ALONGSIDE ISSUES of fairness are those of money. Lots of money.
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A few months before the Super Lawyers list is published each year, the company sends out a letter of congratulations to the winners. The note points out both the "honor" of being selected and the "opportunity" that comes with it. In Minnesota, that opportunity consists of placing ads in the three magazines that publish the list. Prices range from $995 for a "profile"—a small photograph accompanied by a short blurb—to $29,995 for a two-page spread running in all three magazines. In addition to the expensive ads, Super Lawyers encourages winners to buy brochures and plaques proclaiming their elite status.
Given all this, many of those selected say the list is less about honoring them than trying to milk them for all they're worth.
"People are paying handsome sums to be listed in their directory," says Gary Weissman, a mediator who bought a profile ad in 2006. "It has the desired effect."
Buchdahl says he frequently hears from marketers at large firms who are frustrated by what they see as money wasted on vanity ads in Super Lawyers. "It's $15,000 or $30,000 that might have done something for us," is a frequent gripe.
"They have a clever business model that sells based on lawyers' egos," Buchdahl says.
With all the money and networking at stake, most of those who dislike or disapprove of Super Lawyers have little appetite for speaking out publicly against it. About ten of the roughly three dozen Minnesota lawyers interviewed for this story refused to have their names used, out of fear of angering their friends or being uninvited from the annual Super Lawyers cocktail party.
"It's a little self-congratulatory for my taste: 'We're all super. Aren't we good?'" says one longtime personal injury attorney who's on the Super Lawyers list. But "there's nothing much to be gained in pissing Super Lawyers off. I don't want to be out front on it."
TO BE SURE, Super Lawyers does have its backers. Paul Rogosheske, a criminal defense attorney who has made the list, says it provides a public service. "In this day and age, lawyers are specializing," he says. "Anything the bar association or periodicals can do to highlight lawyers is beneficial to consumers and ultimately the profession."
And criminal defense attorney Carolyn Agin-Schmidt catches a whiff of sour grapes coming from fellow lawyers who complain about the list. "The people I always hear saying it's a popularity contest are the ones who didn't get selected," she says. "I don't think you could be a crappy lawyer and be selected as a Super Lawyer."
And perhaps, suggests attorney David Dean, a little good publicity isn't such a bad thing.
"Lawyers suffer enough. We're the brunt of a lot of humor and negative feelings," he says. "I don't think it's the greatest thing or the end of the world, but their families probably love it."
