The 2023 Lawdragon Hall of Fame – Litigators

Kathleen Sullivan, Tom Goldstein and John W. Keker

We’re honored to announce a new class of inductees to The Lawdragon Hall of Fame.

These 31 lawyers include the most respected and game-changing litigators of the past three decades in commercial, white collar, antitrust, intellectual property, business & financial and appellate litigation.

As we reviewed the amazing wealth of talent who will be recognized next week in our 2^nd annual Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America, we felt a need to add a second phase to our Hall of Fame class, which is released in January each year. And this one, it’s all about the litigators.

That’s fitting as you survey the wealth of talent here, from former Stanford Law School Dean and Quinn Emanuel standout Kathleen Sullivan to everyone’s most estimable Bay Area titan, John Keker, and Washington, D.C.’s, noted Supreme Court advocate and founder of the influential Scotusblog, Tom Goldstein.

Like any good Hall of Fame, ours is chosen by a set of guidelines but really does boil down to the long game. Which lawyers viewed after 30+ years in the trenches are leaving a lasting imprint across the litigation landscape.

Lawdragon is an advocate for inclusion. That can be tricky with guides that are in part historic. So we are particularly delighted that this HOF is 26 percent female and 16 percent inclusive.

First	Last	Organization	Location	Category
John H.	Beisner	Skadden	Washington, D.C.	Litigator
Jack	Blumenfeld	Morris Nichols	Wilmington	Litigator
Thomas M.	Breen	Breen Pugh	Chicago	Litigator
Michael K.	Brown	Reed Smith	Los Angeles	Litigator
Richard H.	Deane Jr.	Jones Day	Atlanta	Litigator
W. Neil	Eggleston	Kirkland & Ellis	Washington, D.C.	Litigator
Gary M.	Elden	Shook Hardy	Chicago	Litigator
Deborah	Garza	Rule Garza	Washington, D.C.	Litigator
Bruce R.	Genderson	Williams & Connolly	Washington, D.C.	Litigator
John	Gleeson	Debevoise	New York	Litigator
Thomas	Goldstein	Goldstein Russell Woofter	Washington, D.C.	Litigator
Jon R.	Gray	Shook Hardy	Kansas City	Litigator
Theodore M. 'Ted'	Grossman	Jones Day	New York	Litigator
Harry Simms	Hardin III	Jones Walker	New Orleans	Litigator
F. Lane	Heard III	Williams & Connolly	Washington, D.C.	Litigator
Brian J.	Hennigan	Hueston Hennigan	Los Angeles	Litigator
J. Michael	Hennigan	McKool Smith	Los Angeles	Litigator
Sidney M. 'Skip'	Herman	Bartlit Beck	Chicago	Litigator
Michael A.	Jacobs	Morrison Foerster	San Francisco	Litigator
Thomas J.	Kavaler	Cahill	New York	Litigator
John W.	Keker	Keker Van Nest & Peters	San Francisco	Litigator
Patricia E.	Lowry	Squire Patton Boggs	Miami	Litigator
Joan	Lukey	Manatt	Boston	Litigator
Emily	Nicklin	Kirkland & Ellis	Chicago	Litigator
Daniel	Petrocelli	O'Melveny	Los Angeles	Litigator
Patricia	Rocha	Adler Pollock	Providence, R.I.	Litigator
Nancy G.	Ross	Mayer Brown	Chicago	Litigator
Robert	Shapiro	Glaser Weil	Los Angeles	Litigator
John D.	Spiegel	Munger Tolles	Los Angeles	Litigator
Kathleen M.	Sullivan	Quinn Emanuel	Los Angeles	Litigator
Mary A.	Wells	Wells Anderson	Denver	Litigator