Five Jones Day partners named to Forbes' inaugural Top Women Lawyers in America list
Jones Day partners Alexis Gilroy, Traci Lovitt, Nina Yadava, Laura Laemmle-Weidenfeld, and Stephanie Parker have been named to Forbes' Top Women Lawyers in America list for 2026. This recognition honors outstanding practitioners who excel in their practice area, are highly regarded in the industry, and are elite in the field. No firm had more lawyers recognized in the Forbes list.
Co-leader of Jones Day's Health Care & Life Sciences Practice, Alexis Gilroy is consistently called upon by prominent public and private technology and digital health enterprises, premier national health systems, global pharmaceutical companies, and investors to guide the regulatory and transactional aspects of their most notable and complex digital health matters. Ms. Gilroy's recent highlights include leading negotiations and structuring for a telehealth company's landmark collaboration with a leading pharmaceutical company—one of the most closely watched transactions at the intersection of consumer health, pharmaceuticals, and digital care delivery. She also has long served as primary outside health regulatory advisor to a prominent research organization devoted to the study of life sciences, most recently advising the organization on a significant transaction to advance its precision AI strategy in health care.
Traci Lovitt leads Jones Day's nationally recognized Issues & Appeals Practice—one of the premier appellate practices in the United States. A go-to appellate lawyer and legal strategist for marquee clients, Ms. Lovitt has argued multiple times before the U.S. Supreme Court and authored numerous briefs and filings before the Court—including in several cases this Term. She also regularly appears before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In January 2026, she represented a global social media and technology company in a case before the Second Circuit raising a first-of-its-kind question regarding the applicability of the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021 when sexual harassment has not been adequately alleged—a case the panel called on the record "very well argued." By appointment of Chief Justice Roberts, Ms. Lovitt served two terms (2016–2022) on the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence. She previously served as Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice and clerked for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Nina Yadava is co-leader of Jones Day's national Securities Litigation & SEC Enforcement Practice. With almost two decades of experience defending public companies and their officers and directors in shareholder litigation, Ms. Yadava has established herself as go-to counsel for some of the nation's largest companies facing high-profile securities disputes and in need of Boardroom advice. Her recent achievements demonstrate why she is among the elite in her field, including securing dismissals of securities fraud class actions against one of the nation’s largest telecommunications companies, one of the nation’s largest banks, and one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical companies. She has also secured full dismissals of fiduciary duty litigation and shareholder actions arising out of M&A.
A partner in the Firm's Health Care & Life Sciences Practice, Laura Laemmle-Weidenfeld has successfully defended health care and life sciences clients against False Claims Act (FCA) cases and other government enforcement actions, including actions focused on the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) and physician self-referral law (Stark Law), for more than 25 years. She also provides practical guidance to clients regarding compliance with fraud and abuse laws, including the AKS and Stark Law. Among her most notable recent engagements, Ms. Laemmle-Weidenfeld led the representation of a large home health care provider in an internal investigation into allegations of potential kickbacks and the provision of medically unnecessary services, followed by self-disclosure to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and the successful negotiation of a FCA settlement with the Department of Justice and HHS-OIG, which was finalized in January 2026.
Stephanie Parker is a partner in the Firm's Business & Tort Litigation Practice and a veteran trial lawyer who has tried "bet-the-company" cases across the United States for three decades. She has served as lead counsel in some of the nation's most consequential jury trials involving product liability, mass tort, and patent disputes. Ms. Parker's trial record in recent years exemplifies her role as a first-choice advocate for high-stakes matters. In May 2025, a multinational pharmaceutical company selected Ms. Parker to serve as lead trial lawyer in the first-ever civil jury trial involving an alleged vaccine-related injury after the creation of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in 1986, which resulted in the plaintiff requesting an adjournment with no money paid. For more than 20 years, Ms. Parker has led the nationwide defense of a major tobacco manufacturer's smoking-and-health litigation, supervising a team of more than 50 lawyers who have tried more than 225 jury trials across the country.
