The American Bar Association vows to look into the methods of the U.S. News & World Report after the magazine announced its decision to start ranking law firms.
According to the National Law Journal, the ABA House of Delegates narrowly approved a resolution on Monday during its midyear meeting to “examine efforts to publish a national, state, territorial and local ranking of law firms and law schools.” Although the final resolution did not specifically name U.S. News, officials of the New York State Bar Association, which sponsored the resolution, acknowledged that the magazine was the catalyst for the move. He noted, however, that the inquiry will look at a range of attorney and law firm rankings, not just the one by U.S. News.
In July, U.S. News announced that it would release its Best Law Firms rankings in September 2010, in partnership with Best Lawyers.
The National Law Journal also reported that representatives of U.S. News and Best Lawyers both welcomed the opportunity to discuss their methodology with the ABA. Though, Bob Morse, director of data research for U.S. News, said the magazine has approached the ABA in the past about setting up a system for communicating about the law firm and attorney rankings, but that the organization never acted on the idea.
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