Carla Christofferson

With a basketball in one hand and a Vogue magazine in the other, the Los Angeles office's managing partner is redefining the image of big law leadership. Since taking the reins at the beginning of 2008, she has begun her innovative approach to management by bringing in an in-firm tailor and starting yoga classes. As a commercial civil litigator, she successfully defended Trader Joe's last year in a $9 million breach-of-contract suit brought by Marcie's Inc., a former vendor of the grocery store chain. One of her biggest clients is ExxonMobil. In April, she appeared in Vogue magazine in a Halston gown and holding two WNBA tropies, won by the women's basketball team she owns, the Los Angeles Sparks.