Our judges of the 20 Under 40 competition this year had their work cut out for them. This year there were 80 contenders from the tri-state region, each of whom our panels of judges had to scrutinize to choose just 20 who are excelling in their fields and going above and beyond the norm in giving back to their industry and communities.

Among the winners are an industry litigator who works on complex multimillion-dollar claims and educates other lawyers on legal processes; an award-winning engineer who managed to help start and grow a firm at the beginning of the recession; and a contractor who began as a laborer and worked his way up to become president at the ripe old age of 31.

For more about the winners, as well as the industry judges who chose them, see ENR New York's Feb. 11, 2013 issue. But until then, here’s a sneak peek at the winners list:

Erich Arcement, Sam Schwartz Engineering

Sarika Bajoria, Per-Forma Studio

Michael J. Borda, Golder Associates

Jeffrey Callow, Thornton Tomasetti

Amanda Carroll, Gensler

Kelly Chorba, Black & Veatch

Amy Burpee Cordone, Tishman Construction

John M. Di Capua, Tishman Construction 

Cindy Feinberg, Jacob Feinberg Katz & Michaeli Consulting Group

Gabe Guillams, Buro Happold

Josh Hodge, SAIC

Darris W. James, Gensler

Giancarlo Lanzano, DGC Capitol Contracting Corp.

Jaimee Nardiello, Zetlin & De Chiara LLP

Benjamin Pimentel, Rosenwasser/Grossman Consulting Engineers

Christine Schlendorf, Perkins Eastman

Jeremy Shannon, Prospect Architecture

Nathan W. Speanburg, M+W U.S.

Jeremy Thurston, The Hayner Hoyt Corp.

Juan C. Toro, GEA Consulting Engineers