Touting Your Award Wins: How to Stay in Compliance With Legal Marketing Ethics Rules

If you subscribe to our newsletter, then you know that we already bring you the latest and greatest award opportunities to showcase your firm’s expertise and accomplishments. But what happens when you win an award? You want everyone to know (particularly potential clients and recruits), but you might not know where to start when promoting it. Here’s how you can toot your own horn without getting slapped with a disciplinary action from your bar association. 

How to promote Chambers and Partners

Once ranked in Chambers and Partners, you can purchase and download the Chambers logo for the guide in which you are ranked. Chambers encourages attorneys to share on their firm’s website and lawyer bio pages. Keep in mind that you need to resubmit to Chambers each year to be considered for their guides.

When mentioning your newly won award in press releases or a biography, it’s also important to list which “band” you are featured in. 

Name (Category: Practice Ranked In, Band X)
Example: John Doe (Alabama Litigation: General Commercial, Band X), Jane Doe (Florida Litigation: Appellate, Florida, Band X) 

Want to learn more about submitting to Chambers? We have a blog post with all the details on how to submit.

How to promote Benchmark Litigation

Benchmark Litigation is a study and analysis of the business of litigation and disputes. They monitor firms and lawyers across the country to get a sense of who the top players in the field are. Extensive research is conducted through interviews with litigators, dispute resolution specialists and their clients.

When firms are ranked, editorial stories accompany the rankings (when a law firm’s practice engages with the research process), but firms are unable to see the editorials before they are published. Benchmark allows firms to share quotes gathered during the interview process for excerpts in marketing materials, but warns against copying the entire editorial. Logos, rosettes, badges and other related images, however, must be purchased on a contract basis that is established by Benchmark’s commercial team. 

While it is possible to buy an ad with Benchmark to promote your firm, Benchmark assures that editorial and sales are completely separate, and purchasing an ad does not mean a ranking will follow.

When promoting your firm’s news, include the firm’s designation and state recognized, and list the attorneys with their jurisdiction, practice area and rating.

To learn more about Benchmark Litigation, listen to our podcast episode, How Law Firms Get Ranked: An Insider Look at Benchmark Litigation.

How to promote Law360 rankings

Law360 has various rankings throughout the year, such as Rising Star, Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar, MVPs, Practice Groups of the Year and Regional Powerhouses. Rising Stars is one of their most popular award programs, with approximately 1,400 annual submissions. We’ve broken down helpful tips for submitting your attorneys to Law360 Rising Stars.

If an attorney is chosen as a winner and is then unable or unwilling to participate in an interview by the reporter’s deadline, Law360 will rescind the award. Keep this in mind when applying, in case an attorney may be out-of-pocket. 

Fast forward, and you’ve won an award. Since Law360 is a news organization, it’s important to remember to buy reprint rights if you’d like to have access to post the full article. It’s okay to write a short summary of the article and post it as a news item or social post, but make sure to link to the original source. If you’d like to include the full article, buying official reprint rights is the only option. 

How to promote The Legal 500

Like Chambers and Partners and Benchmark Litigation, the submission process for the Legal 500 can sometimes be a heavy lift. Law firms that are recognized can promote their recognition on their website and share it across social media and other online profiles. Additionally, firms can purchase subscription packages that provide premium data, benchmarking and additional marketing tools. The subscription packages also give firms enhanced profile visibility in the Legal 500 directory.

To learn more about Legal 500, listen to our conversation with Barnaby Merrill, US editor at Legal 500, on our Spill the Ink podcast.

How to promote Super Lawyers

Super Lawyers ranks attorneys by state, through a process where attorneys nominate other “top lawyers they have personally observed in action, whether as opposing counsel, co-counsel or through firsthand observation in the courtroom.” It all comes down to your fellow lawyers. Keep in mind that being listed (or not) one year has zero bearing on whether you will be listed (or not) in subsequent years, and there’s not much an agency can do to help you get on the list. 

When promoting your rankings, follow your bar association rules for attorney advertising and do not refer to a lawyer as a “Super Lawyer” or a “Rising Star.” Rather, rankings should be conveyed in language similar to: “they have been named to the (year) (state) Super Lawyers list or (year) (state) Rising Stars list.” When used properly, the term is not descriptive or comparative, which could raise ethical concerns in some jurisdictions. Instead, it’s a fact-based statement, and as such, is protected speech. 

A few other things to keep in mind: 

• Super Lawyers refers to the listing of attorneys, not a person or group of people. 
  
• Super Lawyers should be used only in its plural form. 
  
• You must use both the year and jurisdiction when referencing Super Lawyers.
  

By the way, Super Lawyers offers this suggested language for your social media, email message and press release announcing the honor, but if you have a PR agency, they’ve got you covered. 

How to promote Best Lawyers

Best Lawyers’ policies are very similar to Super Lawyers’. To keep honorees in compliance with bar rules for attorney advertising, just as you cannot tout you are a “Super Lawyer,” you also cannot advertise being a “Best Lawyer” without the context of the specific ranking and year. 

Best Lawyers provides publishing guidelines that list helpful examples to reference. All compliant Best Lawyers announcements must contain the edition year, country and award practice area. A few important things to note are: 

• You are permitted to mention that you are recognized by Best Lawyers^® or recognized in The Best Lawyers in America^®, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch^® in America, Best Law Firms^®, The Best Lawyers in [Country Name]™, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in [Country Name]™, etc., but not that you are a “best lawyer” or “best law firm.” 
  
• You cannot suggest that an award by Best Lawyers guarantees a desired result nor imply an endorsement of any products or services.
  
• Best Lawyers and Best Law Firms are always plural. 
  
• When referring to U.S.A. versions of Best Lawyers publications and honors, use the registration symbol.
  
• The names of all publications, domestically and internationally, should be italicized. The company name is not italicized.
  

A few examples of correct usage include: 

John & Doe, LLC is proud to have 12 lawyers recognized by Best Lawyers^® in 2025 in America.

Jane Smith was recently included in the 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America^® for Family Law and Family Law Mediation.

John Doe was included in the 2025 edition of the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch^® in America for her work in Construction Law.

When using images, permission for use of Best Lawyers and Best Law Firms logos and badges (for a licensing fee) begins on the date of purchase and lasts either 12 months after purchase or until the release of the next publication of rankings in your country. All images must include the appropriate verbiage. This is extremely important to remember, and we recommend setting a reminder before permissions expire.

How to promote Lawdragon rankings

Lawdragon publishes various guides throughout the year, such as 500 Leading Family Lawyers, 500 Corporate Employment Lawyers, 500 Leading Litigators in America, 500 Leading Global Litigators and more. To make a Lawdragon guide, a lawyer will have to have been in practice for at least 10 years (with rare exceptions). 
Lawdragon has badges and expanded profile options available for purchase to be used on a firm’s website and in marketing materials. When listing a feature in a guide, a safe way to list the announcement is: “Lawdragon has included (firm) (attorney title) (name) in its (year) Lawdragon (guide name) list.” 

An example of this is: “Lawdragon has included John & Doe partner in its 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America list.” 

How to promote Martindale-Hubbell

Similar to Super Lawyers, Martindale-Hubbell offers a peer-rated endorsement system to rank lawyers. Once a lawyer achieves a certain ranking, it carries over from year to year (unlike Super Lawyers). 

Martindale-Hubbell^® Peer Review Ratings™ requires the use of certification marks when referencing the award, such as: 

• AV^®
  
• AV Preeminent^®
  
• Martindale-Hubbell Distinguished℠
  
• Martindale-Hubbell Notable℠
  

Images and logos can also be downloaded from Martindale-Hubbell for attorneys and firms to use. Firms also must list additional requirements, such as including either a reference explaining the rating or a link to a webpage of the firm/lawyer maintained by Martindale-Hubbell. Keep in mind that Martindale-Hubbell does not allow the use or mention of the award in political pieces, advertisements or campaign materials.  

Martindale-Hubbell details additional guidelines for printed materials, radio and television and other mediums here.

Three additional thoughts to keep in mind

1. Like our friends at Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers note, be careful about the verbiage you’re using to tout wins to confirm you comply with legal ethics advertising standards. These differ from state to state. Keep in mind that some states require disclaimers, qualifying language or discussions on all or certain types of advertisements. 

2. If you win an award, it’s okay to show it off, but make sure it is noteworthy. All of the awards listed in this blog post are, but there are a plethora of spam or pay-to-play awards and rankings out there, which hinder your credibility. Not all awards and rankings were created equal, and be careful not to sour your website with spammy awards. Instead, let the noteworthy ones speak for themselves. If you’re unsure about an award, use this checklist to determine if it’s legit or not.

3. Many state bar attorney advertising rules require the full name of the award provider in any website news item headlines. You must use the exact wording, often including the publisher’s name. It’s important to list the full legal name of the award, list or ranking you are part of. Be sure to check your particular state’s ethics guidelines. 

We hope that helps answer questions surrounding legal awards. If you’d like to learn more or chat with us about potential submissions for your firm, we’re here to help!

Looking for a Detailed Awards Playbook?

Download our Awards, Rankings and Lists: A Guide for Law Firms to learn why rankings matter, how to craft winning submissions and how to promote your wins effectively. This guide covers the top legal rankings, including Chambers, Law360, Best Lawyers and more.

Download the Guide