Every now and then, Virginia Business gets lucky. Last year, drawing on the experience of other regional business magazines in the country, we introduced a new special section called The Legal Elite. With help from The Virginia Bar Association, we surveyed several thousand lawyers in Virginia to see who they thought were the best. After a false start or two, last December we published our list of 300 best lawyers and profiled 10 of them.

The response from the legal community was quite encouraging. The effort seemed a positive service because it identified the best practices and humanized what is undeniably one of the most fascinating professional disciplines around. Law involves majesty, hubris, logical thinking and human foibles. No wonder television shows "Perry Mason" and "L.A. Law" are so popular.

This year, we have tried to improve and expand. Once again, we had the critically important support of The Virginia Bar Association, a private, professional group. Yet this year, we expanded our balloting beyond lawyers who are members of this association. To broaden our scope, we dropped the immigration law category and added lobbying and regulation. We will return to immigration again and make other, temporary switches in coming editions. We’ve received dozens of calls from lawyers suggesting other categories of law. We will get there. Meanwhile, we’ve had a 50 percent increase in the number of lawyers who have responded to our balloting, and we have increased the list of top lawyers from 300 to 362.

To be sure, there are plenty of issues confronting the legal community. Leading the list is the increasingly common practice of setting up multi-disciplinary practices. Instead of practicing law the usual way, some firms are exploring the advantages of combining law with other endeavors such as accounting, consulting and marketing. The idea challenges traditionalists, yet it might be a way to bring a slew of more sophisticated services to smaller communities in Virginia where Big Six accounting firms, who offer such services, do not reach. Another trend reflective of changing times is having lawyers become members of state bars in several states. The increasingly global economy and cross-state development sprawl means state borders are becoming increasingly irrelevant. Yet laws are still organized and lawyers are still disciplined according to state distinctions.

Lastly, law faces the same problem medicine does in making sure that more rural areas are covered. Small town practices might offer a better quality of life. But when a newly minted lawyer hangs out his or her shingle, he or she usually faces tens of thousands of dollars in education debts. The need to pay them off often drives young lawyers to larger towns with bigger salaries. In the process, rural spots are short-changed.

We’ll be exploring these issues and more in Virginia Business. And we’ll strive to continually upgrade "The Legal Elite." It seems we have a winner on our hands.