Litigation Leaders
to Watch
The people who decide how corporate America litigates.
They pick the panel, set the strategy and answer for the outcome. Nobody hands out trophies for that, so we built the list that should exist. Chosen editorially, checked against the record, sponsored by no one on it. A new group is recognised every month through the end of the year, and nominations never close.
A list that keeps growing.
Each month adds twenty to thirty litigation leaders. Nothing published is ever removed to make room, and the year closes with a cumulative Power List.
Pamela Petersen
On Axon's briefs as in-house counsel in Axon Enterprise v. FTC, the jurisdictional challenge Axon won 9-0 at the United States Supreme Court in 2023. A fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and former Chief Assistant United States Attorney for Arizona, she has built one of the most formidable appellate practices inside any American company.
Patrick Shilling
Took on UBS's global litigation mandate in 2026 on top of the Americas general counsel seat he already held. He came to the bank from Simpson Thacher after clerking twice, first for Judge Peter K. Leisure in the Southern District of New York and then for Judge Joseph M. McLaughlin on the Second Circuit.
Andowah Newton
Took over litigation for the National Association of REALTORS® in 2025, after serving as vice president of legal affairs and head of litigation at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton where she directed legal strategy for more than thirty brands. A recipient of the Cornell Law Exemplary Alumni Public Service Award and a former judicial clerk at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Makesha Patterson
Promoted to head of general litigation in 2024 after thirteen years at Google, in a restructuring that reshaped the company legal department. The docket in the Google Assistant privacy litigation names her as in-house counsel, and she sat for Google at a six-hour settlement conference. California bar since 2005, UC Davis King Hall.
Suzana Blades
Runs a genuinely global docket – litigation, arbitration and government investigations across North America, Latin America, EMEA and Asia-Pacific – after more than a decade at ConocoPhillips, where she rose to associate general counsel for commercial litigation and arbitration, and an international arbitration practice at Arnold & Porter.
Seema Misra
President of ARIAS US, the reinsurance and insurance arbitration society, and the senior litigation lawyer at Arch Insurance Group. Spent fourteen years at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, associate through partner, on insurance and reinsurance disputes. Princeton and Boston University School of Law.
Jaclyn Barnao
Runs the Americas litigation desk at UBS, a docket that spans civil litigation, securities enforcement and internal investigations. She arrived after twelve years at Credit Suisse, most recently as its U.S. head of litigation and investigations, and began her career clerking on the U.S. Court of International Trade.
Thomas N. Vanderford, Jr.
Immediate past chair of the Product Liability Advisory Council. In Bauer v. Hyundai Motor America, a wrongful-death product case tried over nine days in Floyd Circuit Court in Kentucky, the jury returned a defence verdict in under two hours against a claim of $17,882,484. The Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed in November 2024.
Erika Engelson
Runs litigation and regulatory enforcement globally for Deutsche Bank, a docket spanning class actions, commercial disputes, internal investigations and monitorships, and owns the bank's global e-discovery function and its outside counsel management team. She joined in 2012 from Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft, where she was special counsel on securities and complex commercial disputes.
Sneha Desai
Leads global litigation and employment for Stryker. Clerked for Justice James H. Coleman Jr. on the New Jersey Supreme Court and litigated at Patterson Belknap before running BASF's North American litigation portfolio as deputy general counsel. Chairs the board of Volunteer Lawyers for Justice.
Arunabha Bhoumik
Prosecuted healthcare fraud, false claims and money laundering in the Justice Department's Fraud Section before going in-house, and now runs general litigation and government investigations for Regeneron. He was named on the certificate of interest in the Amgen antibody litigation that later reached the Supreme Court on enablement.
Gina Fornario
Nearly twenty years across high-stakes litigation, employment law and compliance, now leading both functions for LVMH in North America. Came up through Ross Stores from senior director of employment to vice president of legal, and has joined Littler's New York Retail Roundtable across six editions since 2020.
Matthew Morrison
Oversees enterprise claims and corporate litigation at American Family, teaches at the CLM's Litigation Management Institute, and was named the CLM's Litigation Management Professional of the Year in 2013 – the rare litigation chief other litigation chiefs study.
Donald LeGower
Co-chairs the American Conference Institute's 31st annual conference on drug and medical device litigation, which ACI bills as the premier gathering of litigation and MDL defence counsel in life sciences, and sits on its advisory board – while running litigation, government investigations, employment and policy law for one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies.
Wade Gentz
Leads the team responsible for all of Netflix's IP, commercial and regulatory litigation. This year that team secured a complete defense verdict in a patent jury trial in Los Angeles, with the jury finding no infringement on every asserted claim. Came to Netflix from Twentieth Century Fox, where he was senior vice president of litigation and content protection.
Afigo I. Okpewho Fadahunsi
Named to NJBIZ's 2026 Leading Women in Business, selected by independent judges from an open nomination process. Co-authored the American Bar Association's guide to preserving appellate complaints in federal trial courts while a partner at Tanenbaum Keale, and has written in Law360 on the Jones Act litigation landscape.
Janet Kwuon
Came to Gilead after thirty years at Reed Smith, where she co-chaired global commercial disputes and, as Modern Counsel reported it, became the first diverse woman in the US elected to that firm's executive committee. She began as a trial prosecutor in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, and served as a distinguished co-chair of ACI's drug and medical device litigation conference in December 2025.
Carter Williams
Runs litigation for Equinor's US business out of Houston, licensed in Texas since 2010. A repeat panellist for the Institute for Energy Law on construction disputes and renewable project development, and named on the 2026 International Energy Summit programme for a session on tariffs, sanctions and global energy disputes.
Travis Wolfinger
Leads litigation for the Fortune 500 refiner, and gives back publicly – most recently on the national Government Investigations and Civil Litigation Institute stage, on how to build the next generation of trial lawyers.
Erin M. Voyik
Chairs the national asbestos litigation conference – the only in-house chair among its four, alongside Perry J. Browder of Simmons Hanly Conroy, John B. Manning of MG+M and Joseph F. Rice of Motley Rice – and leads litigation and legal reform for a major run-off reinsurance group.
No honoree matches that filter.
How this list is made
Honorees are selected editorially and independently, for the scope of what they run, the work behind them and the panel they command. Never for participation, and never for payment.
Every honoree's employer was checked against a primary record in August 2026, and anyone we could not place was held back rather than printed. A title is printed only where a primary source carries it word for word; where none does, we describe the role by what the person actually runs. Where a credential appears, we link it to the body that awarded it, and where a claim is somebody else's, we say whose. Several honorees confirmed their own inclusion with us directly.
Presenting partners, where credited, support the series. They play no role in selection.
Know someone who belongs here?
Nominations are open for every remaining edition this year. Free, editorial, and always will be. Anyone you send is also invited to tell a story of their own.
On the list? Tell the fuller story.
Every honoree holds a standing invitation to a magazine-grade feature: sixty to ninety minutes of your time, amplified across a full year, with your sign-off on every word.
This list is the beginning
The story continues past the roll call
Every leader named here can take the recognition further with a full length feature, built with them and at no cost. The audience holds a hand in what comes next, too. 2026 is the nomination year: put names forward and back the leaders you rate through Give Them Their Flowers. That support carries into the culminating recognitions that land throughout 2027, decided editorially and supported by the audience. Nobody pays for either.
