In a country with more than a million licensed lawyers, it isn’t easy to distinguish the best among them. There’s no gold-dipped Oscar statuette or Olympic medal awarded to attorneys. Instead, validation often takes the form of small wooden plaques, which are plastered all over the office walls and websites of the legal profession.

Demand for these plaques is considerable—at least judging by the array of companies offering them. Among them are the “Best Attorneys of America,” “America’s Top 50 Lawyers,” “America’s Top 100 Attorneys” and “America’s Best Advocates.” 

So heated is the industry of professional superlatives in the legal sector that even the phrase “best lawyers” is entangled in litigation.