What is Legal 500 US Elite?
Legal 500 US Elite aims to highlight key lawyers operating at regional players across business centres in the United States. Notably, US Elite seeks to recognize attorneys outside global firms, opting to focus on those at local and regional powerhouses that may be neglected by other rankings.
US Elite emphasizes lawyers who are handling work at the top of the legal market in their respective cities, states, or regions. The ranking is distinct from the main Legal 500 US guide, with lawyers ranked by tier as individuals rather than as teams. The research process is interview-led, supported by written submissions. The key ranking criteria relates to a lawyer’s client base, breadth and scale of work, further supported by peer feedback.
How are lawyers selected for US Elite?
Our research includes interviews with top practitioners, peer feedback, and evidence of key matters worked on by the ranked attorneys during the past year. An initial shortlist of attorneys is produced by the research team using internal and external data sets, with submissions from firms also welcomed independently of the shortlist process.
All interested lawyers are invited to participate in an interview with our researchers, and also have the option of making a written submission. During the interview, we also solicit extensive peer feedback regarding other lawyers operating in their respective legal sectors.
Law firms are welcome to proactively submit attorneys for consideration.
Dates
Now Live! Released October 28th 2025
Houston Elite
Dallas Elite
Austin Elite
Minneapolis Elite
Missouri Elite
Indianapolis Elite
Chicago Elite – Intellectual property and banking & finance.
Current Research – Interview deadline December 19th, submission deadline January 2nd 2026.
North Carolina Elite, Deep South (South Carolina. Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi) Elite, Atlanta Elite, New Orleans Elite, Florida (not including Miami) Elite, Miami Elite, Denver Elite
Researcher details below
| North Carolina Elite – Corporate and M&A – Giuseppina Domfeh, [email protected] |
| North Carolina Elite – Commercial disputes – Irfan Ali, [email protected] |
| North Carolina Elite – Intellectual property – Shahbaz Hashmi-Qureshi, [email protected] |
| North Carolina Elite – Finance and restructuring- Benedicte Bolingo, [email protected] |
| North Carolina Elite – Real Estate – Iqra Bostan, [email protected] |
| New Orleans Elite – Corporate and M&A – Jake Dinsdale, [email protected] |
| New Orleans Elite – Commercial disputes- Max Boothby, [email protected] |
| New Orleans Elite – Energy – Xanji Westwood, [email protected] |
| Atlanta Elite – Corporate and M&A , Robert Luhe, [email protected] |
| Atlanta Elite – Commercial disputes, Victor Nwankwo, [email protected] |
| Atlanta Elite – White-collar crime – Joshua Render, [email protected] |
| Atlanta Elite – Intellectual property – Cecily Turner [email protected] |
| Deep South Elite – Corporate and M&A – Isha Khan [email protected] |
| Deep South Elite – Commercial disputes – Samuel Clark, [email protected] |
| Deep South Elite – White-collar crime – Alice Young, [email protected] |
| Deep South Elite – IP , Alice Young, [email protected] |
| Florida Elite – Corporate and M&A – Toby Helm, [email protected] |
| Florida Elite – Commercial disputes – Asra Ali, [email protected] |
| Florida Elite – Intellectual property – Sita Chhantyal [email protected] |
| Florida Elite – Finance and restructuring – Joshua Render, [email protected] |
| Florida Elite – Real estate – Adam Weston, [email protected] |
| Miami Elite – Corporate and M&A – Erika Grimbley, [email protected] |
| Miami Elite – Commercial disputes – Noor Sharif, [email protected] |
| Miami Elite – White-collar crime – Shirley Coong, [email protected] |
| Miami Elite – Finance and restructuring – Juwariah Tariq, [email protected] |
| Miami Elite – Real estate – Nora Lannert, [email protected] |
| Denver Elite – Corporate and M&A – Sandra John, [email protected] |
| Denver Elite – Commercial disputes – Luca Varga, [email protected]
Denver Elite – Real estate – Benedicte Bolingo, [email protected] |
Submission
Submission template NB: This template is in .docx format. Do not resave it in any other format as it may not be compatible with our system.
To send your submissions to us, please visit submissions.legal500.com and follow the onscreen prompts to send us new documents.
If you do not have login details or have problems accessing submissions.legal500.com, please get in touch to request details via [email protected], filing a request under the “Login details – portal” category.
Contact
Editorial
Editor – Legal 500 United States Barnaby Merrill ([email protected])
Research Managers – US City Elite Hannah Chisholm ([email protected]); Oliver Punchard ([email protected])