Chris Fialko was recently recognized as the Best Lawyers® 2025 Criminal Defense: White-Collar “Lawyer of the Year” in Charlotte. Best Lawyers describes this accolade as being determined by those who know the profession best—the lawyers themselves.

This is the second time in the last five years that Chris Fialko has been named the Best Lawyers® Criminal Defense: White-Collar “Lawyer of the Year” in Charlotte. Additionally, he was honored as the Best Lawyers® 2024 Criminal Defense: General Practice “Lawyer of the Year” in Charlotte.

Chris Fialko is among a select group of attorneys who have been recognized by their peers in both categories and multiple times within a decade.

Chris Fialko was recently recognized as the Best Lawyers® 2024 Criminal Defense: General Practice “Lawyer of the Year” in Charlotte. This prestigious honor is determined by fellow attorneys, who Best Lawyers believes are the most qualified to identify the top practitioners in their field.

This is the third time in the past eight years that Chris Fialko has earned the title of Best Lawyers® Criminal Defense: General Practice “Lawyer of the Year” in Charlotte. He was also named the Best Lawyers® 2021 Criminal Defense: White-Collar “Lawyer of the Year” in Charlotte.

Chris Fialko is one of the few attorneys who have been recognized by their peers in both categories, and on multiple occasions within a ten-year span.

Chris Fialko has been elected to the 2023 edition of Business North Carolina magazine’s “Legal Elite” in the field of Criminal Law, the lawyers whose peers think are the state’s best practitioners in their fields. Chris has been voted 18 consecutive years in Business North Carolina magazine’s Legal Elite.

Every year, Business North Carolina sends ballots to the North Carolina Bar Association and asks one question, “Of the Tar Heel lawyers whose work you have observed firsthand, whom would you rate among the current best in these categories?”

Voters cannot vote for themselves. For more information about the “Legal Elite” methodology visit: http://businessnc.com/special-sections/legal-elite/.

It feels cool to be named one of the Top 25 attorneys in Charlotte (of any kind), and oen of the Top 100 attorneys in all of North Carolina of (of any kind) by Super Lawyers.

I have written this before, but what I like about the Charlotte legal community is that it is a merit-based town.  If you’re good, you prosper.  There are other towns in the Southeast where it matters more what your name or pedigree is.

In 1994, when I decided to hang my own shingle and try to be a criminal defense lawyer, I called the prominent defense lawyers in town and asked to pick their brains.  Every single one of them — Eben Rawls, Theo Nixon, Jim Cooney, Harold Bender, Jim Gronquist and others — graciously met with me and answered all my basic questions.

So nowadays I am trying to be a good mentor to the younger crop of criminal defense lawyers in Charlotte, who are tackling the task of defending the Constitution one client at a time.

https://www.superlawyers.com/north-carolina/toplists/top-25-2023-charlotte-super-lawyers/8bd3e786ec96aa813bd2c1bbb1117679

https://www.superlawyers.com/north-carolina/toplists/top-100-2023-north-carolina-super-lawyers/160743788aa7329fe5ebd7d19383e361

And here’s the legalese we have to post when we are named:

Each year, no more than five percent of the lawyers in the state are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor.

Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The annual selections are made using a patented multiphase process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates and peer reviews by practice area. The result is a credible, comprehensive and diverse listing of exceptional attorneys.

The Super Lawyers lists are published nationwide in Super Lawyers Magazines and in leading city and regional magazines and newspapers across the country. Super Lawyers Magazines also feature editorial profiles of attorneys who embody excellence in the practice of law. For more information about Super Lawyers, visit SuperLawyers.com.)

Chris Fialko has earned the 2022 AV Preeminent Rating, which is the highest possible rating in both legal ability and ethics through Martindale-Hubbell.

The Martindale-Hubbell© Peer Review Ratings have been an important part of Martindale-Hubbell’s services to the legal community since 1887. The ratings process, which evaluates lawyers both in the U.S. and Canada, is solely based on peer review.