Our current New Jersey Legal Awards, including Litigation Departments of the Year and In-House Impact honors, peer back into a most unusual year: 2020. In some ways, the COVID-19 disruption prevented lawyers from carrying out the work that they ordinarily would. In other ways, it created new opportunities. In sum, the accomplishments we learned about in judging these awards often were different from the accomplishments of years past, but they were no less important. In some cases, given the dire situation the pandemic created, the accomplishments were that much more impactful or impressive.

In the first of our two awards supplements, we get to know our Litigation Departments of the Year and In-House Impact honorees. One thing that did stay consistent: the winners generously agreed to share some thoughts with us and you, the readers, on achieving success, solving complex problems and, given the COVID-19 backdrop, sometimes simply finding a way to get from point A to point B. We hope you'll take some time to read, and draw some helpful insights from, their Q&As here. And please join us in congratulating these honorees.