Super Lawyers Directory Review and Guide

With its comprehensive list of lawyers from all 50 states, this legal directory makes it easy for attorneys to showcase their legal services, especially to potential clients. The directory serves as a helpful guide for those looking to hire a lawyer by offering insight into your credentials, ratings, and backgrounds as an attorney. If you’re not on it, you’re missing out on a vast number of prospective clients and their cases.

The Super Lawyers award is a prestigious recognition within the legal community, known for its exclusive selection process involving peer nominations, independent research, and various indicators of professional achievement.

Additionally, the Super Lawyers review section gives an in-depth analysis of the best lawyers in each state, helping prospective clients make informed decisions. The legal resources section also enables visitors to understand the ins and outs of different legal cases, providing valuable information and tips on navigating through them.

In this Super Lawyers directory guide, we will:

• Explain what Super Lawyers is and how it works
• Highlight the tips and tricks of Super Lawyers’ marketing
• Explore how to become a Super Lawyer
• Give a short comparison of Super Lawyers vs. Avvo vs. Justia
• Give our final thoughts on whether the Super Lawyers directory is suitable for your firm

What Is Super Lawyers and How Does It Work?

Super Lawyers is a rating platform designed for attorneys. Unlike other lawyer ratings platforms, Super Lawyers does not simply allow past clients to provide feedback on the capabilities of attorneys.

Instead, it is a peer recognition platform that allows other lawyers to rate their cohorts and nominate attorneys for professional achievement awards. The selection process also involves independent research to evaluate attorneys' achievements, ensuring a merit-based process.

Super Lawyers has compiled ratings and peer evaluations on thousands of attorneys across over 70 practice areas. This data allows potential clients searching for outstanding lawyers to conduct queries based on an attorney’s average rating and practice area.

While there are mixed opinions in the legal community, many consider Super Lawyers legit due to its rigorous selection process involving peer nominations, evaluations, and independent research.

Super Lawyers Marketing: Tips and Tricks

There are several ways that law firms can leverage the Super Lawyers directory. We have outlined a few such tactics below:

Mention Super Lawyers Listing on Your Website

The most obvious way to market your Super Lawyers listing is to promote it directly on your website.

You can incorporate the Super Lawyers listing into your law firm website content in several ways. One approach involves adding the Super Lawyers badge to your web pages. Additionally, you can mention that you are listed on Super Lawyers in your ‘About Us’ content.

Explore Super Lawyers Directory Marketing Services

Suppose you are a big Super Lawyers enthusiast and want to make the most of the platform. In that case, you should consider using its built-in paid marketing tools.

You can target potential clients with paid advertisements directly on the platform. These campaigns can sometimes be less costly than standard lawyers pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. The downside is that they have nowhere near as much reach as a search engine like Google.

Super Lawyers Directory and Paid Advertising

To be completely transparent, advertising on Super Lawyers can be tricky. Whereas platforms like Google allow you to set up campaigns and start advertising immediately, Super Lawyers requires you to jump through a few extra hoops.

The first step to advertising on the platform is purchasing your profile. 

Once the platform's team approves an award nomination, they will create a profile for you and add you to the directory. However, you have very little control over this profile unless you purchase it.

Purchasing a profile can sometimes cost up to a few hundred dollars a month. After your profile has been purchased, you can pay additional fees to launch advertising campaigns on the platform. Due to the complexities of this system, many lawyers prefer to hire PPC services for attorney.

Super Lawyers Directory and SEO

Being listed in the Super Lawyers Directory provides many SEO benefits. For example, if a client types in ‘best bankruptcy lawyer in Chicago,’ Super Lawyers appears on the first of the SERP. When they click the fourth link on the page, they will see a list of top attorneys who deal with bankruptcy.

When you're included in the directory, it helps boost your website's visibility and ranking on search engines. This visibility comes from a listing that displays reviews, credentials, achievements, testimonials, percentage of cases, etc. This means that more potential clients and other interested parties will be able to find you online, which gives you a greater chance of getting new clients.

How to Become a Super Lawyer: The Super Lawyers Selection Process

Becoming a Super Lawyer is a great way to build your reputation as a legal professional and join a network of distinguished lawyers who have been recognized for their excellence in the legal profession. The selection process is thorough and involves several steps that must be taken to be accepted as a Super Lawyer. Additionally, the designations of Super Lawyers and Rising Stars recognize outstanding attorneys from over 70 practice areas, and being listed can significantly impact your SEO and marketing efforts.

This part of the guide will explore the step-by-step process of becoming a Super Lawyer.

Nominations

Lawyers can enter the candidate pool for Super Lawyers when they get a formal nomination from their peers in the same state they are licensed in. Nominations from lawyers within the same law firm are considered valid, but those from lawyers outside the firm carry a higher 'point value' in the rating system. They cannot nominate themselves.

Super Lawyers’ in-house team of experts can also nominate candidates. When searching for new attorneys, the research department will go through national publications, local magazines, legal directories, and other sources. They will then add a certain number of people to the candidate pool.

The third and last method for candidates to join the pool is through informal nominations. An informal nomination is made by directory users, past clients, or attorneys from states other than the one where the nominee is licensed.

Jurisdiction Rules About Nominations 

Before you nominate someone for Super Lawyers, solicit nominations for yourself, or put that badge on your website, make sure that your state bar approves of these activities.

Of the various state ethics boards that have issued guidance on marketing on Super Lawyers, New Jersey is one of strictest. While the board allows attorneys to inform clients that they made the cut, they must explain the title.

With that in mind, thoroughly review the ethics board guidelines in your state. Not sure where to begin? Don't worry. Grow Law Firm has created a comprehensive list of rules you need to know when advertising your legal services.

Evaluation Process

Super Lawyers will evaluate candidates based on 12 criteria. Since specific criteria have a larger maximum point value than others, they are not regarded equally. The review board will assess the following factors: 

• Verdicts/Settlements
• Transactions
• Clients represented
• Legal experience
• Honors and Awards
• Special licenses and certificates
• Position in the law firm
• Professional and  bar activities
• Pro bono and community service
• Scholarly talks and writings
• Education and work history 
• Other notable accomplishments

Peer Assessment by Practice Area

Candidates with the highest point totals from each practice area serve on a blue ribbon panel. Members of the blue ribbon review assess other candidates in their practice areas. The panelists are given a list of candidates from their respective practice areas to evaluate and rate on a scale of one to five.

The Final Decision

Candidates are divided into four firm sizes. The top ranks in each category are chosen. Super Lawyers include 5% of all lawyers in the state.  Each candidate is subjected to a last Internet check to ensure no ongoing issues that would negatively affect the lawyer. 

The lists are published yearly in Super Lawyers Magazine state and regional editions and inserts in major cities or regional publications and newspapers.

The Selection Procedure for Rising Stars

The Rising Stars list is selected similarly to the Super Lawyers list, with one exception. A candidate must be less than 40 years old or have been in practice for less than ten years to be considered for Rising Stars.

The Super Lawyers selection process is the initial step for all lawyers. Suppose a candidate meets any of the Rising Stars eligibility standards but is not chosen for the Super Lawyers list. In that case, they must go through the Rising Stars selection process. Up to 5% of the state's attorneys can be found on the Super Lawyers list, while only up to 2.5% can be found on the Rising Stars list.

Super Lawyers vs. Avvo vs. Justia

Super Lawyers is by no means the only game in town regarding online legal directories. Two of the most popular options out there are Avvo and Justia. The question is, how does Super Lawyers stack up to these other directories?

Where Super Lawyers sets itself apart from these alternatives is in its exclusivity. This exclusivity means you compete against fewer attorneys on the platform. The Super Lawyers designation is a commendation conferred only upon those who have undergone a rigorous selection process, elevating badge holders above their peers and providing reassurance to clients. The downside, as outlined above, is that getting on the Super Lawyers list is a process — and a lengthy one at that.

To sum up, Avvo and Justia are easier to join and offer as many benefits as Super Lawyers, if not more. With that in mind, we recommend joining both platforms, even if you decide to pursue a Super Lawyers’ listing. You can also read our review of Justia for lawyers and the Avvo lawyer marketing guide.

Final Thoughts: Is the Super Lawyers Directory Right for Your Firm?

Given this extensive Super Lawyers review, it’s clear that this legal directory is useful for lawyers and clients alike. However, keep in mind that there are some doubts surrounding Super Lawyers. Conflicts of interest abound on these sites, and the method used to choose Super Lawyers may be flawed.

The indicators for Super Lawyers are based on Super Lawyers’ opinions on what they consider a decent attorney. The weight applied to the criterion is not made public, especially when some score higher than others and you can’t identify which.

If you are ready to take your law firm to the next level, Grow Law Firm’s high-performance lawyer SEO agency can help you do just that.

Contact our team to learn more about our SEO, PPC, and website-building services for a lawyer. We can even help you decide whether participating in the Super Lawyers selection process is smart for your firm. While there are mixed opinions in the legal community, the rigorous selection process involving peer nominations, evaluations, and independent research suggests that Super Lawyers is legit.