Daralyn Durie, 39
Keker & Van Nest

Durie made a big splash in 2002 when she second-seated John Keker in the successful defense of biotech giant Genentech, Inc., against a $300 million claim that it had infringed Chiron Corporation’s patent on cancer antibodies. Durie then turned the Genentech win into a string of first-chair cases. She is now lead counsel for Comcast Cable Communications, Inc.; Google Inc.; and Netflix, Inc., in intellectual property litigation that ranges from patent infringement to unfair competition. Durie’s most recent win came in November 2006, when she staved off a $2.2 billion patent infringement claim against Comcast by Caritas Technologies Inc., that had threatened to shut down Comcast’s Internet phone service.

Jeffrey Fisher, 36
Davis Wright Tremaine and Stanford University

As a fourth-year associate at Seattle’s Davis Wright in 2004, Fisher went from relative obscurity to two U.S. Supreme Court victories in one term. Both cases dramatically affected the criminal justice system. In Blakely v. Washington, the court ruled that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial also applies to sentencing guidelines; and in Crawford v. Washington, the justices forbade the use of a recorded statement from a witness who couldn’t be cross-examined. In 2006 Fisher—a University of Michigan School of Law graduate and a former clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens—argued four more cases in the Court in 2006 and joined the Stanford Law School faculty.

Gregory Garre, 42
Deputy U.S. Solicitor General

As John Roberts’s understudy and heir apparent at Hogan & Hartson in the 1990s, Garre argued five cases in state and federal appellate courts—and won all of them. In his first stint in the U.S. solicitor general’s office, from 2000 to 2004, he argued nine cases at the U.S. Supreme Court and led early-round arguments in the terrorism-related Hamdi and Rasul cases. Back at Hogan to head the appellate practice after Roberts’s elevation to chief justice, Garre made three more Supreme Court arguments, including a win over Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe in a First Amendment case. Garre returned to the SG’s office in 2005 as a principal deputy.

Mary Beth Hogan, 43
Debevoise & Plimpton

Hogan’s docket spans multiple practice areas. She represented Owens Corning in its multibillion-dollar asbestos liability trial and supervised the defense of more than 30,000 asbestos personal injury suits against the company. She is defending Credit Suisse First Boston and six other lenders in a purported lender liability class action. And she has worked on several high-stakes internal investigations. Debevoise litigation cochair John Kiernan calls her the go-to partner on employment matters and other cases that require sensitivity. Hogan, a Rutgers School of Law graduate, is the youngest partner on the firm’s eight-person management committee and was the first litigator at the firm to become partner while working part-time.

Tarek Ismail, 37
Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott

A few years back, Ismail was a key supporting player in Bartlit Beck’s enormously successful defense of Bayer AG’s cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol. Since then he has emerged as one of the most experienced and successful courtroom lawyers on Merck & Co., Inc.’s Vioxx defense team. After backing up name partner Philip Beck in two successive Vioxx trials—one a win and one a hung jury—Ismail first-chaired and won the first case to be tried in California state court. Most recently, Beck and Ismail teamed up for their second win in federal court in November 2006. It was the third Vioxx win of the year for Ismail, who finished first in his class at the University of Illinois College of Law.