Top 50 in Spain’s legal market in 2026
The 50 professionals who have shaped the direction of business law this year, according to Iberian Lawyer. The standout figure: Armando Albarrán
by ilaria iaquinta
Who is the lawyer of the year? It is a question Iberian Lawyer has been asking for several years now, just as the calendar draws to a close. The aim is to identify, by looking back at the stories we have published over the past months, the people who have defined the year and, through them, to offer a reading of the business law market. After all, as we often say, it is people, with all their individual characteristics, who reshape the structures of major law firms and, collectively, end up setting the pace for an entire sector. It is a sector undergoing profound change, which we cover every day on our website and analyse in greater depth each month in the pages of the magazine. This year has seen new competitors arrive in Madrid, while Spain’s leading firms have continued to expand beyond the country’s borders. International mergers have created platforms of a different scale, while private capital is beginning to leave its mark on the sector. There have also been significant leadership changes at law firms. And, of course, there is artificial intelligence, which is beginning to transform not only the way lawyers work, but also their career paths.
All these developments are reflected in the stories of this year’s protagonists, whom, as always, we bring together in a ranking. They are the real drivers of change, whether through legal practice or firm leadership, or through activities closely linked to the transformation of the sector. That is why this ranking does not simply reproduce the league tables. Doing so would exclude a substantial number of professionals within law firms who are not directly involved in the market for major transactions. Nor is this a ranking based on firms’ revenues: we already cover that when law firms publish their financial results (see last year’s article in MAG N. 154).
Here, the focus is on people. And individual performance cannot always be measured in numbers. So how do we try to assess it? Through four criteria, which are then considered together to produce the ranking. It is, therefore, an opinion, that of someone who looks at the market as a whole, rather than from the narrower perspective of a single law firm, and who also has the privilege of speaking to its different participants: lawyers in private practice, in-house counsel, clients and headhunters.
One of the criteria is, of course, track record, a factor that cannot be ignored. But in this ranking it is not limited to M&A transactions. It also includes major mandates more broadly: financings, restructurings, litigation, arbitration and other particularly significant matters, taking into account not only their financial value but also their complexity and scope. Then there is leadership, again understood in a broad sense: the demonstrated ability to drive change (which, in some cases, can extend to the sector as a whole) or to lead a team (whether an entire firm or a department) towards particularly significant results. It is not simply about holding a position, but about what the professional has achieved from that position. The third criterion is popularity, understood not as mere media visibility, but as the recognition and influence the professional commands across the business law community and among its different participants. Finally, there is career, not in general terms, because that would be too broad a criterion and one shared by all the leading men and women included in this selection, but as a particularly significant development during the year, whether through taking on new responsibilities, making a major professional move or launching a new project.
This year, for the first time, the ranking expands from 30 to 50 professionals, better reflecting the breadth of a market that continues to grow. Its presentation also changes: the thematic categories used in previous editions give way to a single list, ordered according to the combined assessment of the four criteria.
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