Unlike some awards, the Best Lawyers awards are based purely on peer review. Richard West has been chosen to receive the Orlando Family Lawyer of the Year award for 2024. This is his fifth time being selected for this honor, having been named as Family Lawyer of the Year in 2012.2016, 2018, and 2021. He was also named to Best Lawyers in the areas of family law arbitration, collaborative law, and mediation.
“I am humbled to be chosen by my colleagues to receive this honor again this year. Given the level of skills and expertise in family law in Orlando, it means a lot to have my peers rate my work so highly,” Richard explained.
The Peer Review Process
Choosing who to include in the Best Lawyers list starts with the nomination of candidates. Attorneys whom Best Lawyers have recognized in the past, as Richard has, are automatically nominated to be included in future years. However, they are voted on yearly and must continue to receive high ratings to be included again. Attorneys may not nominate themselves.
After the list of nominees is complete, ballots are sent out to the attorneys chosen to rate the candidates. Only attorneys previously recognized are eligible to vote for current candidates. Best Lawyers believes they achieve the highest quality of peer reviews by using the top lawyers in all practice areas to assess and evaluate candidates.
Attorneys eligible to vote were asked to rate each candidate on a scale of one to five depending on how confident they would feel referring a case to that candidate. Voting attorneys are also invited to submit comments about a particular candidate. If they are unfamiliar with the candidate’s work, voting attorneys are asked to abstain from voting on that candidate. The aim is to create a review process that reflects an informed opinion on the legal skills of each candidate who has been nominated.
The candidates with the highest ratings are chosen to be included in The Best Lawyers in America. The candidate from each region’s practice area that receives the most votes is named the Lawyer of the Year.
Richard views this honor from Best Lawyers as a reflection of not only his own expertise and reputation, but also a recognition of the commitment and skills of the excellent lawyers, paralegals, and support staff at West Family Law Group. “I am extremely fortunate to work with an effective and dedicated team, he continues, “but I also need to give credit to the exceptional expert forensic accountants, psychologists, investigators and others we work with who make it possible to achieve what we have.”