The American Lawyer Industry Awards is a annual industry award recognizing excellence in Legal. Organized by The American Lawyer (ALM Global), it covers the North America region.
The American Lawyer Industry Awards are run by ALM's The American Lawyer — the title behind the Am Law 100 and 200 rankings — and honour outstanding achievements by individuals, law firms and corporate legal departments in the US market. Nominations are submitted through an online awards platform and reviewed by a judging panel announced each cycle, with honourees celebrated at a New York gala (12 November 2026 at Cipriani Wall Street).
The categories run deep: Attorney of the Year, Litigator of the Year, Best Law Firm of the Year, Legal Services Innovation and Best Use of Technology (several restricted to Am Law 200/Global 100 firms), young-lawyer awards for practitioners under 40, and a Corporate Counsel Awards strand including General Counsel of the Year, Legal Department of the Year and Best Legal Ops Team, plus corporate practice-of-the-year categories. For US big-law and in-house teams, these awards are an established, CV-worthy market signal attached to the most-read brand in American legal journalism.
Nominations typically close in June — the 2026 deadline was extended to 22 June — with most categories judging work from January 2025 through submission. Check eligibility carefully: several firm categories are limited to Am Law 200 or Global 100 firms, while individual awards such as Attorney of the Year are open to any sector; entry fees are not published on the awards site. Strong nominations pair concrete outcomes — verdicts, deals, department transformations — with evidence of broader impact on the profession, and ALM publishes full category criteria and FAQs on the awards portal.