The 2025 Lawdragon Legends
By Katrina Dewey | February 7, 2025 | Guides, News & Features
David Lam of Wachtell, Antonia Apps of the SEC and Deneen Howell of Williams & Connolly.
It’s an honor to introduce The 2025 Lawdragon Legends.
No single group more clearly expresses our vision of the lawyers we set out to shine a light on when we created Lawdragon 20 years ago.
Imagine the most interesting lawyer cocktail party imaginable: a Chicago personal injury lawyer chatting up one of New York’s savviest dealmakers; a Texas energy advisor toasting the LA-based co-managing partner of the world’s most successful trial practice; a married couple who helm a different firm in L.A. and lead one of the nation’s most successful insurance recovery practices; the D.C. class act who advises some of the world’s most illustrious politicians/authors catching up with the head of litigation at New York’s quintessential law firm.
We could go on … it’s a party and one we wouldn’t miss for anything. That’s entirely because nowhere will you find a collection of lawyers as vibrant, diverse, insightful, tough and brilliant as those assembled here.
That’s true of all 300 members of the Legends, which we created in 2015 to celebrate our 10th anniversary. It is our toughest group in which to win admittance – a true murder of lawyers – requiring selection to The Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America roughly 10 times. The standard was created to recognize those who created excellence in their law practice and sustained it on behalf of their clients and the profession for a significant length of time. Consistency matters, as does excellence, and the drive and determination to be the best.
View our Legends Showcase to read Limelights of some of the honorees from past years.
| First | Last | Organization | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antonia | Apps | Securities and Exchange Commission | New York |
| Clifford H. | Aronson | Skadden | New York |
| Lisa G. | Arrowood | Arrowood | Boston |
| Jacob W. | Buchdahl | Susman Godfrey | New York |
| Karen C. | Burgess | Burgess Law | Austin |
| Joshua R. | Cammaker | Wachtell | New York |
| Linda | Coberly | Winston & Strawn | Chicago |
| Jay | Cohen | Paul Weiss | New York |
| Daniel S. | Drosman | Robbins Geller | San Diego |
| Karen L. | Dunn | Paul Weiss | Washington, D.C. |
| Todd E. | Freed | Skadden | New York |
| Hillary H. | Holmes | Gibson Dunn | Houston |
| Deneen C. | Howell | Williams & Connolly | Washington, D.C. |
| Linda | Kornfeld | Blank Rome | Los Angeles |
| David K. | Lam | Wachtell | New York |
| Daryl L. | Lansdale | Norton Rose Fulbright | San Antonio |
| Michael C. | Marsh | Akerman | Miami |
| Kevin J. | Orsini | Cravath | New York |
| Luis R. | Penalver | Cahill Gordon | New York |
| Shawn J. | Rabin | Susman Godfrey | New York |
| Julie G. | Reiser | Cohen Milstein | Washington, D.C. |
| Patrick A. | Salvi II | Salvi Schostok & Pritchard | Chicago |
| P. Anthony | Sammi | Latham | New York |
| Kalpana | Srinivasan | Susman Godfrey | Los Angeles |
| Lisa S. | Tsai | Reid Collins | Austin |
| Stephen A. | Weiss | Seeger Weiss | Ridgefield Park ,N.J. |
| Donna L. | Wilson | Manatt | Los Angeles |
| Paul H. | Zumbro | Cravath | New York |
