Your Lawyer and Specialist Certification
A quick glance through the "attorneys" section of the yellow page directory of any major metropolitan area will make it clear that many lawyers specialize in one or more kinds of legal matters.
Like other professionals, many lawyers concentrate their practices to certain fields. In fact, most specialize to some degree by limiting the range of matters they handle.
An increasing number of lawyers are choosing to be recognized as having special knowledge and experience by becoming certified specialists in certain fields of law.
A lawyer who is a certified specialists has been recognized by an independent professional certifying organization as having an enhanced level of skill and expertise, as well as substantial involvement in an established legal specialty. These organizations require a lawyer to demonstrate special training, experience and knowledge to insure that the lawyer's recognition as a certified specialist is meaningful and reliable.
In order to be certified as a specialist under most certification programs, lawyers must
- provide evidence of substantial involvement in the specialty area and appropriate references from lawyers and judges
- take a written examination in the substantive and procedural law in the speciality area
- demonstrate that they have completed at least 36 hours of continuing legal education courses in the specialty area in the three-year period preceding the lawyer's application for certification
- be admitted to practice and be a member in good standing in one or more states
- be re-certified at least every five years and be subject to revocation of certification if they fail to continue to meet the program's requirement
Specialists certification programs available to lawyers are growing both in number and variety. In 1993 the American Bar Association (ABA) adopted a set of voluntary national standards, along with a process to accredit specialists certification programs.
The standards were designed to establish reasonable and valid criteria for granting specialist certification and to provide state authorities with a basis for approving programs which would be recognized in their jurisdictions.
It means that the certifying organization's program has been reviewed by the ABA and has been found to meet its standards.
An accreditation system was developed to provide both lawyers and clients with a way to identify those certification programs that employ adequate methods and criteria to reliably recognize experienced legal specialists and meet ABA standards.
To obtain accreditation for its program, an organization needs to show, among other things, that:
- It is dedicated to the identification of lawyers who exhibit an advanced level of skill and expertise and to the development and improvement of the professional competence of lawyers.
- It possesses the organizational and financial resources to carry out its certification program on a continuing basis, and that key personnel have by experience, education and professional background the ability to direct and carry out such programs.
- The requirements and process for certifying lawyers are not arbitrary, can be clearly understood and easily applied and do not discriminate against any lawyers seeking certification on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or age.
- Each speciality area in which certification is offered is an area of the law in which significant numbers of lawyers regularly practice and is described in terms which are understandable to both lawyers and potential clients.
Look for the Term "Accredited by the American Bar Association to certify lawyers in the specialty area(s) of ________________" in the program's descriptive material or on the certificate furnished to your lawyer.
For a listing of accredited programs, as well as certification offered through state specialization plans, see our list of certification plan sources on this web site.
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