If ever there was evidence of how interconnected the legal community is with the rest of the world's affairs, it's in the descriptions of how the following eight litigators spent their time over the past two years. Our honorees for Litigators of the Year have their hands in the most complex, high-profile, precedent-setting matters facing some of the largest institutions, most well known individuals and hottest industries. Their work solves the most perplexing problems, helps clients navigate through the thorniest of issues, creates new law and changes the way the industry handles similar matters moving forward. Here are our honorees for Litigators of the Year, including our Grand Prize Winner, Neal Katyal of Hogan Lovells.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER: Neal Katyal, Hogan Lovells, Washington, D.C. If you can't find Neal Katyal in his Washington, D.C. office, chances are he's busy arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court. Katyal argued seven Supreme Court cases in a year's time, and racked up even more since our contest period closed, eclipsing Thurgood Marshall's 50-year record as the minority lawyer with the most SCOTUS arguments. Katyal won big for Bristol Meyers Squibb Co., earning a decision that limits forum-shopping in mass torts cases, and convinced the high court to reverse a ruling that allowed cities to sue Wells Fargo & Co. under the Fair Housing Act. He twice beat the Trump Administration's travel ban and continues to fight those historic cases. All the while, he has maintained his tech practice advising Silicon Valley companies, and helped groom Hogan Lovells' next crop of SCOTUS advocates.
Karen Dunn, Boies Schiller Flexner, Washington, D.C. If the case is high-stakes, high-profile and hard-fought, don't be surprised to find Karen Dunn playing a role. Dunn's now defending Uber Technologies in Waymo's trade secrets suit over self-driving car technology, and she represents Apple Inc. in a challenge to Qualcomm's patent licensing model. She won a $124 million copyright victory for Oracle Corp., summary judgment for Apple in a $1 billion suit brought by Monster and teamed up with her husband, a litigator at Mayer Brown, for a pro bono suit that delivered budget autonomy to the District of Columbia. Not everything led to a win—Dunn prepped Hillary Clinton for debates and saw a $3 billion loss for Oracle at trial­—but she was always in the middle of the action.
Daniel Petrocelli, O'Melveny & Myers, Los Angeles When nominating Daniel Petrocelli for Litigator of the Year, his firm may have summed up it best: "What do entertainment ... insurance and tech companies, a pop star, and even the president have in common? Dan Petrocelli's cellphone number." Petrocelli is a lawyer clients call in the toughest situations. He won for client Sirius XM in a suit over royalties for music recorded before 1972 that threatened the company's existence. Kesha hired Petrocelli for her public contract dispute with producer Dr. Luke. He protected trademark rights to the name of the TV show "Empire" and steered President Donald Trump through settling fraud claims against Trump University. Now he's leading AT&T's and Time Warner's legal battle to merge.
Brad Karp; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; New York When major financial institutions need help on the most important legal issues, they call Brad Karp. The Paul Weiss chair nailed a complete arbitration win for longtime client Citigroup against Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which sought $3.2 billion over its 2007 investment in the bank, and he won appellate rulings that upheld the dismissal of more than $10 billion in claims against Citi in various suits. He helped JPMorgan avoid criminal charges in the Department of Justice's "Chinese princeling" corruption probe and secured a nonprosecution agreement for Citi in a global money-laundering case. Amid all this, Karp spearheaded the firm's NFL concussion settlement work and led its pro bono task force on gun safety.
James Hurst, Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago You win some, you lose some—but most of the time, when James Hurst goes to trial, he wins. The Kirkland & Ellis partner chalked up six trial victories in six big cases: He successfully defended Abbott Laboratories in a $1 billion False Claims Act suit; won $94 million for AbbVie in a breach of contract suit; protected migraine medication Zomig from a generic competitor; prevailed in a confidential arbitration worth $1 billion; persuaded a federal district court to invalidate Millenium's patent for cancer drug Velcade (a decision reversed on appeal); and won a jury verdict in a long-running age discrimination suit against Abbott. Merger litigation between Alere and Abbott settled, but Hurst got $500 million knocked off the price Abbott paid.
Andrew Levander, Dechert, New York It's hard to find a thorny, high-profile case that Dechert chairman Andrew Levander isn't involved with. Levander led the work steering Takata through criminal and civil cases around the world over its faulty airbags. And while Barclays was charged in a criminal case stemming from the financial crisis, Levander's client, Barclays ex-CEO Robert Diamond, was spared. Levander handled multiple FCPA cases in the last two years and helped ex-New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine resolve matters stemming from MF Global's bankruptcy. Client Park Lane Hotel's $1 billion joint venture was removed from the DOJ forfeiture action over embezzlement from a Malaysian sovereign fund. He's now defending Fox News in sexual harassment litigation.
Joshua Rosenkranz; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; New York Whether for tech giants or financial execs, Joshua Rosenkranz is winning crucial battles and leaving a mark on the law. Microsoft Corp. faced what it called an existential threat when the U.S. government claimed the right to search private email in foreign countries. Against tough odds, Rosenkranz pulled off a big win in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. This outside-the-Beltway SCOTUS litigator racked up three wins in four arguments, with the fourth case a 4-4 split. And he persuaded the Second Circuit to void a $1.27 billion penalty against Bank of America Corp. and to exonerate an executive once pilloried as the "face of the housing crisis." Rosenkranz still deserves the moniker we once gave him—the Defibrillator.
James Rouhandeh, Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York Texas lawyers, say a big thank you to James Rouhandeh. Defending Proskauer Rose against allegations the firm had covered up Allen Stanford's $7 billion Ponzi scheme, Rouhandeh persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to uphold Texas' attorney immunity doctrine. The appellate panel rejected a lower court's finding of a fraud exception and held that Proskauer was shielded from defrauded investors' claims. The same year, Rouhandeh won another key appellate ruling for the securities industry, when the Second Circuit rejected arguments that underwriters in Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering were "insiders" who could be forced to disgorge $100 million in trading profits under federal securities laws.