How We Did It The 2014 Fort Worth, Texas list of Top Attorneys is drawn from nominations by other attorneys in the region, who must provide their Texas law license number to be able to make nominations through the magazine’s website.
Attorneys are not permitted to nominate themselves. Attorneys in firms of more than one person may nominate other members of their firms so long as they nominate an equal number of attorneys outside their firm in the same areas of practice.
This year, we received 840 completed nomination forms containing 7,284 names, many of them duplications, of course. Once the nominations were calculated, we determined where the cutoff point was in each category. Those above the cutoff point were then checked against the Texas Bar Association database to determine whether the nominee was licensed to practice law in Texas, when the attorney passed the state bar exam, where the attorney's primary area of practice was located and whether there were public disciplinary actions involving the attorney.
We developed two lists: Attorneys in practice more than five years and attorneys in practice fewer than five years. Those lists were submitted to a panel of attorneys who are themselves Top Attorneys for examination. They were asked to look for obvious omissions, questionable inclusions and areas of specialty. We went back through the lists and either accepted or rejected their suggestions.
Attorneys who passed the bar in November five years ago were left on the under five year list because that was their status when they were nominated. Attorneys who passed the bar earlier in the year where moved to the more than five year list.
The result is a list of 661 names of attorneys in practice for more than five years and 99 names of attorneys in practice for fewer than five years. A few attorneys are listed in more than one category of practice, based on the nominations received.
The attorneys listed were nominated by their peers, but some highly regarded professionals may not appear on these lists, which could have occurred for many reasons including newness to the area, failure to follow nomination guidelines, or a sub-specialty so narrow as to preclude mention.
By including an attorney on these lists, Fort Worth, Texas magazine does not recommend or endorse his/her service. We desire to provide useful information to supplement what you learn from other sources. If you have a good relationship with an attorney, do not let this cause an unnecessary change. Simply use these results as one part of your search when you find yourself in need of new counsel.
Attorneys whose names are in BOLD type received 20 or more nominations from their peers. Attorneys who are in BOLD ITALIC type received at least 10 but fewer than 20 nominations.
