PIERCE J. William (Will) Pierce Jr. has been selected by his peers to be included in the 2007 edition of The Best Lawyers in America in the specialty of Structured Finance Law.

Inclusion in Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive and rigorous peerreview survey that has been developed and refined for nearly 25 years. Because no fee or purchase is required to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor.

Best Lawyers also publishes an advertisement-free book each year listing all those chosen - something that no other survey does.The current edition is based on 1.8 million confidential evaluations by the top attorneys in the country. Best Lawyers also conducts thousands of telephone interviews with leading attorneys throughout its balloting process.

Will Pierce, as we know him here in Wilkes County, is the son of Helen Pierce and the late Jean W. Pierce of Washington-Wilkes. He graduated from Episcopal High School and Washington and Lee University in Virginia and received his law degree from Mercer University. He now practices with the Glankler Brown Firm in Memphis, Tennessee.

Pierce is married to Pam Wilbourn of Memphis, Tenn., and has two daughters: Palmer, who is 21 and in college at the University of Virginia; and Mary, who is 17 and attends the Hutcheson School in Memphis.

This year, 23 new specialties have been added to the new edition of Best Lawyers, bringing the total to 80. Responsiveness to the legal community is one reason Best Lawyers is widely regarded - by both the profession and the public - as the definitive guide to legal excellence in the United States.

Best Lawyers is the basis of more than 50 "best lawyers" features in regional newspapers and magazines - including this year, for the first time, The Washington Pose and The Los Angeles Times.