Awards and Designations
Lou and Andy have been included in The Best Lawyers in America list for 17 straight years. The Best Lawyers lists are compiled through an exhaustive peer-review survey in which thousands of the top lawyers in the U.S. confidentially evaluate their professional peers.
This unique referral guide is subscribed to by more than 4,000 of the leading law firms in the U.S. and abroad, and by more than 1,000 of the world’s largest corporations.
Because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee for a basic listing, Best Lawyers has gained the respect of the legal profession, the media, and clients as the most reliable, unbiased source of legal referrals anywhere. It has received accolades from presidents of the American Bar Association, been frequently featured in the U.S. media and excerpted in more than 50 major metropolitan newspapers and magazines.
Best Lawyers also offers three additional recognitions. The first, “Lawyer of the Year” is given to individual attorneys who received the highest overall peer-feedback for a particular practice area and geographical location. Only one lawyer can be recognized as the “Lawyer of the Year” for each individual location and area of practice.
To learn more about Best Lawyers methodology, click here.
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Both Mr. Rossetti and Mr. DeVoto have been included in the Super Lawyers list for 17 straight years. Super Lawyers selects attorneys using a patented multiphase selection process. Peer nominations and evaluations are combined with independent research. Each candidate is evaluated on 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement. Selections are made on an annual, state-by-state basis.
The objective is to create a credible, comprehensive and diverse listing of outstanding attorneys that can be used as a resource for attorneys and consumers searching for legal counsel.
Super Lawyers is a patented multi step process that involves peer nomination, independent research, peer evaluations and final selection. Each year, Super Lawyers selects lawyers from across the country from all firm sizes and more than 70 practice areas. Lawyers are formally nominated by their peers or through the research process. Lawyers are unable to nominate themselves and must limit their nominations to their peers who practice within the same state. Super Lawyers tracks each unique nomination and prohibits anyone from soliciting nominations from other lawyers. Once a lawyer is nominated, he or she will become eligible for further evaluation and research. A lawyer is not guaranteed selection simply because he or she was nominated to Super Lawyers.
Super Lawyers conducts rigorous research to evaluate the lawyers who have been nominated to ensure they meet the 12 indicators of professional achievement and peer recognition. These include the lawyer’s experience, awards, their position within the law firm, pro bono and community service, scholarly writing and/or lectures, transactions, verdicts and settlements, bar and/or professional activity, special licenses and certifications, employment and educational background, representative clients, and other various outstanding achievements. The third step in the selection process includes peer evaluation by practice area. This is also referred to as the “blue ribbon review.” Through this, the candidates in each practice area with the highest total points accumulated from steps one and two are asked to serve on a blue ribbon panel. These panelists are given a list of candidates from their practice areas to evaluate and rate them on a scale of one to five. From there, candidates are grouped into four firm-size categories. Candidates with the highest total points from each category are selected. Only five percent of the total lawyers in the state are selected to Super Lawyers.
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Mr. Rossetti and Mr. DeVoto are Certified Civil Trial Attorneys as designated by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Each has tried many civil cases to verdict including medical malpractice, defective products, vehicle crashes, construction site accidents, slip and fall, and nursing home neglect.
Certified civil trial attorney designations are granted by the New Jersey Supreme Court to attorneys, who are able to demonstrate efficient levels of experience, education, knowledge and skill in civil trial practice. Less than 2% of attorneys have the honor of this accreditation enabling them to advertise they have met the objective and rigorous standards approved by the U.S. Supreme Court and the American Bar Association.
What does it mean when an attorney is certified?
A certified attorney is more than just an attorney who specializes in a particular area of law. A New Jersey attorney who is certified by the Supreme Court as a civil trial attorney must have:
- Been a member in good standing of the New Jersey bar for over 5 years.
- Fulfilled ongoing continuing legal education requirements, i.e.: at least 45 hours of continuing legal education, relevant to the field of civil certification.
- Demonstrated a substantial level of experience in civil trial law.
- Been favorably evaluated by other attorneys and judges familiar with his work.
- Submitted a trial court brief or memorandum, relevant to the field in which you seek certification, prepared by you, and filed in a trial court within the past three years.
- Provided the names of ten to twelve attorneys and judges who have seen, and can objectively comment on, your trial skills within the past three years.
- Documented personal participation in at least 45 days of trial during which you served a lead counsel in at least 5 jury cases; substantially participated in at least 5 jury cases to verdict; conducted 25 direct and 25 cross-examination of lay witnesses; conducted 15 direct and 15 cross-examinations of expert witnesses, present at least 8 opening statements; presented at least 4 closing arguments; and conducted at least 5 voir dire jury examinations (in courts which do not permit counsel to conduct voir dire); submitted proposed jury questions for the court at least 10 times.
- Taken and passed a written examination in civil trial law.
The Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum is a prestigious group of top trial lawyers in the United States. Membership is limited to attorneys who have won million and multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements and who pay a fee to be included in the forum.
The organization has begun in 1993 and now approximately has 3000 members throughout the country (and several members in Canada and England). Many of our members have achieved numerous million and multi-million-dollar results (several members have won billion dollar cases). Their practice areas include most areas of litigation, including: major personal injury, products liability, malpractice, construction, environmental, employment, insurance and business litigation. The common fact is that they have each demonstrated, in an objective and tangible way, their ability to accomplish superior results in complex cases. Certification by the Million Dollar Advocates Forum provides recognition of such accomplishment and a national network of experienced colleagues for information exchange, assistance and professional referral. Both Mr. DeVoto and Mr. Rossetti are members of this prestigious group.
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The Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers™
Rossetti & DeVoto, PC is included in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers list, a definitive guide to distinguished law firms in America. For over 90 years, the Bar Register has been a unique guide to the legal community’s most eminent professionals. The firm has appeared annually for many years.
It includes only those select law practices that have earned the highest rating in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory and have been designated by their colleagues as preeminent in their field.
The Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers is an invaluable reference for busy lawyers, support staff and other information professionals looking for the leading practitioners in a given location and practice area.
A further description of the selection methodology can be found directly below and at www.martindale.com/ratings-and-reviews/.
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Andy and Lou each maintain AV-preeminent ratings for legal ability and ethical standards by The Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™. Martindale-Hubbell ratings are an objective indicator of a lawyer’s high ethical standards and professional ability, generated from evaluations of lawyers by other members of the bar and the judiciary in the United States and Canada. The first review to establish a lawyer’s rating usually occurs three years after his/her first admission to the bar.
Martindale-Hubbell facilitates secure online Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings surveys of lawyers across multiple jurisdictions and geographic locations, in similar areas of practice as the lawyer being rated. Reviewers are asked to assess their colleagues’ general ethical standards and legal ability in a specific area of practice. The ratings appear in all formats of the Martindale-Hubbell® Law Directory, in the online listings on martindale.com®, Lawyers.comSM, on the Martindale-Hubbell services, on Martindale-Hubbell mobile apps.
The Ratings Explanation
Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™ reflect a combination of achieving a Very High General Ethical Standards rating and a Legal Ability numerical rating. A threshold number of responses is required to achieve a rating.
The General Ethical Standards rating denotes adherence to professional standards of conduct and ethics, reliability, diligence and other criteria relevant to the discharge of professional responsibilities. Those lawyers who meet the “Very High” criteria of General Ethical Standards can proceed to the next step in the ratings process – Legal Ability.
Legal Ability ratings are based on performance in five key areas, rated on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest).
These areas are:
- Legal Knowledge – Lawyer’s familiarity with the laws governing his/her specific area of practice(s)
- Analytical Capabilities – Lawyer’s creativity in analyzing legal issues and applying technical knowledge
- Judgment – Lawyer’s demonstration of the salient factors that drive the outcome of a given case or issue.
- Communication Ability – Lawyer’s capability to communicate persuasively and credibly
- Legal Experience – Lawyer’s degree of experience in his/her specific area of practice(s)
The numeric ratings range may coincide with the appropriate Certification Mark:
- AV Preeminent® (4.5-5.0) – AV Preeminent® is a significant rating accomplishment – a testament to the fact that a lawyer’s peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.
- BV Distinguished® (3.0-4.4) – BV Distinguished® is an excellent rating for a lawyer with some experience. A widely respected mark of achievement, it differentiates a lawyer from his or her competition.
- Rated (1.0-2.9) – The Peer Review Rated designation demons..
A further description of the selection methodology can be found at www.martindale.com/ratings-and-reviews/.
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Rossetti & DeVoto, PC is included in Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” listing by U.S. News & World Report. The 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. To be eligible for a ranking in a particular practice area and metro region, a law firm must have at least one lawyer who is included in Best Lawyers in that particular practice area and metro. For more information on Best Lawyers, please visit bestlawyers.com.
A rigorous methodology is used for establishing the Best Law Firms. Clients were asked to provide feedback on firm practice groups, 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 also 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. We asked this group to vote on law firms that have a preeminent national presence within specified legal practice area(s) they know well. For the second time, a Law Firm Leaders survey was implemented to provide personal insight on the legal landscape surrounding the nationally ranked practice areas. In addition to information from these surveys, the rankings incorporate the 5.5 million evaluations of 52,488 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, and other data that speaks to the strengths of a law firm’s practice areas.
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