One-hundred and sixty Alston & Bird attorneys have been selected by their peers for inclusion in the 2017 edition of The Best Lawyers in America©. The lawyers span the firm’s eight offices in the United States and represent more than 60 practice areas.
Best Lawyers further honored 11 Alston & Bird attorneys as “Lawyers of the Year,” an award that is presented annually to a single lawyer in each practice and designated metropolitan area. Alston & Bird “Lawyers of the Year” are:
| Blas P. Arroyo | Litigation - Patent (Charlotte) | |
| S. Benjamin Pleune | Litigation - Intellectual Property (Charlotte) | |
| Rick D. Blumen | Securitization and Structured Finance Law (Atlanta) | |
| Sanford M. Brown | Financial Services Regulation Law (Dallas) | |
| Jasper L. Cummings, Jr. | Litigation and Controversy – Tax (Raleigh) | |
| Paul M. Cushing | Equipment Finance Law (Atlanta) | |
| James C. Grant | Legal Malpractice Law – Defendants (Atlanta) | |
| Peter Kontio | Litigation – Antitrust (Atlanta) | |
| Bernard Taylor, Sr. | Product Liability Litigation – Defendants (Atlanta) | |
| Jocelyn N. Thompson | Environmental Law (Los Angeles) | |
| Glenn R. Thomson | Public Finance Law (Atlanta) |
Additionally, seven Alston & Bird attorneys earned first-time rankings:
| Kristine McAlister Brown | Privacy and Data Security Law (Atlanta) | |
| Nicki Carlsen | Litigation Land Use and Zoning (Los Angeles) | |
| Patrick C. DiCarlo | Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law (Atlanta) | |
| Kevin Miller | Corporate Law (New York) | |
| Doug Scribner | Commercial Litigation (Atlanta) | |
| John W. Weiss | Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law (New York) | |
| Andrea Wolfman | Energy Law (Washington, D.C.) |
First published in 1983, Best Lawyers is a peer-review survey in which more than 55,000 leading attorneys cast over 6.7 million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practices areas. Best Lawyers lists are republished in top-tier business and legal publications such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.