Ward and Smith, P.A. is pleased to announce that it has been recognized as a "Best Law Firm" for 2014 by U.S. News and Best Lawyers®.* This ranking signals a unique combination of quality law practice and breadth of legal expertise. More than 12,000 attorneys provided more than 330,000 law firm assessments, and almost 7,000 clients provided close to 20,000 evaluations. To provide personal insight, the publishers implemented a new Law Firm Leaders Survey in the decision‑making process.
Firms with offices in the identified "metropolitan areas" and with the highest overall scores are included on the metropolitan area lists. For ranking purposes, U.S. News and Best Lawyers® incorporated Greenville into the Raleigh metropolitan area and New Bern into the Wilmington metropolitan area. As a result, Ward and Smith's metropolitan area offices include Asheville, Raleigh, and Wilmington. Rankings for these cities include:
Metropolitan Tier 1
Asheville
- Arbitration
- Litigation – Land Use & Zoning
Raleigh (includes Greenville)
- Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law
- Commercial Litigation
- Employment Law – Management
- Labor Law – Management
- Litigation – Bankruptcy
- Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs
- Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
- Trusts & Estates Law
Wilmington (includes New Bern)
- Commercial Litigation
- Corporate Law
- Environmental Law
- Family Law
- Health Care Law
- International Trade and Finance Law
- Land Use & Zoning Law
- Litigation – Construction
- Litigation – Environmental
- Litigation – Intellectual Property
- Litigation – Trusts & Estates
- Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs
- Real Estate Law
- Trusts & Estates Law
Metropolitan Tier 2
Asheville
- Land Use & Zoning Law
- Tax Law
- Trusts & Estates Law
Raleigh (includes Greenville)
- Technology Law
Wilmington (includes New Bern)
- Litigation – Labor & Employment
- Litigation – Real Estate
Metropolitan Tier 3
Asheville
- Mediation
Raleigh Metropolitan Area (includes Greenville)
- Banking and Finance Law
- Corporate Law
- Workers' Compensation Law – Employers
* Please see http://www.bestlawfirms.usnews.com for a further explanation of the selection process discussed above.
