Flora Pettit announces that nine of its lawyers were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in the 2020 edition of Best Lawyers in America®. (Copyright 2013 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, SC). The attorneys listed include Michael E. Derdeyn, John W. Flora, Lisa Anne Hawkins, Richard H. Howard-Smith, Donald D. Long, Jennifer E. Shirkey, Bill Shmidheiser, Cathleen P. Welsh and J. Page Williams.

Mr. Derdeyn was selected in the practice area of Commercial Litigation; Mr. Flora was selected in the practice area of Tax Law, and Trusts and Estates; Ms. Hawkins was selected in the practice of Real Estate Law; Mr. Howard-Smith was selected in the practice areas of Tax Law, and Trusts and Estates; Mr. Long was selected in the practice area of Securities/Capital Markets Law; Ms. Shirkey was selected in the practice area of Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law; Mr. Shmidheiser was selected in the practice areas of Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law, and Litigation–Bankruptcy; Ms. Welsh was selected in the practice areas of Employment Law–Management, Litigation–Labor and Employment, and Workers’ Compensation Law–Employers; and Mr. Williams was selected in the practice of Banking and Finance Law, and Real Estate Law.

Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers^® has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Best Lawyers lists are compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review evaluation. Almost 94,000 industry leading lawyers are eligible to vote (from around the world), and we have received almost 11 million evaluations on the legal abilities of other lawyers based on their specific practice areas around the world. For the 2020 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America^©, 8.3 million votes were analyzed, which resulted in more than 62,000 leading lawyers being included in the new edition. Lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed; therefore, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”