Best Lawyers announced the 2027 editions of The Best Lawyers in America and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America on August 19, 2026. The 33rd edition of The Best Lawyers in America and the seventh edition of Ones to Watch in America recognize attorneys for professional excellence and peer-reviewed standing.
The 2027 Best Lawyers in America edition recognizes 81,620 lawyers across 151 practice areas and 203 metropolitan and geographic areas. This distinction is held by approximately 5% of practicing attorneys in the market. The awardees were determined through 3.8 million evaluations, with 4,915 lawyers also receiving the Lawyer of the Year honor.
The Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America edition recognizes 25,025 lawyers across 79 practice areas and 198 metropolitan and geographic regions. This honor is received by about 2% of early-career attorneys in the United States. These awardees were determined through 1.3 million evaluations.
The 2027 edition of The Best Lawyers in America identifies Washington, D.C. as the top directory with 4,119 recognized lawyers, followed by New York City with 3,834. Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Los Angeles follow as the next leading metropolitan areas. For the Ones to Watch cohort, New York City leads the geographic distribution.
In The Best Lawyers in America, Commercial Litigation is the largest practice area with 12,824 recognized lawyers. Other prominent areas include Real Estate Law, Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs, Corporate Law, and Litigation – Labor and Employment. In the Ones to Watch cohort, Commercial Litigation also remains the largest practice area.
The 2027 awards reflect shifting trends, such as the expansion of mass arbitration into workplace disputes and the impact of artificial intelligence on commercial litigation. Emerging areas of growth in the 2027 edition include Juvenile Practice, Artificial Intelligence Law, Energy Regulatory Law, and Government Contracts. Privacy and Data Security Law also showed expansion.
The recognition process utilizes a Purely Peer Review methodology, where nominees are evaluated by other lawyers in the same practice area and region. Candidates must be confirmed to be in good standing with their local bar association before recognition is finalized.
