The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Tax Lawyers

We're delighted to introduce The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Tax Lawyers.

They are the titans of tax disputes, the architects of the code, the guardians of generational wealth.

This guide recognizes outstanding leaders who specialize in the tax aspects of M&A and other complex transactions; navigate the shifting terrain of international tax policy and legislation; handle disputes and litigation, including criminal matters, arising from tax; and advise private wealth clients and family offices – an area we're looking to expand on soon.

Armando Gomez of Skadden has spent the past year at the center of the disputes reshaping federal tax law. From the firm's Washington, D.C., office, Gomez was on the team that took Jennifer Zuch's case to the U.S. Supreme Court, and he represents Soroban Capital Partners in the landmark fight over the limited partner exception to self-employment tax – the most consequential partnership-tax question facing fund managers today, now headed to the Second Circuit. A former IRS attorney-advisor who chaired the ABA Section of Taxation and led the American College of Tax Counsel, Gomez is that rare figure who is both the establishment and the frontier.

Layla Asali of Miller & Chevalier has become an indispensable guide to the most sweeping rewrite of international tax in a generation. When Treasury and the IRS began issuing guidance on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's (OBBBA) international provisions, Asali was among the first to chart what the restructuring and renaming of the Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) regime and its companion rules would mean in practice. Based in Washington, D.C., she advises multinationals on cross-border transactions, intellectual property and supply chain planning with a policymaker's command of where the law is heading, not just where it stands.

Megan Brackney of Kostelanetz carries a distinction few in the profession can claim: In August 2025 she became Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation, leading the largest body of tax lawyers in the country from the bench of a New York controversy boutique rather than a global firm. Brackney's practice runs to the meaningful end of tax disputes – voluntary disclosures, civil audits, criminal investigations and litigation in the Tax Court and federal courts – and clients and peers alike credit her command of a field that never stops moving.

The response to last year's inaugural guide was extraordinary, and it confirmed what we suspected: that the lawyers who keep the world's tax affairs in balance deserve a stage of their own. This year's edition is richer for that enthusiasm. We're grateful for the many thoughtful submissions that shape these pages, and as always we pair them with our own independent research and decades of conversations with the lawyers and clients who know this work best.