Winners strove for new departments, compensation models, legislation, technology
Canadian Lawyer has revealed this year’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers, with the winners including a lawyer who himself funded a disability rights program instead of waiting for a grant and a litigator who pushed for a coroner’s review to become provincial legislation.
The roster for 2026 included legal professionals who strove to establish new departments, new compensation models, new legislation, and new technology, with adoption of artificial intelligence more than doubling in the past 12 months.
As in previous years, the report’s 17th edition recognizes five lawyers each across five categories:
- Changemakers
- Business
- Human Rights, Advocacy, Criminal
- In-house
- Government, Non-profits, Associations, Judiciary
The roster for 2026 included:
- Patrick Brown, principal partner at McLeish Orlando LLP (Changemakers)
- Yola Ventresca, managing partner of Lerners LLP (Business)
- Elizabeth Bowker, partner at Stieber Berlach LLP (Human Rights, Advocacy, Criminal)
- Farah Ismail, senior vice president and chief legal, privacy, and compliance officer of SE Health (In-house)
- Yameena Ansari, founding lawyer of Ansari Immigration Law (Changemakers)
“Having people around you who think very differently from you, that’s something on which your ideas become much more crisp and clear and sharp, because there are people who push you, and I’m lucky to have them,” Ventresca says.
“I like to think that throughout my career, I’ve always aimed to treat people with respect and kindness,” Bowker adds. “From a defence counsel’s perspective, I view it as being able to defend my clients on the facts, on the law, on the damages, while still treating the person opposite from me with kindness and respect.”
Thomson Reuters proudly sponsored the report.
Canadian Lawyer congratulates the lawyers named the top 25 most influential for 2026. See more information on all the winners for this year.
How winners emerged
Readers, legal groups, and Canadian Lawyer’s panel of writers and editors provided nominations in the period from Mar. 13 to Apr. 17. Readers then answered a survey including the qualifying nominees across the five categories. Canadian Lawyer received 17,862 total votes.
Following the reader survey, the editorial board members voted for a maximum of five awardees per category among the shortlist of nominees, with board members on the shortlist excluded from voting in that category.
The board prioritized those who significantly influenced the legal system in the past 18 months.
Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers of the past
Here are some other lawyers named the top 25 most influential in previous years.
In the report’s 16th edition, the roster for 2025 included Fraser MacLean, Joseph Neuberger, Beth Beattie, Carole Dagher, Jean-Michel Boudreau, Michael Kelly, and Sharon G. Druker.
The winners for 2024 included David Sowemimo, Joven Narwal, Sarah Teich, Leonard S. Tony Mandamin, IPC, Allan Ritchie, May Cheng, and David Luther.
The awardees for 2023 included Jacqueline Dinsmore, Katherine Hensel, Daniel J. Song, KC, David Palumbo, and Janice Rubin.
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