NEWS RELEASE – For immediate release
Contact: Laura Perry, 410.347.9432
U.S. News & World Report: Whiteford, Taylor & Preston Highest Ranked Maryland Firm
November 21, 2011 – Baltimore. Whiteford Taylor & Preston LLP is very gratified to announce that the firm has received exemplary ratings in the second annual U.S. News & World Report rankings of law firms. In Maryland, WTP was rated highly in 34 practice areas, more than any other firm in the state.
Martin Fletcher, the firm’s Managing Partner, commented, “To be ranked in 34 different practices speaks to the broad-based strengths of the firm. Our goal is to be our clients’ most trusted advisors, no matter what industry they are in, no matter what kind of legal issues they face. Based on the U.S. News & World Report research, we seem to be succeeding.”
Moreover, the firm was recognized not just in Maryland, but with seven different practices ranked at the National level and four in Washington, D.C.
The evaluation process conducted by the researchers is explained in further detail in the attached statement from U.S. News & World Report. Interviewee comments can be read here.
The specific areas of law and the cities in which WTP received its rankings are summarized below.
National Tier 1
Technology Law
National Tier 2
Construction Law
Litigation - Trusts & Estates
Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Defendants
National Tier 3
Admiralty & Maritime Law
Land Use & Zoning Law
Patent Law
Baltimore Tier 1
Arbitration
Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law
Commercial Litigation
Construction Law
Copyright Law
Corporate Law
Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law
Information Technology Law
Insurance Law
Land Use & Zoning Law
Litigation - Bankruptcy
Litigation - Construction
Litigation - Eminent Domain & Condemnation
Litigation - Intellectual Property
Litigation - Land Use & Zoning
Litigation - Patent
Litigation - Tax
Litigation - Trusts & Estates
Mediation
Mergers & Acquisitions Law
Non-Profit/Charities Law
Patent Law
Personal Injury Litigation - Defendants
Product Liability Litigation - Defendants
Public Finance Law
Real Estate Law
Tax Law
Technology Law
Trademark Law
Trusts & Estates Law
Venture Capital Law
Baltimore Tier 2
Health Care Law
Litigation - Securities
Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Defendants
Washington DC Tier 1
Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law
Litigation - Bankruptcy
Washington DC Tier 2
Litigation - Real Estate
Real Estate Law
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FROM U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT: Methodology for 2011-2012
U.S.News - Best Lawyers® "Best Law Firms"
The U.S.News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” rankings are based on a rigorous evaluation process that includes the collection of client and lawyer evaluations, peer review from leading attorneys in their field, and review of additional information provided by law firms as part of the formal submission process. An unprecedented amount of data was collected in the project’s second year, and this combined data resulted in the 2011-2012 “Best Law Firms” rankings. To be eligible for a ranking, a law firm must have at least one lawyer who is included in Best Lawyers as part of the annual peer review assessment. For more information on Best Lawyers®, please visit http://www.bestlawyers.com/.
Clients were asked to provide feedback on firm practice groups, using a scale of 1 (weakest) to 5 (strongest), addressing expertise, responsiveness, understanding of a business and its needs, cost-effectiveness, civility, and whether they would refer another client to the firm. Clients also had the option to write-in the names of law firms they’ve worked with on other matters and within practice areas beyond those they were asked to comment on by the submitting firm. Some clients chose to write a comment about their experience with the law firm. These comments are for reference only and were not used as data points in the formal evaluation process.
Lawyers voted on expertise, responsiveness, integrity, cost-effectiveness, whether they would refer a matter to a firm, and whether they consider a firm a worthy competitor. A principal enhancement to the methodology used to compile this year’s national rankings included a national ballot in addition to the metropolitan ballots. The national ballot was sent to a distinct, geographically diverse group of attorneys listed in Best Lawyers who have received consistently high peer review over the course of several years. We asked this group to vote on law firms that have a preeminent national presence within specified legal practice area(s) they know well. In addition to information from these surveys, the rankings incorporate the 3.9 million evaluations of 41,284 individual leading lawyers collected by Best Lawyers® in its most recent annual survey.
In addition to lawyer and client feedback, law firms were asked to provide us with general demographic and background information on the law firm and attorneys. This survey also gave firms an opportunity to share information on client profile, the significance of major legal matters they’ve undertaken, monetary and transactional values (where meaningful and applicable), and other data that speaks to the strengths of a law firms’ practice areas.
All of the quantitative and qualitative data were combined into an overall “Best Law Firms” score for each firm. This data was then compared to other firms within the same metropolitan area and at the national level. Because firms were often separated by small or insignificant differences in overall score, we use a tiering system rather than ranking law firms sequentially. The first tier includes those firms that scored within a certain percentage of the highest-scoring firm(s); the second tier, those firms that scored within a certain percentage of the next highest scoring firm(s), and so on.
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NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Laura Perry 410.347.9432 lperry@wtplaw.com
Whiteford, Taylor & Preston and 52 Attorneys Listed in Best Lawyers in America 2012; Dana Lynch Named as Baltimore Technology Lawyer of the Year (PDF)
NEWS RELEASE
October 22, 2010 – Baltimore – Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP is delighted to announce that Woodward/White's The Best Lawyers in America has named two of the firm’s partners as the Lawyer of the Year in Baltimore in their areas of practice: Paul M. Nussbaum has been named the 2011 Baltimore Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Lawyer of the Year, and Robert M. Wright has been named the 2011 Baltimore Construction Lawyer of the Year.
After more than a quarter of a century in publication, Best Lawyers has begun designating “Lawyers of the Year” in high-profile legal specialties in large legal communities. Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is being honored as the “Lawyer of the Year.”
Best Lawyers compiles its lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. The current, 17th edition of The Best Lawyers in America (2011) is based on more than 3.1 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers.
The lawyers being honored as “Lawyers of the Year” have received particularly high ratings in our surveys by earning a high level of respect among their peers for their abilities, professionalism, and integrity.
According to Best Lawyers, “We continue to believe – as we have believed for more than 25 years – that recognition by one’s peers is the most meaningful form of praise in the legal profession. We would like to congratulate both Mr. Nussbaum and Mr. Wright on being selected.”
Mr. Nussbaum chairs the firm’s Debtor/Creditor Rights and Bankruptcy Department. He has been called “the best bankruptcy lawyer in Maryland” and the “premier debtors’ bankruptcy lawyer in Baltimore” in surveys conducted by Benchmark Litigation, and “a consummate strategist and negotiator with an excellent grasp of the law,” by a respondent quoted in Legalease’s Legal 500.
Mr. Wright is Senior Counsel with the firm. He distinguished himself for many years as a leading construction lawyer in the state of Maryland, representing engineering and construction firms, both as plaintiffs and defendants, in multi-million dollar claims. He currently devotes his time to serving as an arbitrator or mediator in construction disputes, and he is much sought after in that role because of his depth of experience.
The recognition for these two lawyers at the firm comes immediately after the firm’s own selection by U.S. News & World Reports, in conjunction with Best Lawyers, as a “Best Law Firm” in fourteen Tier One areas, seven Tier Two areas, and three Tier Three areas in Maryland and Washington, D.C.
The attorneys at Whiteford, Taylor & Preston are dedicated to helping our clients achieve their business goals through strategic legal counsel. We serve our clients across the nation and around the globe, wherever your business takes us, from our base of six offices in the mid-Atlantic region. For more information, please visit our website at www.wtplaw.com.
NEWS RELEASE
Seven Saint Paul Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Laura Perry
410.347.9432
lperry@wtplaw.com
Whiteford, Taylor & Preston and 46 Attorneys Listed in Best Lawyers in America 2011
August 24, 2010 – Baltimore – Forty-six lawyers from Whiteford, Taylor & Preston have been selected by their peers for inclusion in Woodward/White’s The Best Lawyers in America® 2011. This is an increase of nine over last year and includes 11 lawyers who were named for the first time. (Their names are asterisked in the list below.)
Woodward/White reports that the firm itself is ranked in Maryland as follows:
- Top-Listed in Maryland with 41 attorneys.
- Top-Listed in Maryland in Alternative Dispute Resolution with 2 attorneys. *
- Top-Listed in Maryland in Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law with 8 attorneys.
- Top-Listed in Maryland in Construction Law with 2 attorneys. *
- Top-Listed in Maryland in Employee Benefits Law with 3 attorneys. *
- Top-Listed in Maryland in Information Technology Law with 1 attorney. *
- Top-Listed in Maryland in Intellectual Property Law with 3 attorneys.
- Top-Listed in Maryland in Non-Profit/Charities Law with 2 attorneys. *
- Top-Listed in Maryland in Product Liability Litigation with 3 attorneys. *
- Top-Listed in Maryland in Technology Law with 3 attorneys.
- Top-Listed in Maryland in Venture Capital Law with 2 attorneys.
(*) Denotes tie with 1 or more firm(s).
Martin Fletcher, the firm’s Managing Partner, commented, “Most of our offices and a broad range of our practices are represented in these rankings. To be recognized by a national rating group in so many areas and with so many lawyers speaks extraordinarily well of the firm’s reputation and the high quality of service we try to deliver to our clients on a daily basis. We are very gratified to receive this recognition.”
The individual lawyers named, and the area(s) of practice in which they were recognized are:
| Baltimore, MD | |
| Thomas C. Barbuti (2009) | Real Estate Law |
| John F Carlton * | Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law |
| Robert F. Carney (2010) | Construction Law |
| Mary Claire Chesshire (2007) | Employee Benefits Law Non-Profit/Charities Law |
| Jonathan E Claiborne * | Commercial Litigation |
| Robert B. Curran (2001) | Corporate Law Employee Benefits Law Tax Law |
| Deborah H. Diehl (2008) | Mergers & Acquisitions Law Public Finance Law |
| Gardner M. Duvall * | Commercial Litigation Insurance Law |
| Howard R. Feldman (2010) | Information Technology Law |
| Martin T. Fletcher (1999) | Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law Commercial Litigation |
| Stephen F. Fruin * | Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law |
| Harry S. Johnson (2006) | Mass Tort Litigation Personal Injury Litigation Product Liability Litigation |
| Frank S. Jones, Jr. (2007) | Corporate Law Intellectual Property Law Mergers & Acquisitions Law Venture Capital Law |
| Alexander Koff * | International Arbitration |
| Edward U. Lee III * | Real Estate Law |
| Dana O. Lynch (2010) | Technology Law |
| Paul W. Madden (2010) | Employee Benefits Law |
| Richard J. Magid (2009) | Commercial Litigation |
| Rose M. Matricciani (2008) | Health Care Law |
| Albert Mezzanotte, Jr. (2005) | Commercial Litigation |
| Paul M. Nussbaum (2001) | Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law |
| Kenneth Oestreicher | (2010)Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law |
| Gary S. Posner * | Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law |
| Herman B. Rosenthal (2005) | Tax Law |
| William Ryan, Jr. (2005) | Commercial Litigation |
| Joseph N. Schaller * | Real Estate Law |
| Robert Sloan III (2010) | Trusts and Estates |
| Gregory M. Stone (2009) | Intellectual Property Law Technology Law |
| Brent C. Strickland (2010) | Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law |
| Steven E. Tiller (2006) | Intellectual Property Law Technology Law |
| Daniel J. Vorsteg * | Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law |
| Warren N. Weaver (2008) | Product Liability Litigation |
| William B. Whiteford (1989) | Alternative Dispute Resolution Personal Injury Litigation |
| Robert M. Wright (2006) | Alternative Dispute Resolution Construction Law |
| Thurman W. Zollicoffer, Jr. (2009) | Product Liability Litigation |
| Columbia, MD | |
| Jonathan Z. May (2007) | Non-Profit/Charities Law Lax Law |
| Falls Church, VA | |
| Raymond J. Diaz (2003) | Real Estate Law |
| Bradford Englander * | Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law |
| Christopher A. Jones (2010) | Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law |
| Towson, MD | |
| G. Scott Barhight (2006) | Land Use & Zoning Law |
| Edwin G. Fee, Jr. (2008) | Trusts and Estates |
| John B. Gontrum (2010) | Land Use & Zoning Law |
| Dino C. La Fiandra (2010) | Land Use & Zoning Law |
| George S. Lawler (2009) | Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Law Venture Capital Law |
| Washington, DC | |
| Kenneth J. Ingram (2007) | Education Law |
| Bruce Lehman * | Intellectual Property Law |
(Year) First year the lawyer was listed.
(*) Lawyers who are listed for the first time in Best Lawyers.
About Best Lawyers: Since its inception in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as a definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which more than 25,000 leading attorneys cast almost two million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their specialties, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”
Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP is dedicated to helping clients to achieve their business goals through strategic legal counsel. We serve clients across the nation and around the globe, wherever your business takes us, from our six offices in the mid-Atlantic region. For more information, please visit our website at www.wtplaw.com.
Named as Leaders in the Legal Profession by Chambers and Partners
July 26, 2010 – Baltimore. Whiteford, Taylor & Preston is delighted to announce that Chambers and Partners has highly ranked the firm and 12 of its attorneys in its 2010 list of America’s leading firms and business lawyers.
Newly rated this year were Martin Fletcher, Paul Nussbaum, and Edward Buxbaum of the firm’s Litigation and Bankruptcy groups.
As in the past, the firm was recognized in Maryland in six separate categories of practices. Notably, the firm was ranked for the first time in general litigation and moved up to occupy the sole Tier 1 position in bankruptcy litigation.
The quotes below come from sources interviewed by the Chambers researchers; the rest of the descriptive text comes from Chambers’ editorial commentary:
Litigation & Bankruptcy - "A well-managed and effective team, with keen insight into the local Bar and Bench." "This firm's knowledge of bankruptcy law is unparalleled."
Managing partner of the firm Martin Fletcheris "a talented, technically proficient bankruptcy lawyer and excellent leader."
Paul Nussbaumis commended for his "extraordinary ability to connect with people and understand their needs, which makes him an effective negotiator."
Edward Buxbaum is "a good problem solver, with a dedication and work ethic that create great results." His commercial litigation practice covers complex civil matters, professional malpractice actions, products liability cases and transportation and insurance coverage-related cases.
Corporate - "We have complete confidence in the advice that this team gives us."
"When we are in a deal with Robert Curran, he is with us all the way," clients confide. They also highlight the benefits of "the incredible experiential base he can draw on."
Employee Benefits - "This is a well-managed and effective team – the analysis provided by the lawyers is professional, persuasive and crystal-clear."
Clients are impressed by Mary Claire Chesshire's "thorough and polished approach."
Paul Maddenis singled out for his excellent client care skills. His expertise covers the full range of employee benefits plans for both public and private companies.
Real Estate - Both clients and peers acknowledge the high quality of the work undertaken by this group.
Clients hail Thomas Barbuti as "one of the best we've seen over the years, regarding real estate matters."
Healthcare Other Notable Practitioners
The highly regarded Rose Matricciani of Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP has been advising an out-of-state healthcare living provider on Maryland regulatory issues.
Labor & Employment - "The firm can assemble a team suitable for any matter and the lawyers make a real effort to get to know our business and our culture."
James Gilleceimpresses interviewees with the quality of his employment litigation practice. He recently negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement with the union of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
Peter Guatteryreceives praise for "not just telling us what the law is, but helping us think things through and make our plans work." In addition to his wide-ranging employment law practice, he assists national and international corporations with a multitude of immigration-related issues.
Cochair of the group Kevin McCormick is "a calm, thorough lawyer who really knows his stuff." He defends public and private employers and recently successfully acted for BSI in a number of equal employment opportunity administration-related matters.
About Chambers: Chambers and Partners, the publishers of world-famous guides to law firms and lawyers, conducts thousands of in-depth interviews with clients to assess the expertise and reputations of business lawyers in 175 countries across the world for its publications, including Chambers UK, Chambers USA, Chambers Global, and Chambers Student.
About WTP: The attorneys at Whiteford, Taylor & Preston are dedicated to helping our clients achieve their business goals through strategic legal counsel. We serve our clients across the nation and around the globe from our base of six offices in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. For more information, please visit our website at www.wtplaw.com.