March 27, 2012 Miami, FL – The career of maritime lawyer Charles 
Lipcon achieved a new milestone this week when he was awarded the distinguished “AV Pre-Eminent” rating by Martindale–Hubbell for his 25th consecutive year. Lipcon is the founder and president of Lipcon, Margulies & Winkleman, P.A.
The AV Preeminent category is the highest achievement available from Martindale-Hubbell. The “A” signifies the highest level of legal ability, while the “V” denotes very high adherence to ethical standards. These ratings are published in Martindale-Hubbell’s proprietary Law Directory as well as in several online resources, including Martindale.com, Lawyers.comSM, the LexisNexis services and the LN mobile apps.
Reviews are submitted by peers, and are first evaluated with a focus on the quality of a lawyer’s conduct and ethics, reliability, and diligence in his/her specific area of practice. Lawyers who meet the “Very High” criteria of General Ethical Standards move to the next step in the ratings process, where legal knowledge, analytical capabilities, judgment, communication skills, and legal experience are evaluated. A lawyer must achieve a total score between 4.5 – 5.0 to qualify for the AV Preeminent award, signifying that peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.
Lipcon—whose know-before-you-go eBook, Unsafe on the High Seas, has recently garnered a lot of attention in the wake of the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster—reflected on his distinguished career in admiralty law. ”The news media has placed a lot of focus in recent weeks on the challenges of maritime law and the specialized knowledge it requires to truly navigate its complexities. Our firm’s goal is to be ‘pre-eminent’ in representing cruise passengers as well as crew members across a variety of situations that can occur at sea, from sexual assault and shipboard disappearances to serious illness and catastrophic injury. It’s truly an honor receive Martindale –Hubbell’s prestigious AV Pre-Eminent rating for 25 years straight, and I thank my colleagues in the legal profession for their strong vote of confidence.”
