We have never published a Lawdragon 500 guide at a moment of greater uncertainty. Courts are closed, the engine of commerce is hanging on a frazzling thread, and lives are in the balance throughout the world. The toll of the pandemic is only beginning to take shape.
And yet, here we are with the 2020 guide to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America. It features lawyers whose necessary voices are already beginning to define a coherent path forward, advising financial institutions and corporations as well as hospitals and healthcare providers and, yes, filing the tip of the iceberg of what is sure to be litigation on a scale the world has never seen.
This is our 15th guide, which means we remember well the days of the financial collapse and what seemed a bottomless crisis. We saw how lawyers worked to help those in need – consumers, small and large businesses, governments and nonprofits – playing a key role in emerging from the crisis.
The 500 lawyers featured here represent the remarkable legal talent that is the U.S. legal profession. They are 40 percent women and more than 20 percent inclusive, representing big firms and small; judges like “Black Girl Magic,” the remarkable group of African American women who are reshaping the Harris County, Texas, courts; and prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers grinding toward justice for the accused conspirators of 9/11 in Guantanamo Bay.
Every prior year as we published this guide, the result of tremendous research and deliberation, it was a cause for celebration. We will remember 2020 for providing a new meaning, that of a call to believe in the path forward. That by each of us doing our best, we can emerge stronger, better and more able to help clients, friends and people in need. We’re in this together.
Stay safe.
