Lexology Index: Arbitration 2026 is the culmination of months of research by Lexology Index and GAR. Our main Arbitration lawyers' report identifies 2,030 prominent lawyers recommended for their expertise in resolving complex international disputes. In addition, we highlight 568 leading expert witnesses, selected for their excellence across a wide range of matters, and 969 top Future Leaders lawyers aged 45 and under. Through nominations from peers and clients, the arbitrators, tribunal members, chairs, counsel and experts listed have been recognised by their peers and clients as the leading names in the field.

We are proud to be able to share the results of this research with Lexology's readership of over 950,000 subscribers.

Research statistics

• More than 221,000 data points analysed
• 3,000+ research submissions from leading law firms worldwide
• In-person interviews conducted in London and Hong Kong
• 2,400+ submissions from leading corporates across the globe
• Only 45% of nominees considered in our research were ultimately selected for inclusion

Research methodology

The 2026 research process saw thousands of practitioners and referees responded to our requests for feedback on the market, resulting in lawyers and expert witnesses from 96 countries being listed, while more than 1,300 law firms, barristers’ chambers and consulting firms are represented. We also looked at evidence of work highlights collected by our sister publication, GAR, as well as from publicly available sources, to assist our decision making.

This year's report introduces the 'Highly Recommended' tier, which sits between Thought Leader and Recommended in our ranking hierarchy. Individuals selected in this tier will have received more recommendations from respondents to our research than individuals in the Recommended tier and/or will have demonstrated particular excellence in recent arbitration mandates considered by the research team. 28 per cent of ranked practitioners achieved this tier in this report.

Leading firms

Lexology Index does not rank firms or sets, only individual practitioners. The charts below show the firms and sets that are home to the most listed practitioners in this year’s report.

Lawyers

Freshfields maintains its lead this year in terms of total number of practitioners listed, although White & case has the most practitioners selected in the main Arbitration category. Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer moves into third place in total listings, ahead of Clifford Chance and King & Spalding, both of which have over 30 individuals ranked. Many firms now possess talented rosters of younger practitioners, including 12 firms now with more than 10 Future Leaders.

Experts

Among expert firms, HKA moves into first place by by number of listings listings for the first time, closely followed by Secretariat and FTI Consulting, although Secretariat has the most total Thought Leaders and Global Elite Thought Leaders, with 17. 13 firms now have 10 or more listings in the expert witnesses categories, including 6 with 30 or more.

Global Elite Thought Leaders

Lexology Index considered 7,916 practitioners for inclusion in the report this year. Of these, 1,076 practitioners were listed as Future Leaders, 671 as Recommended, 1,001 as Highly Recommended, and 579 as Thought Leader, while only 229 (2.89 per cent) were accorded our highest ranking of Global Elite Thought Leader.

The 168 lawyers and 61 expert witnesses selected were regarded as the very best by peers and clients, achieving the highest number of recommendations in the research.

In the Future Leaders category, we also name top practitioners as 'Most Highly Regarded', reflecting their excellent performance this year.

You can view the full lists of Global Elite Thought Leaders and Most Highly Regarded Future Leaders using the links below

View Global Elite Thought Leaders

View Most Highly Regarded Future Leaders

A further 14 firms and sets had two individuals ranked as Global Elite Thought Leaders.

Further details on our research process can be found on our Methodology page. If you have any feedback on our research, please email us at [email protected].