<human>: Could you distill the essence of the text into 1-3 sentences?

I have never had to hire a lawyer, but it looks as though that is now changing.  I have a complicated landlord/tenant situation (I'm the tenant) and believe that an expert is needed.

Asking around, none of my friends/coworkers or anyone they know has ever had to hire this type of lawyer (nor know any who specialize in this type of law).

I looked on avvo, but my attorney friends say that site isn't too great (lawyers tend to either have a lot of positive reviews or no reviews at all)

I also know which attorney my landlord uses and that lawyer has no ratings on the site. I trust that my landlord (who owns lots of properties and has been doing this for awhile) has a very capable attorney.

How can I get a better sense of who are the really good attorneys (and who might be the terrible ones?) Not sure how to even go about choosing the handful that I'd call for an initial consult.
<bot>: How can I determine which lawyers in a particular niche are the best ones? How do I research aside from asking around and looking at avvo?