Lou and Andy have been selected among The Best Lawyers in America for 14 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.

Both Mr. Rossetti and Mr. DeVoto have been selected as Super Lawyers for 13 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. Since Super Lawyers is intended to be used as an aid in selecting a lawyer, we limit the lawyer ratings to those who can be hired and retained by the public, i.e., lawyers in private practice and Legal Aid attorneys.

The Super Lawyers patented selection process involves three basic steps: creation of the candidate pool; evaluation of candidates by the research department; and peer evaluation by practice area.

Mr. Rossetti and Mr. DeVoto are both Certified Civil Trial Attorneys and have been for many years.  Each has tried many civil cases to verdict including many multi-million dollar jury verdicts at settlements during trial.

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 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 who pay a fee to be included.  

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.

 
Avvo Rating is our effort to evaluate a lawyer’s background, based on the information we know about the lawyer. The rating is calculated using a mathematical model that considers the information shown in a lawyer’s profile, including a lawyer’s years in practice, disciplinary history, professional achievements and industry recognition – all factors that, in our opinion, are relevant to assessing a lawyer’s qualifications. 

We periodically collect background data from multiple sources, including state bar associations, court records, lawyer websites, and information that lawyers choose to provide to Avvo. Please keep in mind that we are not able to collect every piece of information about every lawyer’s background. Information that we do not have could very well change the lawyer’s Avvo Rating. So whether you see the numerical or the basic Avvo Rating, you should do further research regarding the lawyer to collect all relevant information regarding the lawyer’s background.

Here’s why the Avvo Rating can help you find the right lawyer:

• It’s unbiased. Because ratings are calculated using a mathematical model, all lawyers are rated by the same standards.
• There’s no favoritism. Here at Avvo, all lawyers are treated equally. They can’t pay to change their ratings, and we don’t play favorites to lawyers we know.
• It’s developed by legal experts for non-experts. The model used to calculate the Avvo Rating was developed with input from hundreds of attorneys, thousands of consumers, and legal experts.
• It’s easy to understand. With simple ratings from 1 to 10 or “Attention” and “No Concern,” we hope to make clearer the murky process of understanding lawyers’ backgrounds.

But keep in mind that the Avvo Rating is not intended to be the only thing you use in choosing a lawyer. It is only one tool and it is our effort to provide a snapshot evaluation of the lawyer’s background, so that you can more effectively compare the available background information of different lawyers. Also keep in mind that the Avvo Rating is based only on the information we have collected about a lawyer, and our opinion is based on that information. That is one reason we also provide a forum for both clients and other lawyers to offer their own opinions about a lawyer. Although those opinions may not be perfect either, they at least give you different sources to get started.
And of course, Avvo’s mathematical model has not met the lawyer in person. Because of this, our system can’t measure subjective factors like personality and communication style. Also, because we don’t believe there is yet an accurate way to score it, the Avvo Rating does not take into account a lawyer’s performance on particular cases or matters.

In short, we are not saying that the Avvo Rating, or the information within a lawyer’s profile, is all you need to know to choose the right lawyer. It is not. It is only one of several tools you should use to choose the right lawyer for you.

The Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers™

Rossetti and DeVoto, PC was selected to the 2015 Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers, a definitive guide to the most 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.  While our most recent selection was for 2015, 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.

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 ExplanationMartindale-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).