Hancock Estabrook is very proud to be one of only two Syracuse law firms to be ranked as a First Tier Law Firm in 8 or more Practice Areas in the inaugural U.S. News Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” survey. As it has done for many years for hospitals and colleges, this year, U.S. News, working with Best Lawyers, the leading survey of lawyers worldwide, has ranked U.S. law firms. These inaugural rankings showcase 8,903 different law firms ranked in one or more of 81 major practice areas, providing an unprecedented and comprehensive view of the U.S. legal profession.
To determine the rankings, U.S. News and Best Lawyers conducted national surveys in which major clients and leading lawyers were asked to rate the law firms they consider best in their practice area. In the end, 9,514 clients including every Fortune 100 company and 587 of the Fortune 1000 companies provided 194,370 firm practice-area evaluations; 6,190 clients provided 11,181 comments about law firm practice areas and individual lawyers; and 8,842 lawyers provided 594,012 firm practice-area evaluations. Clients voted on expertise, responsiveness, understanding of a business and its needs, cost-effectiveness, civility, and whether they would refer another client to a firm. Lawyers voted on expertise, responsiveness, integrity, cost-effectiveness, and whether they would refer a matter to a firm. These survey responses were combined with more than 3.1 million evaluations of individual lawyers in these firms in the most recent Best Lawyers survey of leading lawyers.
