30 Under 30: The Top Young Lawyers And Policymakers (2015)

Know anyone on this august list? If so, congratulate them!

onJanuary 7, 2015 at 7:04 PMJanuary 5, 2016 at 4:01 PM

Congratulations to the 2015 “30 Under 30 for Law and Policy,” just announced by Forbes magazine. The honorees are, as always, an impressive bunch. As noted by columnist Daniel Fisher, they include “[t]op Obama administration officials, including the President’s senior advisor for Internet policy, the nation’s youngest state legislator, and the chief data officer for the Republican Party.”

But those three honorees — R. David Edelman, the internet guru; state legislator Saira Blair, who’s just 18 (because that’s how they roll in West Virginia); and data officer Azarias Reda — are, to me, among the less interesting. They aren’t lawyers.

The Forbes list is, at least in my (admittedly biased) opinion, skewed a little heavily towards the “policy” side of “law and policy.” But there are still some legal elites on the list — and even one Supreme Court clerk. (Last year Forbes basically banned SCOTUS clerks from the competition.)

Sponsored

Navigating Financial Success by Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Maximizing Firm Performance

In this CLE-eligible webinar, we’ll explore the most common accounting pitfalls and how to avoid them for your firm.

From Pilot and Above The Law

Of course, it’s tough to come up with a list of leading young lawyers considering that many people are barely entering the profession at age 30. The legal field requires a lot of dues paying, and there’s a premium placed on experience. As one commenter humorously noted on our post about last year’s Forbes list:

Ooh, I can’t wait to peruse this list. I’m always looking to hire lawyers under the age of 30 who think they’re hot stuff.

— No general counsel, business owner, or corporate board ever

At least two of the folks on this year’s list aren’t even lawyers yet. Joy Basu and Ali Zaidi are both still in law school (at Stanford and Georgetown, respectively).

Okay, enough preliminaries. Let’s look at some of the names on the list!