Best Lawyers has released the 2026 editions of The Best Lawyers in America and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America, marking the 32nd and sixth years of the respective publications. The latest rankings honor attorneys for their professional excellence and reveal key trends shaping the legal industry across the United States.
A Peer-Reviewed Selection Process
Selection for Best Lawyers is based on a peer-review methodology. The process begins with external nominations, followed by confidential evaluations from lawyers currently recognized in the same practice area and geographic region. After feedback is collected and reviewed, top candidates are vetted to ensure they are in good standing with their local bar associations.
Once the results are finalized, the newly recognized lawyers and their firms are notified before the lists are published. In each metropolitan area and practice specialty, one attorney with the highest overall peer feedback earns the special designation of “Lawyer of the Year.”
The Best Lawyers in America 2026: By the Numbers
The 2026 edition of The Best Lawyers in America recognizes 81,420 lawyers across 151 practice areas and more than 200 geographic regions. This figure represents approximately 5% of practicing attorneys in the U.S. This year’s selection process involved nearly 30,000 voters who provided over 3.4 million confidential evaluations of roughly 130,000 nominees. Among the honorees, 5,068 received the “Lawyer of the Year” title for exceptional achievement.
Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America 2026: Key Figures
Designed for attorneys with fewer than 10 years of experience, Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America highlights emerging talent in private practice. The 2026 list includes 27,241 lawyers from 2,488 firms, covering 79 practice areas and 199 regions. This distinction is awarded to about 2% of early-career attorneys nationwide.
Honoree Distribution Across Major Metro Areas
Attorneys recognized in the 2026 editions practice nationwide, with significant concentrations in major legal markets. For The Best Lawyers in America, Washington, D.C., leads with 4,148 honorees, followed by New York City with 3,889. Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Los Angeles each feature between 2,500 and 2,800 recognized lawyers.
The geographic distribution for Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America shows a similar pattern. New York City has the highest number of recognized early-career lawyers, followed by Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas/Fort Worth.
Trends in Gender Representation
The 32nd edition of The Best Lawyers in America shows that women represent a majority or near-majority of honorees in several specialties. Women comprise 71% of recognized lawyers in Collaborative Law: Family Law, 58% in Family Law Mediation, and 53% in both Family Law and Immigration Law. In Elder Law, representation is nearly even, with women accounting for 49% of honorees.
Gender representation is even more pronounced among early-career attorneys recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America. Women make up 70% of honorees in Education Law and 69% in Immigration Law. Strong representation is also seen in technical fields such as Health Care Law and Medical Malpractice, reflecting generational shifts in the legal profession.
Most-Represented Practice Areas
The 2026 rankings highlight a five-year growth trend across several major practice areas. Commercial Litigation continues to lead, having grown by nearly 37% since 2021 to include 12,762 recognized lawyers. Other top fields include Real Estate Law (7,279 lawyers, up 28%), Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs (5,893 lawyers, up 33%), Corporate Law (5,212 lawyers, up 28%), and Litigation – Labor and Employment (5,066 lawyers, up 37%).
Commercial Litigation Remains a Dominant Field
Commercial Litigation is the top practice area for both veteran and early-career honorees, reflecting the increasing complexity of business disputes. Several recent legal and economic developments have contributed to its growth, including the rise of multidistrict litigation (MDL), which now accounts for over 70% of all federal civil cases.
Beyond the courtroom, litigators are increasingly managing mass arbitration filings designed to challenge corporate terms of service. Recent Supreme Court decisions have also impacted the field. The court’s 2025 decision to overrule the Chevron doctrine, which limited deference to federal agencies, has created a less predictable regulatory landscape for corporations. This trend is expected to sustain high demand for legal services in related areas such as class actions, product liability, and consumer protection.
Fast-Growing Niche Specialties
Over the past five years, several specialized practice areas have seen rapid growth in recognition, reflecting evolving client needs:
- Cannabis Law: Grew by over 500% amid ongoing state-level legalization.
- Agriculture Law: Nearly tripled as issues in land use and food production intensified.
- Consumer Protection Law: More than doubled, driven by increased litigation in privacy and liability.
- Military Law: Expanded as more firms address the needs of service members and veterans.
- Community Association Law: Grew steadily with a rise in property governance disputes.
Emerging Practice Areas for Early-Career Lawyers
Among attorneys in the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch list, Commercial Litigation remains the leading practice area. However, Labor and Employment Law – Management also ranks prominently. Two fields showing explosive growth are Privacy and Data Security Law, with a 108% increase in honorees, and Life Sciences Practice, which expanded by 182%. These increases signal emerging priorities for lawyers preparing to meet future regulatory and technological challenges.
The U.S. Legal Market in an International Context
The American legal profession is notable for its broad range of practice areas. While legal markets in countries like Germany and France focus heavily on traditional disciplines such as tax and corporate law, the U.S. demonstrates wider engagement in litigation, labor law, and civil rights. In the Asia-Pacific region, legal focus is shifting toward emerging sectors like health care regulation and technology law. These global differences highlight the distinct societal and regulatory structures that shape each jurisdiction’s legal sector.
A Guide for Identifying Legal Excellence
Recognition by Best Lawyers reflects the consensus of legal peers and confirms an attorney’s standing in their field. For clients, the rankings provide a research-based resource for identifying respected legal counsel, offering an alternative to online reviews or unverified directories. With a global network, the publications connect clients with leading lawyers across numerous jurisdictions worldwide.
Disclaimer: The Best Lawyers awards are subject to ongoing review to ensure accuracy. The number of recognized attorneys may change based on evolving circumstances, such as shifts in an attorney’s practice status, to maintain the most up-to-date records possible.
