Why can’t I be a “Super Lawyer?”

Like Moses coming down from Sinai with the Ten Commandments hot from the hand of the Almighty, Minnesota Law & Politics publisher Bill White will soon give us another Minnesota “Super Lawyer” list. The chosen will be revered among lawyers (or at least that is what they will tell their clients to justify higher fees). And advertising dollars will rain upon Law & Politics like manna from heaven. The annual list, which White cooked up in 1991 as a cheesy send-up of the fashion magazines’ supermodel lists has become the cash cow that keeps the magazine afloat the rest of the year.

The problem with the list, as publisher White readily concedes, is that it’s skewed toward bigger firms and whiter faces, firms that practice big-ticket law. Lawyers of color, government lawyers, legal aid types, and those who practice in greater Minnesota are woefully underrepresented.

Now, in fairness to Bill and editor Steve Kaplan, both of whom I genuinely like, they take the list very seriously try to produce something with integrity. According to White, many are called but few are chosen. First, the magazine sends out 18,000 questionnaires to Minnesota lawyers. (Though a number of the minority lawyers I spoke with have never received one. I have not received one in years. White told me that mine went to a building I moved from in June 1999. Curiously, my bi-monthly issues of the magazine have faithfully followed my every office move since then.)

After White gets the questionnaires back, he and his staff begin to prune the list. White has assembled a “blue ribbon panel” of lawyers to help cull the wheat from the chaff. So who is on the “blue ribbon panel?” The top vote getters from the previous year’s list, who have little incentive to make the list more inclusive. Now, after the council of elders has given its holy stamp of approval, the list goes back to White and the gang, who tabulate the results.

White, who claims that compiling the list is an act of “public service,” does not then release the list. Instead, he contacts the people on the list and their firms to let them know they have received the blessing of their peers and by the way, do you want to buy an ad in our magazine, effectively tooting your own horn at the moment you receive your laurels?

Bill White chuckles. “Okay, I admit it. We got a great deal doing here. Our first objective with this issue is to make money.” However, he adds, “We have consistently produced a credible list. If we did not, lawyers would not scramble to get on it.” (For the record, I have never been named to the “Top Lawyer” list; neither have I scrambled to get on. Naturally, I am heartbroken at this egregious oversight —hence, this column!)

At least part of what he said is true. Some lawyers do scheme, campaign, and occasionally even beg to get on the list. White says he gets dozens of unsolicited resumes and glossy pictures every year.

Publisher White pooh-poohs such politics. “We call that logrolling. You know, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. We know who votes for who. If someone for your firm votes for you, his or her vote does not count as much. If we see ‘block voting,’ we get suspicious.”

In other words, White tacitly concedes that some lawyers are more equal than others. “Our system is not perfect,” he admits. “We certainly could do a better job of including lawyers of color, government lawyers, lawyers from greater Minnesota. To a great extent, how ‘public’ a lawyer is has a lot to do with making the list. We know that estate planning lawyers are less likely to be included than personal injury ones.”

So, is the list a bankable, reliable list of the best and brightest on Minnesota’s legal landscape? Or just a reliable bank for the magazine? The answer depends on whom you talk to. For lawyers trying to make the list, inclusion is a powerful marketing tool. What do they care if the selection methodology is less than reliable and skewed toward the lighter shades, certain practice areas, and larger firms, as long as they make the cut? For the magazine, it’s the profit engine that economically powers the bi-monthly’s other five issues.

Does any of this really matter for legal consumers? Not as long as they take the list for what it really is—an ego boosting (for the lawyers), practice building (for their firms) and tremendously lucrative (for the magazine) piece of entertainment. In other words, caveat emptor.

Clinton Collins, Jr. is a Minneapolis lawyer and ABC Radio talk show host. You can reach him at ccollins@collins lawfirm.com.


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