Trevor Delaney, editor in chief of Small Firm Business magazine, explains the process the magazine went through to determine this year’s winners:

A desire to recognize “all firms great and small,” was the premise underlying our effort to launch an awards program for Small Firm Business. Last Fall, we invited nominations for our first annual Best Practices awards. Small firms — those with 2 to 40 attorneys — could be nominated by a third party, or were welcome to report on their own management programs in several categories.