Best Lawyers in New York, United States for Litigation - Municipal

New York City is one of the most active and complex legal markets in the world. With a dense network of courts, regulations and high-stakes legal matters across every industry, navigating the legal system here requires more than just any attorney—it requires the right one.

Whether you're dealing with a corporate dispute, a criminal charge, or a personal legal issue, experience matters. So does reputation. That’s why this directory exists.

The Best Lawyers New York directory offers a streamlined, trustworthy way to start your search. Every attorney in New York listed has been recognized by their peers for professional excellence and the platform is designed to help you filter by legal need, review credentials and take the next step with confidence.

How the Directory Works

This page serves as a targeted directory for users looking to find a lawyer in New York. Each attorney listed has been recognized in the most recent edition of Best Lawyers—a distinction based entirely on peer nominations and evaluations.

You won’t find ads or sponsored listings here. Instead, you can search by:

  • Practice area: filter by the type of legal help you need
  • Location: narrow results to your borough or region
  • Attorney name: if you’re looking to verify someone you’ve already heard of

Each attorney profile includes a clear summary of their experience, focus areas and credentials—giving you the information you need to make a confident decision.

Legal Help by Practice Area

New York City residents’ and visitors’ legal needs are wide-ranging and so are the attorneys listed in this directory. You can quickly narrow your search by legal focus. This directory includes attorneys who concentrate on some of the most in-demand areas of law in New York, such as:

  • Business and commercial law
  • Criminal defense and investigations
  • Employment and labor disputes
  • Real estate and construction law
  • Divorce, custody and family matters
  • Immigration issues
  • Personal injury and malpractice
  • Estate planning and probate

Why These Attorneys Are Listed

Every attorney on this page has earned a place through Best Lawyers’ rigorous annual peer-review process—one of the most trusted selection methods in the legal profession.

It’s recognition by fellow attorneys who know the work and understand what excellence looks like. Attorneys are nominated by peers and then evaluated on legal skill, professional conduct and client outcomes. Thousands of lawyers participate each year, providing confidential assessments within their specific practice areas.

To be listed, an attorney must:

  • Be nominated by another legal professional
  • Receive consistently high marks from peers in their practice area
  • Maintain a strong track record of ethical behavior and client success

Only those who stand out among their peers are selected. And only those chosen in the most recent edition of the Best Lawyers awards appear in this directory, ensuring that every listing reflects current, active recognition.

Attorneys also manage their own profiles, so the information you’re reviewing is not only credible, but current. You’ll find clear details about each attorney’s practice focus, background and achievements—everything you need to make an informed decision.

This page is built to support your search—not get in the way of it. Whether you're starting from scratch or narrowing down a list of top attorneys in New York, this directory is a practical, no-frills tool to help you move forward.

Start Your Search

If you're trying to find a lawyer in New York, this directory offers a trusted, peer-reviewed way to start. Whether you're hiring for the first time or looking to verify someone's standing, the attorneys listed here have been selected for a reason.

Begin your search by selecting your legal focus. Then explore profiles, compare qualifications and connect with an attorney in New York who’s already earned the trust of the legal community.

Practice Area Overview

Municipal litigation involves litigation in state and federal courts concerning lawsuits brought specifically against counties, cities, towns, school districts, police departments, and other governmental entities. These lawsuits often involve challenges to zoning and planning decisions, procedural and substantive claims under the Open Meetings Act or the Freedom of Information Act, and litigation over intergovernmental agreements and relationships.

Municipal litigation also may encompass eminent domain proceedings, code enforcement actions, disputes over the scope of home rule powers, citizen taxpayer suits, tax proceedings, election law challenges, questions relating to the appointment of emergency managers, and other disputes involving governmental entities, whether they be based in contract or tort. For example, municipal litigators may find themselves addressing disputes over construction projects involving private developers and construction companies, questions concerning rate setting by municipal utilities or negligence claims involving accidents that occurred on municipally controlled or municipally owned properties.

Although the disputes that municipalities may face are quite varied and broad, municipal litigators bring a special expertise to each of these disputes because of their familiarity with and knowledge of the specific universe of statutory law that applies to public bodies. Municipal litigation involves not only an understanding of the basic underlying dispute between the parties, but also an understanding of how the dispute is affected by the laws regulating and governing governmental entities in a specific jurisdiction.
Soni Mithani, Principal Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone
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Our Methodology


Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.

The Process

Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.