The Lawyer’s most eagerly anticipated feature of the year is here. The Hot 100, in association with AlixPartners and Saunderson House, gathers together the profession’s brightest stars of 2020 – the GCs redefining what it means to be an in-house lawyer, the barristers working on the most significant cases of the moment; the rising stars of private practice; the disruptors forging the future of the profession; and the leaders taking their firms to new heights.

Over the course of last year, hundreds of nominations poured in from across the legal profession, making the final selection, as ever, incredibly competitive. For the third year running women have outnumbered men in the Hot 100; this year there are 51 women on the list.

As always, the 2020 edition of the list includes a broad spectrum of names, because The Hot 100 are the lawyers of now. It is right and proper that this year a peer of the realm is featured, as is an associate based at a small South West firm. Lawyers working in trade unions and merchant banks can be found. Garlanded CEOs and managing partners sit alongside rising stars whose names are not yet so well known. Though some of the famous figures already have a distinguished career behind them, they are included because of their current achievements, not their past glories. Meanwhile, the less familiar faces are not simply ‘ones to watch’ – they are already achieving great things in their field.

The great legal issues of our time loom large. From the prorogation of Parliament to climate change; from the gig economy to Russian oligarchs, between them the Hot 100 class of 2020 have a hand in many of the biggest stories in the news today.

Congratulations to them all.

The full list of 100 lawyers can be viewed here.