Best Lawyers, a respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, has named Paul H. Ode Jr. as the “Burlington Best Lawyers Corporate Lawyer of the Year” for 2010. Ode is the managing partner at Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC, where he also practices as a member and former chair of the Business Law Practice Group.
“After more than a quarter of a century in publication, Best Lawyers is designating ‘Lawyers of the Year’ in high-profile legal specialties in large legal communities,” according to Steven Naifeh, managing editor of Best Lawyers. “The lawyers being honored as ‘Lawyers of the Year’ have received particularly high ratings in our surveys by earning a high level of respect among their peers for their abilities, professionalism and integrity.”
“Lawyers are only as good as the problems they have to solve,” Ode said after being informed of the honor. “I feel very fortunate to continue to have the opportunity to work with smart clients and colleagues on an enormous range of issues that affect businesses."
Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is being honored as the “Lawyer of the Year.” 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 current 2010 edition of The Best Lawyers in America is based on more than 2.8 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers. Naifeh added, “We continue to believe – as we have believed for more than 25 years – that recognition by one’s peers is the most meaningful form of praise in the legal profession. We would like to congratulate Paul Ode on being selected as the ‘Burlington Best Lawyers Corporate Lawyer of the Year’ for 2010.”
DRM is a full-service law firm with more than 60 attorneys and seven offices in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. DRM provides legal services to local, national and international clients in practice areas that include bankruptcy and business restructuring, business law, captive insurance, energy and telecommunications, family law, health law, intellectual property, labor and employment, litigation, real estate and land use, environmental law, tax law and trusts and estates. The firm represents clients in legislative, regulatory and public affairs through the Government and Public Affairs group. DRM is the law firm member for Vermont of Lex Mundi, the world's leading association of independent law firms.