Lawdragon Announces 2024 Hall of Fame Inductees

Lawdragon 2024 Hall of Fame honorees Beth Wilkinson, Yvette McGee Brown and Neal Manne.

We are honored to announce the 2024 class of The Lawdragon Hall of Fame.

These lawyers truly need no introduction. But we’ll give you a little taste anyhow.

Susman Godfrey has become appreciated near and far as a trial juggernaut, its financials the envy of the nation’s most elite corporate firms and its hiring in the rarest of air. The late, great Steve Susman, of course, founded the firm with fellow Hall of Famer Lee Godfrey. But it is two lawyers honored here – longtime managing partner Neal Manne and rainmaker extraordinaire Bill Carmody – who led arguably the most successful generational transition in law firm history.

A host of environmental lawyers are also recognized – among them Michael Gerrard, Rodney Brown and John Cruden – representing the pioneers who recognized the earth and its bounty, often including people, as something to be preserved. They laid the framework of today’s focus on climate change and doing better for this rock we call home.

Dealmaker Daniel Neff of Wachtell joins his fellow Executive Committee co-chair Ed Herlihy in the Hall of Fame this year, an astounding pairing that led one of the world’s most unique and illustrious law firms and only recently tapped those who will follow in their stead.

Finally, no where will you find more formidable litigators – be they plaintiff lawyers or corporate consiglieres – than at Lawdragon. And our Hall of Fame representatives are magic: Tom Melsheimer and Kimball Anderson of Winston; Sandra Robinson of The Cochran Firm; Beth Wilkinson of Wilkinson Stekloff; Daniel Brockett of Quinn Emanuel.

We could go on, but we’ll leave some of the fun to you. While this guide is selected largely based on our editorial judgment and the assessment of fellow members of the Hall of Fame, we do accept nominations. Those selected here have generally been included many times on a variety of Lawdragon guides, almost always including The Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America.

We hope this New Year has brought reflection and the courage to do great things. And that these new members of our Hall of Fame bring inspiration.

First	Last	Organization	Location	Categories
Sanford	Ain	Ain & Bank	Washington, D.C.	Family
Eleanor	Alter	Alter Wolff	New York	Family
Kimball	Anderson	Winston & Strawn	Chicago	Litigator
Patricia	Barmeyer	King & Spalding	Atlanta	Environmental
Sarah	Borders	King & Spalding	Atlanta	Litigator
Greg	Breedlove	Cunningham Bounds	Mobile, Ala.	Plaintiff Litigator
Daniel	Brockett	Quinn Emanuel	New York	Litigator
Rodney	Brown	Cascadia Law Group	Seattle	Environmental
Yvette McGee	Brown	Jones Day	Cleveland	Investigations, White Collar
John	Burris	Burris Nisenbaum	Oakland, Calif.	Civil Rights
Bill	Carmody	Susman Godfrey	New York	Litigator
William	Chandler	Wilson Sonsini	Wilmington	Delaware
John	Cruden	Beveridge & Diamond	Washington, D.C.	Environmental
Scott	Dettmer	Gunderson Dettmer	Redwood City, Calif.	Dealmaker
Michael	Gerrard	Arnold & Porter	New York	Environmental
Theodore	Grossman	Jones Day	New York	Litigator
Mark	Hansen	Kellogg Hansen	Washington, D.C.	Litigator
Brian	Hennigan	Hueston Hennigan	Los Angeles	Litigator
James W.	Johnson	Labaton Sucharow	New York	Plaintiff Litigator
Jay	Kasner	Skadden	New York	Securities Litigator
Debra	Katz	Katz Banks Kumin	Washington, D.C.	Employment
Ken	Klee	Klee Tuchin/UCLA	Los Angeles	Bankruptcy
Ira	Leesfield	Leesfield Scolaro	Miami	Plaintiff Litigator
Michael	Lehmann	Hausfeld	San Francisco	Antitrust Litigator
Richard	Levin	Jenner	New York	Bankruptcy
Victor E.	Long	Regan Zambri Long	Washington, D.C.	Plaintiff Litigator
Neal	Manne	Susman Godfrey	Houston	Litigator
Keith	Martin	Norton Rose Fulbright	Washington, D.C.	Dealmaker, esp. Projects
Randy	Mastro	King & Spalding	New York	Litigator
Tom	Melsheimer	Winston & Strawn	Dallas	Litigator
Tom	Methvin	The Beasley Allen Law Firm	Montgomery, Ala	Plaintiff Litigator
Daniel	Neff	Wachtell	New York	Dealmaker
Cheryl Forest	Perkins	Whetstone Perkins Fulda	Columbia, S.C.	Plaintiff Litigator
Sandra	Robinson	The Cochran Firm	Baltimore	Plaintiff Litigator
Samuel	Seymour	Sullivan & Cromwell	New York	Litigator, esp. White Collar
Daniel	Small	Cohen Milstein	Washington, D.C.	Antitrust Litigator
Hector	Torres	Kasowitz	New York	Litigator, esp. Antitrust
Jim	Walden	Walden Macht	New York	Litigator, esp. White Collar
Jack	Walker	Zeughauser Group	Los Angeles	Leadership
Rob	Walters	Gibson Dunn	Dallas	Litigator, esp. Antitrust
T. John	Ward	Ward Smith & Hill	Longview, Texas	Litigator, Judge, IP
Beth	Wilkinson	Wilkinson Stekloff	Washington, D.C.	Litigator