as well as a "high quality membership certificate" suitable for framing.
Yerrid was not impressed. "A jury verdict, frankly, is harder to obtain" than a settlement, he said.
Founder Donald Costello, a Santa Cruz, Calif., trial lawyer, disagreed. "Insurance companies simply don't give people $1-million unless the attorney has done something right," he said.
And though Tampa lawyer Scarritt paid the money to join the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, he doesn't brag about it.
"It sounds sort of glamorous," he said. "But it doesn't really say anything about what I consider to be your core qualifications."
- Times editorial assistant Barbara Moch contributed to this report. Scott Barancik can be reached at barancik@sptimes.com or 727 893-8751.
