Since our firm was founded in 1972, GJEL Accident Attorneys have won or successfully settled over 99% of our clients’ cases against insurance companies and other defendants.
We are consistently rated as one of the top law firms nationwide by judges and other lawyers. Detailed information about what each distinction means and how we are rated follows below.
US News Best Law Firms
GJEL was named a Tier 1 Personal Injury Law Firm (highest ranking) in the San Francisco metropolitan area.
(The following is excerpted from the US News Best Law Firms Website)
Client and lawyer surveys collected mostly reputational data. Using a scale of 1 (weakest) to 5 (strongest), clients voted on expertise, responsiveness, understanding of a business and its needs, cost-effectiveness, civility, and whether they would refer another client to a firm. Lawyers voted on expertise, responsiveness, integrity, cost-effectiveness, and whether they would refer a matter to a firm and whether they consider a firm a worthy competitor.
…….
All of the quantitative and qualitative data were combined into an overall U.S.News – Best Lawyers overall score for each firm. Firms with the highest overall scores were included on metropolitan lists that covered as many as 81 practice areas in 171 metropolitan areas and 7 states and national lists covering 39 practice areas. Because firms were often separated by small or insignificant differences in overall score, they have been tiered rather than ranked sequentially. In general, the first tier includes those firms that scored within a certain percentage of the highest-scoring firm(s); the second tier, those firms that scored within a certain percentage of the next highest scoring firm(s), etc.
Visit GJEL’s US News Profile »
Northern California Super Lawyers ®
Only 5% of the total lawyers in the state are selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers. All five attorneys at GJEL were selected as Super Lawyers in 2010.
(Excerpted from SuperLawyers’ Website)
Super Lawyers is a listing of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Polling, research and selection are performed by Law & Politics, a publication of Key Professional Media, Inc. Law & Politics has been publishing legal magazines since 1990 and Super Lawyers since 1991.
No other legal publisher goes through the unique multi-step process that Super Lawyers employs to find evidence of peer recognition and professional achievement.
Final candidates are segmented according to firm size. Those with the highest point totals from each category are selected. Only 5 percent of the total lawyers in the state are selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers.
View Super Lawyers profiles for Andy Gillin, Ralph Jacobson, Luke Ellis, Jim Larsen, and Kristin Lucey.
National Trial Lawyers’ Top 100 Trial Lawyers
The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 Trial Lawyers is a professional association composed of only the most qualified trial lawyers from each state. Membership into The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 Trial Lawyers is by invitation and is extended only to those attorneys who exemplify superior qualifications, trial results, leadership, influence, reputation, stature, and profile in the trial attorney community, as viewed by our organization, other trial lawyers, members of the bench, and the public at large. The Association conducts the necessary investigation and diligent evaluation of trial lawyers’ qualifications for invitation as one of its exclusive members.
National Law Journal
GJEL Accident Attorneys received special recognition from the National Law Journal in 2009 as a Top 100 Verdict in the Nation.
Best Lawyers in America®
(Excerpted from the Best Lawyers Website)
Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession. For a quarter century, we have helped lawyers and clients find legal counsel in unfamiliar jurisdictions or unfamiliar specialties. Best Lawyers compiles lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers.
Because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be included, a listing in Best Lawyers is widely regarded within the legal profession as a signal honor, conferred on a lawyer by his or her peers. For 25 years, Best Lawyers lists have earned the respect of the profession, the media, and the public, as the most reliable, unbiased source of legal referrals anywhere.
GJEL Attorneys Andy Gillin, Ralph Jacobson, Luke Ellis, and Jim Larsen have all been named to Best Lawyers in America.
Jim Larsen: Best Lawyers in America®, Lawyers of the Year, East Bay
(Excerpted from the Best Lawyers Website)
After more than a quarter of a century in publication, Best Lawyers is designating “Lawyers of the Year” in high-profile legal practice areas in large legal communities.
Only a single lawyer in each practice area in each community is being honored as the “Lawyer of the Year” for 2011.
Best Lawyers compiles its lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers.
The lawyers being honored as “Lawyers of the Year” were selected because they received particularly high ratings from most of their peers. In some cases, they also received particularly effusive comments from some of those same peers. The selected lawyers have earned a high level of respect among other leading lawyers in the same communities and the same practice areas for their abilities, their professionalism, and their integrity.
AV®-Rated by Martindale-Hubbell®
(Excerpted from the Martindale-Hubbell website)
AV® Peer Review Rating – An AV® certification mark is a significant rating accomplishment – a testament to the fact that a lawyer or law firm’s peers rank them at the highest level of professional excellence.
For over a century, lawyers have relied on the Martindale-Hubbell® Law Directory for authoritative information on the worldwide legal profession. The Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review RatingsTM play an integral role in this service to the legal community.
Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings attest to a lawyer’s legal ability and professional ethics, and reflect the confidential opinions of members of the Bar and Judiciary. The legal community respects the accuracy of ratings because it knows that its own members – the people best suited to assess their peers – are directly involved in the process.
Lawyers and consumers need to have confidence in the individual under consideration. Using ratings, they can select counsel with superior ethics, as well as the desired level of professional experience.
Plaintiff Magazine Feature
GJEL Accident Attorneys’ Managing Partner Andy Gillin was featured in the April 2010 issue of Plaintiff Magazine. The author of the article interviewed a number of Andy’s peers, as well as Andy himself. Click here to read a PDF version of the article »
Frequent Lecturers for California Bar Associations and other Legal Organizations
GJEL Attorneys are frequently asked by our peers to lecture to other lawyers, and we’ve published a number of scholarly articles regarding California personal injury and tort law. California attorneys routinely consult us for our expertise in handling catastrophic injury cases, particularly those involving auto accidents and motorcycle accidents.
Below are just a few of these instances:
Andy Gillin, Lecturer, Catastrophic Injury Cases: Handling the First 100 Days, Consumer Attorneys of California
Andy Gillin, Lecturer, Civil Litigation, California Continuing Education of the Bar
Andy Gillin, Lecturer, Civil Litigation, California State Bar Association Education Institute
Andy Gillin, Lecturer, Civil Litigation, California Trial Lawyers Association (now CAOC)
Andy Gillin, Lecturer, Civil Litigation, Women Lawyers of Alameda County
Andy Gillin, Lecturer, Civil Litigation, Alameda-Contra Costa County Trial Lawyers Association
Ralph Jacobson, Author, Uninsured Motorists Cases: Notice of Action
Ralph Jacobson, Contributing Author, Litigation in the Fast Lane
Luke Ellis, Lecturer, Trial Practice, California Trial Lawyers Association
Luke Ellis, “Maximizing Settlements,” Alameda Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association
Luke Ellis, “Cross-Examination,” San Francisco Bar Association
Luke Ellis, “The Defective Sulzer Hip Litigation,” Alameda County Superior Courts
Luke Ellis, “Handling Products Liability Cases,” Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB)
Luke Ellis, “Use and Admissibility of Demonstrative Exhibits,” San Francisco Trial Lawyers’ Association
Luke Ellis, “Demonstrative Evidence,” California Trial Lawyers Association (now CAOC)
Luke Ellis, “Opening Statements,” California Trial Lawyers’ Association
Luke Ellis, “Automobile Cases,” California Trial Lawyers’ Association
Luke Ellis, “Selected Evidentiary Issues,” California Trial Lawyers’ Association
Luke Ellis, “Jury Selection,” California Trial Lawyers’ Association
Have questions? Consultations are always free-call 1-866-218-3776.
For a free consultation with a GJEL Accident Attorney, call 1-866-218-3776, or e-mail us at lawfirm@gjel.com. We have offices throughout California to meet with clients. Please visit the Contact Us page to find our local office nearest you.