Flagship series·The Class of 2026·Nominations close 13 November
40 Under 40Legal
The lawyers the next decade will be built around.
Lawyers under 40, in-house and in private practice. Forty seats. One class a year. The first is announced 9 December.
121 nominated and counting. Every nominee is on the public board. Back the ones you know.
The Class of 2026
Forty seats. Announced 9 December.
The forty are named on 9 December. Until then every nominee sits on the public board, where anyone can back them. 121 lawyers have been put forward so far.
Nominated already?
Your place is held in your portal.
Accepting takes five questions and about two minutes. Those answers become your card and your own-words page. Nothing publishes until you approve it.
Two tracks
Two tracks, one standard.
In-house and private practice are read side by side. The class is forty lawyers, chosen on the same three criteria, whichever side of the table they sit on.
In-House Counsel
General counsel, deputy GCs, associate GCs and in-house leaders under 40 who are building the legal function from inside the business: setting strategy, taking risk off the table, and earning the room ahead of their tenure.
Private Practice
Partners, counsel and associates under 40 whose work is shaping outcomes for the companies and people they represent: in the deal room, the courtroom, and the moments that decide a client’s future.
Nominate your own. A firm or department that puts a name forward is credited as the nominator on that leader’s page and listed as a trusted partner, at no cost. The leader can remove the credit at any time.
The path
From a name to the class.
- Now to 13 November
Nominations open
Anyone can nominate. Self-nominations are welcome. Nominees get a private link to accept and answer five questions.
- 13 November
Nominations close
The board locks. Every name goes to the desk.
- 14 November to 8 December
Review
The desk reads every nominee against the bar. Peer backing is weighed. Accepted nominees approve their card.
- 9 December
The Class of 2026 is announced
Forty names, two tracks, every card approved by the leader it names. Honorees get their card and LinkedIn kit when the class goes live.
- 2027
The class year
Own-words pages and full features publish through the year. The class stays on this page as the standing record, and partner windows run through 31 December 2027.
Backing
The board is public.
Every nominee sits on an open board. Anyone can back a nominee, once. A verified peer’s backing counts more than an anonymous one. The tally is honest, so it starts small.
How backing is read
- Once per person. One backing per nominee, from one account.
- Verified counts more. A member of the network backing a nominee carries more weight than a visitor.
- Never decisive. Backing helps the desk see who the field is watching. The bar decides.
Most backed so far
See the full boardYour place
What a seat in the class holds.
Recognition here is not a logo on a slide. It is a page, a card, a story and a year.
The card
A designed recognition card for the announcement, built for LinkedIn and for the firm’s own channels. It links to the leader, not to a sponsor.
The words
Five questions become an own-words page. A 45-minute conversation becomes a full feature, written by our desk and approved by the leader line by line.
The year
The class is carried across the site, the homepage, the app and our channels through 2027, with features released as they are ready.
The record
This page is the standing record of the Class of 2026. It does not come down, and every honoree keeps a standing invitation to a full feature.
The senior classes
The same desk runs the room one generation up.
Legal Leaders to Watch recognizes the general counsel the business calls first. Litigation Leaders to Watch and Legal Operations sit beside it. The 2026 record is the Legal Power List.
Stand beside the class
Partners amplify. They never select.
Every seat on the ladder buys branding and reach. None of them buys a name on the wall, a look at the list before it is public, or a word on a leader’s page. That is the whole model, and it is why leaders accept.
Presenting
$25,000Presented-with on this page, on the announcement and on every class card. Top placement across the series and the site for twelve months, through 31 December 2027. Your own recognized leaders carry your branding. Two upgrades: digital cover at $35,000, cover plus the printed class edition at $50,000.
Chapter
$12,000Your name on the In-House or Private Practice chapter: the wall, the cards in that track and the announcement. Runs through 31 December 2027. Exclusive to one firm at plus 50 percent; otherwise shared.
Partner
$5,500 / $7,200Placement beside the class and across the site for the window you choose. Series branding included.
Starter
$2,500Your placement beside one published story, for the life of the story. The value truly begins at the levels above.
Trusted partner
FreeListed by name, no logo, when a recognized leader names the firm they work with. A nominating firm is listed the same way, with nominator credit on the leader’s page.
Seats are confirmed in the order they are reserved. The presenting seat is one conversation.
Nominations close 13 November
Know someone who belongs in the first class?
A career often turns on someone deciding to put a name forward. It takes two minutes, it costs nothing, and we tell the leader ourselves.
