The 2020 Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Restructuring & Insolvency Lawyers

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

That’s the life spirit of the Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Bankruptcy & Restructuring Lawyers recognized here, who dazzle with their mastery of finance, dispute resolution and litigation strategy under extreme duress. They range from all corners of the globe and may be the busiest lawyers on the planet thanks to the epic confluence of Covid-19, global financial collapse and a reordering of everything we took as a given just six months back.

Oh 2020, how we loathe you. You have brought us an exigent set of challenges of the sort that has historically inspired leaders including Winston Churchill - to whom the mantra is widely, but likely mistakenly, attributed. It’s that can-do spirit, however, that these times require and these lawyers bring it in abundance. Sure, there are retailers collapsing left and right – sad, but conflagrations that needed only a bit more oxygen to end it. Every business in the travel and hospitality industry, most businesses on the planet, in fact, are under eye-popping strain. And these are the lawyers in the cockpit aiming to find a way forward for their clients and the global economy. (Photo above of Jones Day's Corinne Ball by Greg Endries.)

We selected them from intensive journalistic research into the lawyers handling the biggest restructurings globally, intersected with professional leadership and respect of their peers. The result is a set of magicians whose sleights-of-hand can for years be on pause. And then a torrent rips through and their specific skills are all that can save us.

This is a companion to our Lawdragon 500 Leading U.S. Bankruptcy & Restructuring Lawyers as well as our Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Bankruptcy & Restructuring Advisors (mostly non-lawyers). These are the inaugural editions and will be published annually.