Milbank LLP partners Dan Bartfeld and Neal Katyal have been named to the 2026 Forbes America’s Top Lawyers list. Forbes’ third-annual list spotlights lawyers who are at the forefront of innovation and exemplify exceptional capability and a deep dedication to clients.
Dan, chair of Milbank's Global Project, Energy and Infrastructure Finance Group and an Executive Committee member, leads almost 200 dedicated energy and infrastructure attorneys globally and has been at the helm of the largest and most high-profile transactions in the space. Under his leadership, the group is regularly ranked the #1 legal adviser by volume and value in top-tier industry publications, most recently claiming the top spot in Proximo's H1 2026 Project Finance Legal Advisers League Table with 66 deals totaling nearly $100 billion — a 38% market share. Dan also helped spearhead the launch of Milbank's Digital Infrastructure Practice Group, which ranked #1 in TMT Finance's H1 2026 Global Loans League Table with a 19.1% market share. The team is at the forefront of the AI infrastructure build-out and has had the lead legal role in many of the largest capital markets, project finance, M&A and real estate transactions to date, including the groundbreaking financing for a next-generation AI data center campus being developed by Meta Platforms — one of the largest single-project financings in the AI infrastructure space.
Neal, leader of Milbank’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice and a former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, is one of a few living individuals to have argued more than 50 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and recently secured a landmark victory in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump. In a 6–3 decision that The New York Times described as “the most important Supreme Court decision this century,” the Court held that the president lacked authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to unilaterally impose sweeping tariffs without clear congressional authorization, striking down the tariff regime and reaffirming constitutional limits on executive power. Neal has also successfully argued Bristol Myers Squibb v. Superior Court, a landmark victory for personal jurisdiction law, and Moore v. Harper, which Judge Michael Luttig described as “the most important case for American democracy in the almost two and a half centuries since America’s founding,” among many others. Neal has been named to the Forbes America’s Top Lawyers list every year since its inception, and was also recently named a finalist for The American Lawyer's prestigious “Litigator of the Year” award — making him one of only two lawyers ever to have been named a winner or finalist three or more times.
