There is no official best lawyer in the world, since no body ranks lawyers globally. The most famous lawyers in history include Cicero, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, while celebrated advocates today include human rights barrister Amal Clooney. CLAT Coaching Delhi explains who they are and how to join them.
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Who are the best lawyers in the world?
There is no official ranking of the best lawyers in the world, and no global body scores lawyers by skill. The phrase usually means the most famous lawyers, the ones whose cases changed history or whose names are known far beyond the courtroom. Because the idea is subjective, the honest answer is a well chosen list, not a single winner.
Many lists online are thin, out of date, or focus only on one country. This guide takes a genuinely global and accurate view. It separates the legendary lawyers of history from the famous lawyers of today, and it ends with the part most lists skip, how a student can actually aim for a career at that level.
The most famous lawyers in the world: by the numbers
A few facts show how deep and how global the story of the great lawyer runs. CLAT Coaching Delhi has checked each against public records as of September 2026.
Figure | What it means |
2,000+ years | Cicero was arguing in the Roman courts in the first century BC, so the celebrated advocate is an ancient idea |
1952 | Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo opened South Africa’s first Black-owned law firm |
40+ countries | Where Amal Clooney’s Clooney Foundation for Justice provides free legal aid |
More than half | Share of US presidents who practised law before the White House, including Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama |
The most famous lawyers in history
These lawyers are famous not for a ranking but for changing the world through the law.
Cicero
Cicero was Rome’s greatest orator and its most celebrated courtroom advocate in the first century BC. His speeches and writings on law and rhetoric are still studied today, which makes him arguably the original famous lawyer, more than two thousand years ago.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln built a long career as a trial lawyer in Illinois before he became the sixteenth President of the United States. He argued hundreds of cases, including before the Illinois Supreme Court, and is proof that a lawyer’s craft can lead to the highest office.
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi trained at the Inner Temple in London and was called to the Bar in 1891. He practised law in India and then in South Africa, where the injustices he saw as a lawyer shaped the freedom movement he would go on to lead. The Inner Temple disbarred him in 1922 during the freedom struggle and later restored and honoured him.
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela opened South Africa’s first Black-owned law firm, Mandela and Tambo, with Oliver Tambo in Johannesburg in 1952. The firm offered low cost defence to Black South Africans crushed by apartheid law, and that daily work helped forge the leader Mandela became.
Lawyers who changed the law
Some of the most respected lawyers in the world are remembered for single cases that reshaped whole societies.
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall argued and won Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case in which the US Supreme Court struck down racial segregation in public schools. He later became, in 1967, the first Black Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent the 1970s arguing landmark gender equality cases before the United States Supreme Court, years before she joined it as a Justice. Her advocacy changed how the law treats sex discrimination.
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Darrow was one of the most famous trial lawyers in American history, best known for the 1925 Scopes trial on the teaching of evolution. He remains a model of the fearless courtroom defender.
Famous lawyers of today
Among lawyers famous for their legal work right now, a few names stand out worldwide.
Amal Clooney
Amal Clooney is an international human rights barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London. She acted as counsel for victims of genocide in Darfur at the International Criminal Court, defended two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar who were freed in 2019, and co-founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which provides free legal aid in more than forty countries. Earlier in her career she worked at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
David Boies
David Boies is one of America’s most prominent litigators. He represented the United States government in its antitrust case against Microsoft, winning at trial and on appeal, and represented Al Gore before the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore in 2000.
Other names appear on many popular lists of the best lawyers in the world, from entertainment and corporate specialists to leading advocates in every region. Because fame and skill are judged differently across fields, no two lists agree, which is exactly why there is no single number one.
What about the best lawyer in India?
India has its own roster of world class advocates. Harish Salve represented India before the International Court of Justice, and senior advocates like the late Fali S. Nariman are regarded as giants of constitutional law. We cover them in detail in our companion guide to the best lawyers in India, which separates the advocates practising today from the legends of the past.
The most famous lawyers in the world at a glance
This table is a global reference, not a ranking. It shows what each name is best known for and their era or status as of September 2026.
Name | Country | Best known for | Era / status |
Cicero | Ancient Rome | Rome’s greatest orator and courtroom advocate | Historical (first century BC) |
Abraham Lincoln | United States | Trial lawyer, then 16th US President | Historical (died 1865) |
Mahatma Gandhi | India | Barrister who led India’s freedom movement | Historical (died 1948) |
Nelson Mandela | South Africa | First Black-owned SA law firm, then President | Historical (died 2013) |
Clarence Darrow | United States | Famed trial lawyer of the Scopes trial | Historical (died 1938) |
Thurgood Marshall | United States | Won Brown v. Board, first Black US Justice | Historical (died 1993) |
Ruth Bader Ginsburg | United States | Women’s rights advocate, later US Justice | Historical (died 2020) |
Amal Clooney | United Kingdom | International human rights barrister | Practising today |
David Boies | United States | Antitrust and constitutional litigator | Practising today |
Harish Salve | India | Represented India at the ICJ | Practising today |
Who is the richest lawyer in the world?
Wealth is one more reason people search for the best lawyers in the world. The late American trial lawyer Joe Jamail, nicknamed the King of Torts, is frequently cited as one of the richest lawyers ever, reported by Forbes at a net worth of around 1.7 billion dollars in 2015. As with fees, these figures are reported estimates rather than published accounts, so treat any single number with care.
Why is there no single best lawyer in the world?
A criminal defender, a constitutional advocate, a corporate litigator and a human rights barrister do completely different work, and each field has its own giants. Add different countries, legal systems and eras, and a single global ranking becomes impossible. This is why serious directories rank leading lawyers by country and practice area rather than crowning one best lawyer in the world.
Want to build a career that could one day make a list like this? CLAT Coaching Delhi guides students from school to a top law school. WhatsApp us or call +91 8750581505 for free counselling.
How to become a world-class lawyer
Almost every lawyer on this page started with a law degree and years of hard practice. For a school student, the first real step is the entrance exam that decides your law school, because that choice shapes your network and your early opportunities.
In India the clearest route is the five year integrated law degree at a National Law University, entered through the Common Law Admission Test. If you are still in school, our guide to preparing for CLAT from Class 11 maps the plan, life at an NLU shows the destination, and the CLAT NLU list and cutoffs help you choose a college. From there the path runs through internships, a junior role under a senior lawyer, and steady specialisation, whether in litigation, corporate law or human rights.
This is where CLAT Coaching Delhi fits in. We prepare aspirants for the exact paper that opens the law school door, with NLU alumni faculty, in house material and full length mocks with rank and section wise analysis. Explore our CLAT coaching in Delhi NCR, part of the wider Law Prep Tutorial network. The lawyers on this page shaped history, and every one of them began as a student who chose the law.
See CLAT 2027 batches. WhatsApp us at wa.me/918750581505 or call +91 8750581505. 1310+ NLU selections since 2009, best All India Rank of 1, five Delhi NCR centres and online batches.
About the author and reviewer
This guide was written by the CLAT Coaching Delhi editorial team and reviewed for accuracy against current public records. Anand Sharma, who reviewed it, is Director and Academic Mentor at CLAT Coaching Delhi and an alumnus of NLIU Bhopal (B.A. LL.B.). CLAT Coaching Delhi has guided aspirants to more than 1310 NLU selections since 2009
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Frequently Asked Questions
There is no official ranking of the best lawyers in the world. The most famous names in history include Cicero, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, while celebrated advocates today include the human rights barrister Amal Clooney.