The Lawdragon selection process has been created over 35 years of researching and reporting on the legal profession and creating guides to the most effective legal professionals. Our team brings more than 100 years in the lawyer reporting and information business.
The foundation of our selection is in journalism. We research each guide extensively, studying which lawyers and law practices have had significant impact, including an emphasis on recent matters handled. We accept submissions and review them alongside thousands of candidates we identify and consider for each guide. We also work with editorial advisors in each substantive area to develop the focus of the guide and identify qualified talent.
To make a Lawdragon guide, a lawyer will have been in practice 10 years, with extremely rare exceptions. Similarly, virtually all will be partners in their law practice or hold a designation that indicates the regard of those with whom they practice. Leadership within their practice in a firm and or in relevant bar organizations is considered.
For the Green 500: Leaders in Environmental Law, we researched veteran environmental lawyers who helped establish the field in the 1970s and ‘80s alongside natural resource lawyers at the forefront of renewable and sustainable advances. To those we added their counterparts in the conservation bar, those lawyers who protect air, water, wildlife, forests and other precious resources. Included, as well, are lawyers whose principal expertise is transactional or development, but who now focus in large part on environmentally sustainable practices. We also dove deep in the area of environmental justice to highlight the lawyers and academics advocating for equitable siting of industrial and other projects as well as litigators suing for damages sustained by impoverished and minority communities. With the current focus on ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) we looked high and low for those truly rare lawyers who put the E in ESG with governmental or other training or expertise as well as boardroom finesse and environmental knowledge.
Lawdragon is an advocate for inclusion in the legal profession and searches extensively for female candidates, attorneys of color and others who represent diversity.
Thank you for your interest in Lawdragon.