Utilizing 1.57 million judicial judgments fromenterprise-to-enterprise litigation between 2014 and 2019 in China, we provide evidence of mu nicipal leaders exerting influence over the courts to favor enterprises con nected to them. By leveraging variations in enterprise connections result ing from official turnover, we show that enterprises with connections to party leaders have higher chances of winning in business litigation than unconnected enterprises. We also examine the impact of the staggered roll out of circuit courts, a top-down institutional reform, on cronyism in the courtroom. Our findings show that this reform has effectively reduced the judicial advantage enjoyed by connected enterprises by two-thirds.