It All Started on a Tuesday

My D Magazine arrived.  For those that don't know, D Magazine is a glossy little mag good for locating the best new restaurants and occasionally an article on something interesting going on in Dallas.  They also have a penchant for publishing "Best Of" lists that run the gamut from Best Margarita to Best Doctors. 

I've been on the "Best Lawyers" list a few times.  To have your profile printed in the magazine after winning this "honor", one must be prepared to pony up quite a bit of cash but it's still a nice list to be on.

One issue I've always had with D Magazine's lawyer list is that it's touted as a list of attorneys that were "chosen by their peers".  Really?  How exactly?

I'm in my 20th year of criminal practice in Dallas.  Since 2007, I've served on the Board of the Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.  In all that time I've never known of D Magazine to solicit nominations from the defense bar.  Never.  Dallas also has a Dallas Black Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.  I don't believe they have been solicited for nominations, either.  So where are the nominations coming from for the criminal category?  If not the criminal defense bar, then who is doing the nominating?

My curiosity about this "chosen by their peers" tagline would have faded had I not opened the magazine.  As I flipped through the pages looking for outstanding peers, I started noticing something odd.  In total, there were 19 lawyers listed in the magazine and on their website under the category of criminal defense.  Several of them deserved to be there.  Others made my jaw drop.  However, the real kicker was when it dawned on me that they all shared something in common - 19 lawyers - all white and all male.  

Huh.  Isn't that something?  Mysterious "peers" nominated 19 white guys as the best criminal defense lawyers in Dallas.  

Here's the trouble with that fairy tale - the chances of that actually taking place with the makeup of our criminal defense bar are about as likely as me replacing Romo as quarterback for the Cowboys.  

What a farce - and an insulting one, to boot.

I emailed the mental giants at D Magazine.  They emailed back an inane response.  

What to do?

How about an ACTUAL peer nomination of the best criminal defense lawyers in Dallas by the Dallas criminal bar followed by a vote?  

So that's what we're going to do.

Nominations started a few weeks back.  Online voting begins tomorrow.  We'll have a list by June 1.  Not the bizarro world D Magazine list.  We'll have the real deal and it will be published on this blog.  

Stay tuned.