The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Family Lawyers

This year's honorees include Mudita Chawla of Chemtob Moss, David Posner of Willkie and m boulette of Taft.

We’re honored to introduce The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Family Lawyers.

Divorce in Dallas, estate litigation in Los Angeles, high-net worth battles in New York City, child custody in Chicago, pre-marital agreements in Miami.

These lawyers are the cream of the crop in the United States for hopes, dreams and when it all goes wrong. Love, American Style.

Mudita Chawla of New York’s Chemtob Moss has risen to the top as a family law advocate in and out of court. She was raised by her parents, both doctors, to help people. Yet their child had an argumentative disposition, so she focused on law school. There, she was initially uncertain due to the focus of many of her fellow students on law as a way to make money. She walked away, but came back, graduating and joining Sanctuary for Families to help domestic violence survivors, then joining Chemtob, one of the nation’s elite family boutiques.

David J. Posner chairs Willkie’s top-flight Private Wealth Group in New York. He specializes in Estate Planning and counseling high-net-worth individuals and family offices on estates and trust administration. Among his focuses are wealth preservation techniques, complex wills and trusts; estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax matters and the use of charitable trusts and private foundations. The Private Wealth area is one of the fastest-growing in law practice, and Willkie’s estimable group is one of the best.

m boulette, based in Minneapolis, is the firm’s Domestic Relations practice group leader. And they bring a specific focus on joy, quoting from books they enjoy reading to their children: “the Sun only wants you to bask; that is truly all she wants; it pleases her to no end.” It’s an amazing focus for a top family lawyer advising business owners, public figures, professional athletes, entrepreneurs and others going through family situations, including divorce, child custody, family law appeals, and issues involving LGBTQ+ families. Boulette regularly serves as an adjunct professor and writer, recently completing a term as president of the Hennepin County Bar Association.

We selected this guide, our 4^th to the Family Law practice, in our time-honed process combining robust nominations, independent journalistic research and vetting by colleagues and peers. Thank you for the great submissions, introducing us to great talent! Members of our permanent Hall of Fame are denoted with an asterisk.