As many as 17 Indian Americans figure in Forbes Top Lawyers 2026 list rerecognizing a wide range of practitioners from dealmakers to trial lawyers, strategists, and advisors from across the spectrum.
“They are the Swiss Army knife of legal counsel, upgraded to tackle next-gen challenges while remaining client-centered,” says the U.S. business magazine of lawyers “defining modern legal excellence.”
“America’s Top Lawyers of 2026 are united not by a particular practice, pedigree or path to success, but by the caliber of their work, the trust they engender and the results they deliver for clients,’ it says.
Among this elite list of partners, practice heads, and managing partners are legal minds like Rajib Chanda of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Ishan Bhabha of Jenner & Block, who hold prominent leadership positions in major national practices.
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Academic achievement has served as a foundational stepping stone for these attorneys. Many have pursued rigorous training at top-tier institutions, combining elite legal education with high-level clerkships and complex private practice.
Rajib Chanda earned his undergraduate degree in economics with honors from Brown University before obtaining his JD cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Harvard Negotiation Law Review.
Similarly, Ishan Bhabha graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and went on to earn his JD magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, later clerking for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Other prominent practitioners have built extensive track records across trial, appellate, and corporate law.
Ashok Ramani of Davis Polk holds a bachelor’s degree from University of California Berkeley and a JD cum laude from Harvard Law School, anchoring an intellectual property and commercial litigation practice.
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Rakesh Kilaru of Wilkinson Stekloff earned an undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Columbia University and a JD from Stanford Law School, subsequently completing clerkships with Judge Harvie Wilkinson III on the Fourth Circuit and Justice Elena Kagan on the U.S. Supreme Court.
This distinguished cohort encompasses 17 leaders featured across major corporate practices, including Kobi Kennedy Brinson, Val Dahiya, Sonal Mehta, Naveen Modi, Deepro Mukerjee, Sonia Nijjar, Rahul Patel, Zachary Podolsky, Terri Shieh-Newton, Gina Shishima, Danny Tobey, Krishna Veeraraghavan, and Nimalka Wickramasekera.
United not by a particular practice, pedigree, or single path to success, but by the caliber of their work, the trust they engender, and the results they deliver for clients, these attorneys continue to shape high-stakes commercial and legal developments across the United States.