206.230.4922

Seattle, WA - Mercer Island, WA

Lindell Law Offices, PLLC

4409 California Ave SW Suite 100

Seattle, WA 98116

206.230.4922

Fax: 206.937.2119

E-Mail Contact

Eric Lindell

Attorney at Law

contact@lindelllaw.com

The General Survey
In January of this year, we mailed 20,500 ballots to attorneys across Washington. We asked attorneys to vote for the best lawyers they have personally observed in action-whether as opposing counsel, as co-counsel, from first-person observation in the courtroom, etc. Our intent was to avoid lawyers voting for others based purely on reputation or hearsay.

Each ballot had the name of the addressee-attorney on it. Only ballots properly verified by that attorney (with signature and attorney registration number filled in) were counted. We received more than 12,000 nominating votes. Each lawyer was given a score based on the number of votes he or she received and where these votes came from. Votes received from lawyers in other firms were awarded significantly more points than votes received from lawyers in the same firm.

The Screening Process
Lawyers who received only same-firm votes were eliminated from the list of candidates. In other words, in order to be considered for inclusion, a lawyer had to have received votes from lawyers outside his or her firm or organization.

We also kept track of who voted for whom. We did this to watch for what we call "back-scratch voting," that is, two lawyers voting for each other. If we noticed a disproportionate number of back-scratch votes, we eliminated that lawyer from our list of candidates.

The Blue Ribbon Panel Review
The lawyers who remained on the list were then divided according to their areas of practice. A Blue Ribbon Panel consisting of the top vote-getters from our previous surveys was assembled for each area of practice. These panels reviewed and voted on the list of nominees in their areas of practice. The point totals resulting from the Blue Ribbon Panel votes were then added to the lawyers' scores.

The Final Selection Process
In coming up with a final point total, we added the lawyers' scores from this year to their scores from the previous two years.

The final list of Super Lawyers represents 4 percent of the lawyers licensed to practice in Washington.

Our list of Super Lawyers includes not only attorneys in private practice but also non-private practice lawyers, such as prosecutors, in-house counsel and public-service lawyers.

Aug./Sept. 2002

Washington Law & Politics Magazine.