Laura E. Ellsworth
Partner
Pittsburgh
Tel: 1.412.394.7929
Fax: 1.412.394.7959
Email:
leellsworth@jonesday.com
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Laura Ellsworth is Partner-in-Charge of the Pittsburgh Office of Jones Day. She practices a wide range of complex commercial litigation, including toxic torts, product liability, insurance, communications, intellectual property, employment, and ERISA. She has been involved in handling a number of multijurisdictional product liability and bankruptcy matters, several of which have resulted in significant appellate rulings on novel issues such as market share liability. Her work includes coordinating and litigating nationwide matters for various clients, and she has appeared in numerous federal and state courts throughout the United States.
In 2003, Laura was appointed by the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania to serve on the Court's Advisory Committee for the Study of Rules and Practice. She is listed in The Best Lawyers in America for commercial litigation and has been recognized by the Legal Intelligencer as a "leader in the law" and by Pennsylvania Law Weekly as one of the top female litigators in Pennsylvania.
Laura was named by Governor Edward Rendell as one of Pennsylvania's "Best 50 Women in Business" for 2008. She is active in the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA). She has served as chair of the Civil Litigation Section and as a member of the PBA Board, and she currently co-chairs the Student Loan Forgiveness Task Force. She received a 2002 PBA President's Award for her work on a task force addressing modifications to The Rules of Civil Procedure and a 2000 award for her work co-chairing the PBA Civil Justice Coalition Task Force, which studied and issued recommendations concerning tort reform legislation. She has chaired the PBA's Rules of Evidence Committee and was instrumental in efforts to promulgate Rules of Evidence for Pennsylvania.
Laura has written and lectured nationwide on various topics arising from her general areas of practice, including expert witnesses, privilege, electronic evidence, and trial tactics, and she is coauthor of the "Multidistrict Litigation" chapter of the multivolume treatise Business Practice in Federal Courts (West 1998).
Laura has been involved extensively in electronic discovery and has served as a managing editor of The Sedona Principles: Best Practices Recommendations and Principles for Addressing Electronic Document Production. She currently serves on the Firm's e-Discovery Committee and has participated actively in both federal and state rulemaking in the area. She has lectured and written nationally in the field.
Laura has served as an instructor in litigation-related programs sponsored by the PBA, PLI, BNA, ABA, Mealey's, and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and currently serves as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
In addition, she has been involved in a range of community and civic activities, including the development of inner-city education projects for high school students, consumer counseling for the elderly, and service on the boards of Neighborhood Legal Services, the St. Barnabas Charitable Foundation, the Pittsburgh Public Theater, the Pennsylvania Economy League, and Soccer-in-the-Community.
Admitted
Pennsylvania
Education
Princeton University (B.A. 1980); University of Pittsburgh (Law Review; Order of the Coif; University Scholar; J.D. magna cum laude 1983)